North Coast Old Stock Cellar Reserve Brandy Barrel

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

EBF V NOTB. Great sweetness of malt and other sugar additions in both taste and aroma. Dark brown amber color with little head. Similar to the best barley wines. A huge advancement on the typical Old Stock.

Dark amber pour with decent head. Lots of dark fruit and molasses aromas and flavor. Some alcohol warming and a nice dried fruit and alcohol finish. Very tasty.

Bottle shared by slob. Pour was brown in color, some amber-burgundy edges. The head was pretty small, thinning to nothing.The aroma was rice/tapioca (very sake like), maple, dark malts. The flavor followed suit, dark fruity notes (brandy comes out more than the sake notes I had before), molasses. Over-run by alcohol and hard liquor, fun indeed, yet just not a beer in so many ways. Mouthfeel kinda flat and sticky. Bert, always a pleasure, always fun, but this had some issues, unless you’re looking for a hard liquor with a little bit of beer. Number 13 at the time of consumption, are you kidding me? #13? What? Thanks much, my friend!

Thanks to someone at the DIPA Fest Hayward. Rich brandy notes over the top of a very big barley wine. You definitely know that this has been in barrel. I would like to try this again, not standing in a street, suffering, and along side the non-barrel aged version. Rich figgy, datey notes. Good beer, but not something that in personal taste, chase after again... but, if you love barrel aged, this is absolutely top drawer.

375ml bottle, 2005 Brandy Barrel version. Pours a deep brown color. Just a little bit of brown head but lots of carbonation. The smell of these barrel aged brews is almost my favorite part. Lots of booze on the nose of this one. I smell oak and just a little bit of vanilla. Tastes boozey to the max. I hate describing a beer as "hot" but this one is hot. An insert in the shipping box said that it is best enjoyed at room temp. I popped it in the fridge anyway and drank slow. As it warmed it got "hotter". Still good, but lots of alcohol burn. Oak and vanilla as well. Thin but thick on the palate. Lots of carbonation. I think I saw a post here on BA saying the beer was "carbonated". Anyway, nice carbonation. Not my favorite barrel aged beer but a good one nonetheless. I am interested to see how the Bourbon Barrel version stacks up.

Bottle courtesy of Naven. This is just an all around excellent brew. Not too much, not too little. Just very good, well balanced, and full flavored. I love it.

Thanks to drewbeerme for this gem. Cloudy reddish brown, extremely large head for the ABV, and it even lasts. Very sweet aroma with oak, vanilla, caramel, alcohol, quite fruity, almost like a liquid candy aroma which reminds me of Westy 12 but in a different way. I highly doubt there’s dark candi sugar here. Full bodied, sweet, light alcohol in finish. As it sits (I’ve been sipping this for an hour... it’s really great) the aroma does get much more hot... oh well. Regardless, IMO they nailed it.

Bottle thanks to toncatcher, This was my favorite of the night. Which speaks volumns when it went up against Narke Kaagen and Pannepot Reserve. 2 of the 3 are now in my top 10. The pour made a large head that lasted a while. Lots of carbonation. Awesome flavors, some brandy, some sugars, but very balanced. Excellent brew.