The Bruery White Oak

Brewed by The Bruery
Style: Barley Wine
Placentia, California USA

Poured hazy deep golden, oak, vanilla, bready, little fuity, little alcohol, little citrus peel.

12%? I’m confused. This beer tastes like it could be 6%, smooth and delicious. Lots of fruit up front, sweet apple and grapes, soft oak dryness, vanilla and a mild tartness. Pours beautiful glowing orange with a thin white head.

What an interesting beer with so many elements and so much sweetness. Pours tripel yellow with a white head. Nose is apple, bourbon, some belgian yeastiness, white grapes, fruit, and booze. Flavor is lots of sweetness, some apple/ tripel characteristics, and honey, grapes, light fruit, bourbon, vanilla, and booze. Medium body and abounding sweetness.

750ml bottle. Pours cloudy, medium-dark orange amber in hue. A foamy head of consistent, off-white foam holds fast, resembling whipped egg whites. Spotty lacing marks the glass well. The nose is based in sweetly toasted toffee and caramel malt, with a clean wheat grain overtone, spiced with fragrant citrus rind, lemon, and dried orange. Vanilla and soft, oaky bourbon lend the perfect compliment of boozy warmth, without overpowering things in the least. Flavors also impress, light toffee and wheat joined by hints of cola, with bourbon soaked vanilla bean, cinnamon, and zesty citrus hops and spices. The palate is substantial, smoothly carbonated, and warm, never hot. Very solid wheat wine. Another winner from The Bruery.

75cl bottle from the Bruery Reserve Society Membership. Pours a hazy caramel to golden color with one finger off-white head. Aroma is sweet and boozy with notes of honey, caramel, grapes, candy sugar, toffee, bourbon, vanilla, oak. Flavor is also sweet and malty with notes of bourbon, toffee, honey, caramel, vanilla, light oak, candy sugar. Medium body with a lightly boozy finish. Nice ale.

On tap at Blue Palms. Pours amber in color with a firm white head that leaves plenty of lacing, but seemed odd for a barley wine. Smells strongly of bourbon, vanilla, and raisin. Tastes predominantly of straw and honey drowning in bourbon. I think this is a case where the barrel really overtook the beer rather than enhancing the flavor. Not a fan.

Served cold at Brewfest, Los Angeles. Opaque yellow pour, with a nice white head. Aroma of vanilla, spices and (duh) oak. Faint hop flavor with some alcohol presence and sweet malts. Yum.

Bottle from the brewery. Tasted at PP bottle shop. Cloudy yellow color. Some booze and some nice flowery phenolics. Lightly sweet. Kind of an orange peel bitterness. Heavier on the carbonation, which seems to make it taste drier.