North Coast Old Stock Cellar Reserve Bourbon Barrel

Formerly brewed at North Coast Brewing Company
Style: Barley Wine
Fort Bragg, California USA

Courtesy of daknole. Pours rutty dark brown with thin off white head. The aroma is rich dark fruitiness, bourbon, chewy aged oak and malts all running together in smooth smelling harmony. The taste is similar with creamy caramel, chewy sweet malts and solid aged blunted oak notes. It ends incredibly drinkably smooth yet carrying a bigger barrel presence than the Brandy version.

POurs brown. Nose is big bourbon, wood, dark fruits, sweet toffee and hints of smoke. Flavor is much the same with dry wood and bigger bourbon notes. A little thin, but still nice.

Moejuck!!!! Brown pour. Sweet bourbon and caramel jump out of the glass and are followed by some oak and fruit. Flavor is sweet with the perfect amount of bourbon barrel. Brown sugar, toffee, oak...great beer.

Corked and caged bottle shared by Agent Steve poured a hazy brown with a lingering ring of tan foam. Aromas of bourbon, oak, dark fruit and toffee. Palate was medium to full bodied and smooth with a warming finish. Flavors of bourbon, oak, dark fruit, toffee and carmel with a smooth warming lingering bourbon finish.

Bottle: Pours a dark brown color with thin head. The nose is right up front bourbon with a light layer of brown sugar and vanilla. The hops poke out here more than in the brandy version and there’s a much more noticeable alcohol bite. Great contrast of flavors though with the sweet caramel body and sharp vanilla bourbon oak notes. Good!

Thanks to after4ever for sharing this treat (sometime earlier this year I believe)! Another great barreling from NC. Amber brown body. Big notes of dark fruits, bourbon, and sugar. Flavor gets fairly complex with notes of bourbon, vanilla, oak, maple, and raisins. Thick. Dank beer, but it’s brandy cousin was my choice of the two.

2005 bottle thanks to bman1113vr. Murky brown pour, aroma is maple, honey, brown sugar. Flavor is maple, brown sugar, sweet, oak, almost meaty.

2005 Vintage. Rating number 2500 thanks to iowaherkeye. Pours with a small tan ring over a muddy body that seems to be layered, red-amber-brown. Some decent alcohol legs. Aroma of bourbon, wood, chocolate, currant, brown sugar, caramel, alcohol, berry, brandy and praline as it warmed. Taste is woody, with dark fruit, toffee, bourbon and really low residual sugars. Vanilla, alcohol and raisin. Really dry (sweetness wise) and hot on alcohol compared to its brandy brother. After the 2009 Older Viscosity we just had, this seems nearly over carbonated for the style. That said the bubbles are, sparse, light and tingly. Syrupy and alcoholic mouthfeel. Still could use some more time, as this is still very big and very hot!