Nimbus Bourbon Barrel Old Monkeyshine

Brewed by Nimbus Brewing Company
Style: English Strong Ale
Tucson, Arizona USA

A bit on the carbonated side, the beer takes a little time for the Bartender to pour. It has a frothy, darkish tan colored head and is a hazy, murky, muddy brown color. Initial hit of rich toffee and caramel aromatics quickly picks up a spicy, alcohol / Bourbon character that lingers in the nose a bit. The Bourbon does not overwhelm though and melds nicely with the caramel notes.

The taste seems fairly dry up front, but then picks up a soft, caramelized sweetness towards the middle but finishes with some spicy, Bourbon / oak notes. Some spicy, almost warming alcohol kicks in as well. This seems fairly light bodied, it is still on the cool side of things though, but does have some malt heft to it, though perhaps not as much as the regular version does. Pairing this with Tortilla soup brings out more caramelized character and a bit more malt richness, including flavors of toasted, chewy-whole-grain bread crust and a more noticeable, caramel-malt influenced texture / body. In the finish is noticeable a touch of toasted malt character (biscuit, browned cracker), but this has a hard time peaking through the spicy Bourbon character at times.

This has been in the barrel for 12 months, luckily this is the second use of the barrel since being emptied of the original Heaven Hill Bourbon. I say luckily because the Bourbon & oak character is actually extremely soft for the amount of time this has been aging. It is still prominent, but doesn’t completely overpower the base beer notes. This seems to have picked up caramelized character from both the base beer and the barrel aging. As the volume of my pint glass recedes I am able to pick out a bit more complexity in the nose, interesting notes of salty-smoky character and a touch of roast / char. There is a slight, but more noticeable as the beer warms, nuttiness to the finish that seems to get wrapped up in the spicy oak character some how.

Pairing this beer with food like I did seems to have actually helped my enjoyment of this beer a notch or two. The alcohol can be a touch hot at times, but only just so. This is definitely more interesting, because of the balance between base beer and Bourbon / Barrel character, than the Bourbon barrel aged Oatmeal Stout.

on tap at the brewery. dark brown to black with chestnut edges. aroma is slighlt muted might be a little cold. some definite sweet bourbon notes and roasted malt. flavor is prettyy big up front bourbon. kind of hides the sweetness but matches well. good mediu. body not too thick. nice bourbon finish.

On tap @ Nimbus - This was probably one of my most anticipated beers of 2008. Of course it wasn’t released til Jan 2nd 2009. My wife arrived at Nimbus about a minute or so before I arrived and ordered us each a pint. So this beer was sittin’ on the table waiting for me. Since the dinning area isn’t well lit, I first held the beer up to the pool table light to view this beer. It was beautiful! It shown a clear deep mahogany color with red edges and a small off white head. Lacing was thick all the way down. Aroma is bourbon, light vanilla, and esters. Flavor is much of the same with the addition of some light malt sweetness. Palate is smooth and slightly bitter. As the beers warms, the alcohol becomes more noticeable. Medium body. I was excepting/ hoping for more bourbon in this one. However, since this was the second use of this barrel at Nimbus, it came out quite nice even with the beer being in there for a year. This was a very nice beer. I wish Nimbus would jump on board the barrel aging bandwagon and do more of these beers. Well done Scott and co.