Livery Bourbon Cask Aged Wheat Trippelbock

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

2006 version on Draft @ the Brewery (listed as 11% - Barrel aged 8 months). Wow - finally trying this bad boy and it didn’t disapoint (to say the least). Big brown color with a light head. Aroma is simply incredible - huge bourbon/wood/oak/vanilla with a nice bit of roasty/sweet malt and dark fruits. Taste is amazing - bourbon, oak, and heavy brown sugar dominate with vanilla, rich dark fruits, and other assorted, woody flavors mixed in. Mouthfeel is incredible - tingly, smooth, wonderful. Paralyzingly good. So well done, I don’t know what to make of it. I could drink this beer all the damn time. The perfect marriage of one of my favorite styles, sweet flavors, and wonderful barrel aging to create what could be the perfect beer. Wow.

Had this on tap at the brewery. Poured a deep brown into a snifter. Smell was huge bourbon notes with malty wheaty notes. Taste was huge, big wheat, malt, biscuit, with a huge bourbon character. Can’t drink this one fast. My only question, it said it was 11.7% abv at the brewery. Not the 16% that is usual. Either way, nice beer.

Cask at The Livery, and served in a snifter. This beer poured a very dark brown color with a thin light tan head that left little to no lace. The aroma was made up of strong bourbon and wood notes, vanilla, sweet roasted malts, and also some wheat. The flavor was also dominated by the bourbon. Other flavors showing through the bourbon included vanilla, alcohol, and some sweet roasted malt notes. The mouthfeel was full-bodied with almost no carbonation to speak of. All that I can say is "WOW". This was definately not a typical weizen bock, but it was excellent, no matter how it was classified.

Pours brown, with almost no head. Aroma is, wow, really nice. Bourbon, vanilla, wood, and a little wheat. Flavor is bourbon, vanilla, dark fruit, and wheat. Low on carbonation. Thanks to BBB63 for this one.

GTMW 2007. Poured a cloudy brown color. Head was thin and tan. Bourbon laden aroma with vanilla and wood notes that overwhelm the aspirations of any of the esters that might be trying to signal my olfactory lobe. Smooth mouth feel with a warming alcohol effect and boozy whiskey flavor. I detected more of yeasty esters in the flavor, although they were still subdued overall. There was more of the vanilla and a bit of butter and toffee. Seemingly sweet and acidic all at the same time. Pretty good.

Secret Santa in July 2007; thankyou SS. Handbottled. Pours a dark clear brown with no head. Looks a lot like cola. Sweet with lots of bourbon and oak aromas. Also some vanilla. Quite low carbonation. Strong alcohol aromas... but not strong for a 16% alc. Sticky, full bodied mouthfeel. Sweet finish with vanilla aromas and a warming alcohol sensation. Very nice indeed!!!

On tap at the brewpub. Dark dark brown with a lack of head. The stillness is complete. Big bourbon nose. Mostly vanilla and alcohol. The oaky subtle maltiness gives off a little bit of those banana end wheat esters, but not much. Low low carbonation profile, though that fits the alcohol level. Not watery, though far from syrupy thick. Big bourbon flavor. Vanilla sweetness. A little buttery, mostly whiskey vanilla w some slight roast and wheaty esters. A bit of diacetyl, but this is fitting of the beer, filling out the profile and cutting the alcohol. Long fruit to bourbony oak finish. This is a good use of the bourbon barrels, and not that this is a bad thing, but the bourbon barrel character is huge here. The odd part is that its dominance fits so well!

#100, definitely beat my goal of breaking 100 by the end of summer. Sampled at ABF Night of the Lagers. info the night of, from the brewery, said this was just 12%, aged in bourbon barrel for about 11 months, then blended with a younger bock not aged in oak. This was an excellent beer, my favorite of the ABF NotL. Huge malt flavor and a nice bourbon sweetness and warmth. I’d love to just have a supply of this to last me all winter long.