Pours an orange/gold/brown body with a lasting white head. Pleasant aroma of darker cherries, slightly tart, with oak, vanilla, lemon, and a touch of booze. The cherries get more tart in the flavor and there’s a suggestion of funkiness to it. This lighter beer style held up really well under the pressure of the aging, displaying Tim Marshall’s growing mastering of the barrel-aging process. Quite nice.

Rock Bottom Yorktown, Lombard, IL

On tap at the brewpub: The nose had good complexity with scents of bourbon, tart cherry, oak and spice. In the mouth it was pleasantly tart and dry with medium body and similar flavors to the nose. This was quite enjoyable to sit back and sip!

Sampler, then goblet at RB Yorktown. Pours several levels of bronze gradations, slightly hazy, with a thin head. Cherry smell is there, and I also get notes of chocolate, somehow. Starts starts out with cherries, not quite as tart as described, instead kind of kirsch liqueur impression. Vanilla bean comes into the picture, and just enough oak to make you want to sip this from an easy chair. No added brett, but impressions of of from whatever might have been in the wood. Brewmaster Tim tells me this was an oak barrel, but they took out the previous char and made a fresh char before adding the beer so it wouldn’t be overpowered by bourbon. I think of New Belgium’s Le Terroir when I drink this.

on tap at RB Yorktown. pours glowing orangish-gold with white head that lasted the whole time. looks great. aromas of bourbon, oak, apricot, lemon, and soft tart cherries. the bourbon comes off a tad plasticy. flavors of buttery bourbon with subtle tart cherries throughout. clean finish. lively carbonation on a thin-average body. not a lot of cherry flavors. this is really nice brew that Tim should be proud of and i know it is trendy but spiking this with brett would be magic.