Fort Collins Barrel Licked Bock

Brewed by Fort Collins Brewery
Style: Smoked
Fort Collins, Colorado USA

Bottle. Moderate aroma of dark bread for the malt, herbs for the hops, broth for the yeast, and a big note of smoked meat. Head is small, wispy, slightly off-white with a little lacing and is mostly diminishing. Color is clear mohagany. Flavor starts moderately sweet and a little acidic, then finishes lightly sweet and acidic. Palate is on the fuller side of medium, creamy with a carbonation between soft and lively. The most prominently smoke influenced beer I’ve had. Very unique and well put together.

Sampled from PizzaKing at the recent Mug Club tapping (Flossmoor, IL). Pours a nice reddish brown, a bit hazed but still able to see through, offwhite head that dies to a film and clings to the edges. Aromas are a nice sweet caramel and toffee malt with a decent smokiness, a touch of jerky, with a bit of oak, vanilla, faint bitterness. Really, a malt forward brew with a good dose of meaty smoke. Initial is medium bodied, a bit of meat on the forward, raisin and caramel/toffee come forward after, a touch of booziness, oak, vanilla, with dark fruits coming through, light bitterness, and smoothness come through. The smoke and dark fruit really linger, raisins and jerly, caramel, and a touch of wet wood. Faint chocolate, biscuits. This is pretty good, smoke grows in bigger sips.

Pours a dark clear garnet/amber with a pretty decent light tan head. Laces the glass. A rich caramel and stout-like smokey aroma asserts itself. Taste is quite busy. There’s smoked sweet roasted malt, buttery caramel, coffee, and a vinous, brandy-like warmth and richness. I would call something like this an imperial doppelbock. Very good, but almost overpowering, yet well balanced.

Bottle thanks to bu11zeye. The smell is meat, smoke, malts, and somehow sweet. The look is brownish in color with a beige colored head. The taste is sweet, chocolate, smoke, and malts.

( 22oz bottle thanks to bu11zeye) Pours brown/ruby with no head. Nose is alcoholic, wood and chocolate. Taste is alcohol, wood and chocolate as well. The linger of this beer is quite hot and hurts it overall.

( 22oz bottle ) Pours a clear amber body with a small off-white head. Aroma of roasted grain, wood, caramel, vanilla, and light smoke. Flavor of wood, caramel, and roasted malt.

Bottle thanks to bu11zeye. Deep amber with hints of ruby showing through. Nose is wood and sticky caramel. Not bad on the palate with a decent flavor of wood and caramel.

Umber to garnet in color. Smaller but stable lid of dark beige bubbles. Very meaty aroma. If handed blind to me, I would have guess smoked bock from the scent, so it’s got that going for it. Scents of caramel, light vanilla and peat as well. Whiskey settles in as it sets. Caramel and grain flavors in the front. Whiskey in the middle. Rather spicy in the finish. Having purchased a bottle of Stranahan’s a couple weeks ago, I sat down with a dram last week. A caught the spice at the very end of the glass, and that seems to transcended to this brew. Cloves, allspice and cinnamon. Just noticed this is actually listed as a smoked brew, so my earlier comments are mute, and make me look only slightly stupider than I am. I assumed this was just another barrel aged brew, but this does have a lot going on. Middle also has some dark cherries, dates and hints of some other fruits. Perhaps a bit too sweet. Long linger with earthy smoke, caramel an toffee. I would enjoy this any fall night outside by the fire pit.