Rock Bottom Chicago Barrel-Aged Brown Bear Brown

Brewed by Rock Bottom Chicago
Style: Brown Ale
Chicago, Illinois USA

sample on tap. brown with good head. mild hop aroma with nice sweet malts and brown sugar. taste of nice candied dark fruits, clean hop presense, and good finish. pretty good.

Nice looking pour, a darned near black yet brown body with a creamy light brown head that laces intricately. The aroma is a pleasant blending of chocolate, Bourbon, and lightly roasted malt and barley. Unfortunately, the Bourbon dominates rather than blends with the other flavors and makes it a rather lopsided drink. The finish is sticky with Bourbon sweetness.

<font size=-4><a href=http://www.ratebeer.com/Places/ShowPlace.asp? Bottom Chicago, Chicago, IL<font size=-1>

On tap.
Pours a lovely opaque chestnut brown with tight-laced off-white head that leaves good bits of lace on inside of the glass. Aroma is quite unsubtle bourbon with some vanilla and dried grain. Flavor is even more in-your-face-with the bourbon, as if they simply poured a snifter of brown ale and dumped a shot of Jim Beam in it. This beer has all the potential downsides of a bourbon-barrel beer (rough bourbon flavors) with none of the potential upsides (mellow vanilla, molasses & oak). This could be the worst bourbon-barrel beer I’ve ever tasted -- absolutely no finesse to it whatsoever. Take this one back to the drawing board.

Draught at the brew pub. Dark brown, nearly opaque, with orange around the edges. Head was off white and laced the snifter it was served in. Smelled mostly of oak and bourbon with some chocolate in the background. Medium bodied with milk chocolate, bourbon, and oak flavors. Bourbon dominated. Thick and rich with a kick.

FoBAB 2006: Dark Brown in color with a small off-white head. Sweet chocolate and bourbon in the aroma. Sweet flavors as well chocolate roasted, bourbon, oaky and earthy. Balanced a little better than I would have expected, but still just because you put something in a bourbon barrel doesn’t mean you have a great beer.

Chicago. Mostly opaque with some lighter mahogany accents. A creamy, thin tan head retracts to marshmallow lace. Creamy mocha wafts and Dutch chocolate frozen custard are accentuated by a vibrant Jim Beam edge. Some caramel ribbons curse through the nose along with toffee bars and cool milk chocolate. Flavor’s farce is somewhat separated, with the bourbon barrel riding it out. Cool, easy pass hits at a light mocha fluff, elevated to nearly a chocolate torte status. Modest carbonation, and, as it undergoes its temperature-warming sequence, the flavor pulls further away from the already distant chocolate covered hazelnuts and chocolate covered mocha beans. Separated, thinning finish with trace elements of mocha chocolate chips. The barrel is the beer.

Served a thin sepia with a creamy, tan cap & halo. All-whisky aroma. Milky consistency. There are very few traces of beer left to be found here... the Brown simply can’t hold it’s own against the barrel. As the glass was passed around the table, it was agreed that this was more like a glass of weak whisky than anything else. A failed experiment.

<font size=-4>On tap at <a href=http://www.ratebeer.com/Place/illinois/chicag Bottom, Chicago, IL 60610<font size=-1>

Had this on tap back in November at the brewery. Usually I like to rate from my notes fairly quickly but I never got around to this one. Here is what my notes said: Dark ruby that is clear, little to no head. Nose is strong with alcohol vapors some vanilla and cream. Taste is strong upfront with a big bourbon push with wod and som grains. Hops are present mostly in the back smothered in vanilla. Quite good.