Sweetwater The Grapes of Cask

Pours a golden color yellow color with a white head. Aroma is malty, oxidized grape, and some nice earthy floral hops. Flavor is malty, caramel, fruity, grape, and a bitter earthy hop finish.

Brick Store - In typical Sweetwater fashion they take a beer that was not that good to begin with in hopes of throwing it into a perfectly good barrel with hopes of it miraculously transforming into something better. All it ended up doing from the original was making it a bit dryer with some tannic qualities in the finish.

Name: Grapes of Cask
Date: June 27, 2009
Mode: Draft
Source: Brick Store Pub
Appearance: opaque dark yellow, frothy off white head
Aroma: sweet malt aroma with lots of spicy hops and spicy phenolics
Flavor: lots of spicy flavor between the spicy hops and phenolics, light oak, touch of winey sweetness, light balancing bitterness rolls out of the oak
Aroma: 7/10; Appearance: 7/10; Flavor: 7/10; Palate: 6/10; Overall: 14/20
Rating: 3.5/5.0
Drinkability: 7/10
Score: **4

Appearance: Delivered to the upstairs Belgian bar at the Brick Store Pub a hazed, dark orange-amber body with a creamy, off-white head. Smell: The malts are light in the nose and provide some mildly sweet hints. Subdued citrus hop notes. The bolder French oak barrel notes certainly stand out. Taste: Slender malt character with sweet touches of sugar and (though faintly) honey. Big taste of French oak with touches of smooth vanilla and wood. The citrusy hops and bitterness found in the original version are certainly decreased here, but, thankfully, the tannic oak qualities help to balance things out. Small touch of spice. Drying, smooth finish. Mouthfeel: Medium-plus body. Medium carbonation. Drinkability: The quiet rest in the French oak barrel has certainly transformed it, but, for me, it’s now a more enjoyable experience than the standard issue Creeper. That’s just me though!

Pours hazy gold with a slight head. Aroma of fruit, citrus hop. Taste is similar with the hops coming through pretty strong and some mild notes of oak and vanilla, though not as much as some other barrel aged brews. Overall, this beer is different than the newly minted IPA Tripel style. The yeast is not as prevelant as some others, and the flavor is a little closer to an IPA. An enjoyable brew.

Straw colored with little head, but that’s normal at the ACAT. Standard grapefruit hop aroma from SW, but with some sweet tones I don’t remember in the standard version of this beer. I like addition of the woody flavors into the creeper. Nice job.

Crap, the first rating for this one. Call this the creeper aged on oak. There is that familiar Sweetwater hop profile of grassyness and grapefruit citrus. The flavor is a little more muted than their IPA, probably a result of the chilling on some wood. Pours a clear yellow color. Distinct grape flavor. I am still not getting distinct yeast or big belgian malt profiles here but this is pretty tasty either way.