Silver Gulch Grand Reserve

Brewed by Silver Gulch Brewing & Bottling Co.
Style: Doppelbock
Fairbanks, Alaska USA

I didn’t much care for this one at first sip. Something seemed off for some reason. But the more I sip on this the more I’m liking it. The deep mahoganey body is topped by only a few bubbles, but lack of head is expected from a beer this old (this was purchased at the brewery where they aged it in the bottle for 3 years). The aroma is very vinuous and sweet smelling with loads of sugared raisins. Aging, browned fruits (pears, apricots) perhaps sauteed lurk around under the initial wine-like odors. The flavor turns malty with toast, caramel, and cookie and a bit of almond. A hint of vanilla and cognac. A hugely complex beer (the guy at the brewery called it a barley wine with a few creative twists) and you’d never guess it was fermented with a lager yeast. This rocks.

02.02.06 12oz bottle, 2002, thanks to DarkElf. The beer pours a murky, muddy, damn ugly, ruddy brown with no head but lots of silt. The aroma is massively vinous, lots of wood aged port, and wood, and concorde grape, raisin bread, cherry licorice, and some anise. Hell yes! The flavors are also chock full of port notes, plenty of old sherry tastes, nutty and sweet but woody and dry at the same time. Touches of coffee and some burnt french toast. Alcohol doesn’t interfere, nor is it very noticable. Yummy dates and other dried dark fruits, touches of cocoa, molasses. Dessert in a glass. Thanks for this treat, Stephen!

Add to this all a beautiful herbal presence that emerges with time and temp that reminds me of some of the more memorable herbal teas I’ve tried, floral, toasty, and tannic. Lovely. This beer is absolutely not to be consumed below 55F and might be at it’s best close to room temp.

21-Jan-08 (12-oz bottle: Purchased 22-Jul-05 for $4.00 at the Silver Gulch Brewery in Fox, AK) I visit my buddy Jim up in Alaska every year or two, and we bought several bottles of the Grand Reserve at the brewery on one of my past trips. To my delight, he still has a bottle in the back of the fridge and he needs help making some space, so I’m volunteering my assistance. Excitedly, I reach for a bottle opener, but there’s absolutely no noise when prying off the cap, so this beer is pretty much flat. Pouring the beer confirms the lack of carbonation: no head whatsoever. The beer is dark ruddy-brown and very cloudy. Aromas of concentrated dark fruits, soy sauce, tawny port, and rich earth. The first impression when drinking this beer is of an extreme version of a well-aged Samichlaus, though it’s more intense than that. It’s sharply earthy with sweet, dark fruits like prunes and raisins, and soy sauce, but an interesting tartness and a modest bitterness offset the sweetness. In fact, for all the sweet, dark, fruity flavor, the full-bodied, heavy, almost syrupy beer is remarkably dry on the palate, especially in the finish. While carbonation is gone, there is enough sharpness from the strong earthiness to keep the beer from seeming like flat Coke. Almost certainly, this beer won’t improve with age, so I’ll drink my last bottle back home very soon. It’s probably not a beer that most would enjoy at this point, but I love cellared beers and this one is damn fine.

Very complex beer fit for long aging. Very refines palate with extremely good depth. Nice toast malts sweet and round on the palate. plums, dates raisins and molasses. Lingering sweet candy finish with some oak and brandy aspects very warming, great with Billy Holiday.

12 oz bottle, 2002 vintage, via BA timmcd64. Pours a very murky dark brown body under a minimal light brown whispy head. Not the most appealing of beers to look at. Aroma just bursts with soy sauce, smoked meat, alcohol, chocolate roasted malt, and sherry notes. Overall a very vinous nose that developed alot over time. Flavor is certainly oxidized, but in a good way. Just shy of tasting like a bottle of soy sauce. Notes of smoke, a light lingering acidity, dark fruits, sherry, and the lightest touch of alcohol. I had no idea when drinking this that it was 13% ABV. The best example of hidden alcohol content I’ve had in a long time. Mouthfeel is a maybe a little over-attenuated, thining it out some, but due to the minimal carbonation it yields a pleasing mouthcoating sticky finish. Not sure how to sum this guy up. Kind of like a combo of Harvey’s Imperial Stout, Hurlimann Samichlaus, and sherry. Certainly a love it or hate it beer. Very complex, hopefully you’ve got the 2-3 hours to devote to fully appreciate finishing a bottle of this one.

2002 bottle. A very nice looking beer, it smells like molasses, which seems common among barleywines (which is what my bottle claims). Obviously strong in taste, it does remind you of an after dinner port. Not the best of the style, but it sure is thick and potent.

Bottle: Dark brown, burnt caramel edges, thin light beige head, sparce lacing.   Big molasses, fig, raisin, and dates on the nose.   And i mean BIG!   Huge raisiny flavor, molasses sweetness, bready, but yet some fairly stern hop bitterness on the backside.   The front seems very mature, but the backside reminds me of a young barleywine.   Slightly chocolatey as well.   Big in body, mouthfeel is fairly moderate tho.   ABV is well hidden, but the finish is very warming.   Loads of raisins and dates, very strong.   Great Doppelbock because it doesn’t have that huge soy aspect that I usually detest.   This is a hefty beer.   Thanks DarkElf for the opportunity to sample this rare gem!

2002 Vintage. Poured a dark brown color with a thin off-white head. Aroma of aged sweet malt with plenty of alcohol. Also notes of chocolate and raisins. Aroma was nice and thick, full bodied and very warming. Sweet and fruity. The finish has a mild bitternessbut still sweet and mildly tart.