Livery Bourbon Cask Aged Wheat Trippelbock

Formerly brewed at The Livery
Style: Weizen Bock
Benton Harbor, Michigan USA

Notes from Dark Lord Day ’07. Sample from a 7 month old growler--thanks Mike BBB63. Hazy burnt caramel with a few bubbles for a head--it’s got legs! Aroma of bourbon, oak, cherries, smoke, and a bit of maple. Flavor had lots of ETOH, whiskey, cherries, hints of smoke and tobacco leaves, and a wheaty, spicy alcoholic finish. Lighter body than I’d have thought, considering the strength. Minimal carbonation. You need to enjoy bourbon to like this guy. Notes from GTMW ’06. Aroma of sour cherries, oak, whiskey, wheat (characteristic of a wheat wine), caramel, nuts, and a hint of soy. Clear mahogany with a couple bubbles of beige for the head. Flavor is mostly the same with a moderate bittersweet roasty dry finish. Full body with low carbonation. Very good. I’ll see if I can find my notes from DLD ’07 to compare. 9-4-8-4-16--4.1

(Hand Bottled, courtesy of BBB63) Pours a dark brown body with a small beige head. Aroma of bourbon, oak, vanilla, and toasted marshmallows. Flavor or bourbon, oak, caramel, and dark wheat.

Growler tasted at Saarlander’s SoCal tasting with saarlander, cquiroga, dirty_martini & kittiesandbeer, JohnC and others. Thanks to JohnC for bring the awesome Livery beers. My favorite of the night, but only by a small margin with so many awesome beers. Small microbubble head. Deep, deep brown color. Thick body. Sweet from molasses and caramel flavors. Wow, so excellent I had 2 small tasters.

Thanks to BBB63 for the growler This brew is brown, malty sweet with lots of vanilla overtones. the bourbon is well balanced with the rest of the flavors

12oz. handbottle, with a HUGE THANKS to BBB63! Pours a dark brown with the slightest bubbling head that rises and departs to a razor thin ring almost immediately; no lace. Aroma is heady, with bourbon, oak, and some slight dark fruitiness. Flavor is wheaty (?), with more bourbon and oak; vanilla, and some slight warming. Palate is a mouthfull ("thick" doesn’t seem to capture this thing), creamy and full, with only the slightest carbonation. This thing is one powerfully amazing creature! Very glad to have the opportunity to try - thanks again Mike!

22oz handbottle, from BBB63. Interesting beer. Pours deep brown with only the slightest ring of a head. Bourbon and wheat aroma. Very thick, chocolately, slightly roasty flavor. Boozy but balanced. Huge but refined. Very dry. It’s tough to find things to say about this beer. It is an interesting and different experiment, and it is really getting me drunk, but I’m not too sure how crazy I am about it. I’m thrilled I got to try it, though.

22oz handbottle, courtesy of BBB63. Thanks, Mike! Pours an oily, viscous cola-brown color with an amber tinge running through; minimal head formation, quickly gone. Dense, boozy aroma: dried dark fruits, some sour-mash character, leather and bourbon; a show of warming alcohol. Full mouthfeel: intensely generous and chewy; plenty of sour-mash, warming bourbon: toasty vanilla, viscous fruit leather and dried cherries; hints of a floral character; some grainy wheat coming through as well, adding another layer to the mouthfeel; even with a little loss of carbonation this is gorgeous. Lengthy finish, showing a pleasant weizenbock character and toasty vanilla.

Dark burgundy burnt amber colored body, surprisingly dark, but then again I really didn’t know what to expect with this beer… I guess I thought it would resemble a weizen bock, dark muddy brown, but instead it looked deep dark brown, like motor oil, with some red and golden brown hues around the sides of the glass. Very little head when poured from the hand-bottle, but a layer of small bubbles were slowly drifting up towards the top. Nose is of extremely rich bourbon and some hot, vodka-like grain alcohol, along with bourbon-soaked chocolate, rich and lightly sweet amaretto. Flavor is smoky, resinous, charred bourbon, with some and resinous woody burnt toffee, and abundant chocolate malts, and perhaps even a little bit of soy and tar tasted as well. Again, it’s viscous and heavy, and has a bit of a burn on the back of the mouth and throat, finishing with a caramel, bourbon and heavy, tarry bourbon flavor. An amazing beer, like nothing else I’ve ever had. Really, really good stuff.