Captain Lawrence Smoke from the Oak (Bourbon Barrel)

Aroma: 9 | Appearance: 9 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 9 | Overall: 9

Bottle: Poured a deep dirty brown/black color ale with a super large light brown foamy head with great retention and some lacing. Aroma of Brett with loads of sour and tart notes with some funky yeast and light warming bourbon notes. Taste is very nice with loads of notes of Brett with a clear tart profile and good notes of oak. Bourbon is harder to distinguish though still noticeable. Body is about average with great carbonation and no apparent alcohol. Very well done and very unique – makes me wish I had access to this on a more regular basis.

Aroma: 6 | Appearance: 6 | Mouthfeel: 6 | Flavor: 6 | Overall: 6

Tasted at the February Northern California Beer Tasting. This porter poured a deep black color from the bottle. Small to medium sized white foamy head. Aroma is chocolate, oak and bourbon. A medium to full bodied porter. Malts are chocolate and coffee, with a whole lot of bourbon and wine flavors. Interesting, but it could use some additional bottle aging, it seemed a little young, hot and unbalanced to me. Mouthfeel is full. Finish is clean. Aftertaste is slightly bitter with a hint of oak.

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 6 | Flavor: 7 | Overall: 6

2007 Release; Sampled March 2008
The beer gushes just a bit as soon as I pop the cap, not much, but just enough to let me know this is a bit over carbonated. A careful pour yields a three-finger thick, cocoa stained, tan colored head. The beer is a very dark, concentrated brown color, but does show some brilliantly clear, ruby highlights when held up to the light. From the aroma you can definitely smell the Bourbon barrel influence. There is also quite a bit of sourness in the aroma, nothing overwhelming, but it makes me think that this has some wild bugs in it. The Bourbon barrel is the dominant influence though with notes of warm alcohol, buttery oak, spicy wood and ample vanillin (especially if you dig around a bit). There is a bit of sweetness here, reminiscent of prunes and wrapped up in the Bourbon notes, but to be honest I can't smell much of anything except the barrel influence here, even the sourness seems to have dissipated with time.

Well carbonated, this foams up quite a bit as it hits my mouth. A quick swirl of my glass gets this to a more manageable level. Ample spicy oak up front yields to a tartness that seems to be heavily influenced by oak. I could almost be convinced that the noticeable tartness is just a product of this beer being so light bodied, with the roast malt character and such a big barrel character, but if I had to guess I would say that some souring bugs got into the barrel. Speaking of the body, this is definitely on the thin side, some more heft would certainly help it to stand up to the Bourbon barrel. The base beer definitely plays a supporting role here; it picks up some toasted malt notes towards the finish, perhaps a touch of smokiness (though this is hard to separate from the barrel notes) and some dry, chalky, slightly astringent burnt flavors and roast notes in the finish. The Bourbon barrel also provides a bit of alcoholic heat to the finish of this brew.

As the beer warms up a bit the Bourbon flavors seem to soften just a touch; it really becomes a bit smoother, though they are still easily the most dominant thing about this beer. This is most definitely wee-beast influenced, the sourness here is very pretty clean, as I don't get any other funk derived notes, though it may be that the loud Bourbon barrel characteristics drown this out. What brought this to a head was the fact that I started to nosh on some fresh baked bread, which really brings to the four the sourness of this brew.

An interesting beer, but the base beer just doesn't seem to be able to stand up to the Bourbon Barrel aging, or put another way, this was aged for too long in the barrel for my particular tastes. The sourness, while interesting, clean and nice, just clashes a bit too much with the Bourbon character: I think that the base beer would do well when paired with either of the two, but not both at once. I personally like the barrel to play a supporting role to the flavors of the base beer. Having said all that, this is still enjoyable if you appreciate a good sour mash Bourbon from time to time.

Aroma: 7 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 7 | Flavor: 7 | Overall: 7

NorCal Feb '08 - This was just alright with me. Yeah, I know...kinda Doobieish. Can't help it. I mean, I know it's well done but like it's brother the "Rum Barrel", this too really had so many red wine character that it was tough to remember I was drinking a beer. A huge aroma of wood, big bourbon, some ragged molasses notes and that twang from cheap red wines. Appearance is dark brown in color with some reddish edges, a medium thick head without any real staying power. Flavors were red wine twangy, alcohol, bourbon, vanilla, some wood, some sweet chocolate-like sweetness. I think I'd like to try their regular porter and compare the two. I bet their porter is really tasty, and by putting it in the barrel it's changed into some that I can appreciate for it's inventiveness, but not necessarily it's substance.

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 10 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 7 | Overall: 8

Batch 1 bottle from jjpm74. Pour was well-carbonated (not a gusher, though, like Slob's bottle of the rum version), full brown color, nice tan colored well-sustaining head, especially for a barrell aged beer. The aroma was light chocolate, some fruitiness, oak, bret (must be how they got the carbonation?), bourbon, chainsaw dust (short of ashy, but that fresh chainsaw smoke was there). Flavor followed suit, really enjoyable, not sticky or thick or anything, envigorating carbonation, I was loving the brett-like character immensely, almost like my favorite orval had a presence somewhere in this thing, light raisin notes coming out with higher temperature. Only knock on this beer was that the porter elements seemed fairly faint (too complex overall to call watery, but...), would have been nice for more malts and porter to come through, although I was very pleased that the bourbon notes didn't overrun the beer or make it sticky! Wow, what a wonderful surprise of a beer, totally fun to do, especially side by side the rum version. Thanks so much, John!