Rye Whiskey Barrel Aged Imperial Brown Ale

Rye Whiskey Barrel Aged Imperial Brown Ale by pFriem Family Brewers was judged under BJCP category 33 B, Specialty Wood-Aged Beer, with the underling style being a high-gravity brown ale.

The beer is served at 50^oF in a large snifter after a hearty pour, exhibiting a very dark brown color with nice ruby-mahogany tones, and holding a half-inch thick layer of creamy khaki-colored foam with good stand.

The nose is malty and caramel-sweet in the front, with a nice nuttiness and somewhat pronounced oaky-whiskey-peppery note that complements the fruitiness coming through from the ferment. The barrel character has a distinct rye note of spicy-pepper, and it works as a nice complement to the perceived sweetness. As the beer warms further and under swirling, I get some roasty-burnt notes mingling with appreciable booziness.

The beer’s flavor starts rich and malty with a surprisingly short-lived roasty and fleetingly strong bitter note, before the emergent whisky barrel elements of vanilla, dark-dried fruit, spice (!), and alcohol take over the mid-palate. The rye character is very strong. Caramel, walnut and prune flavors surface in the late mouthfeel with a well balanced and full-bodied character. The finish is off-dry with whiskey heat and a nice lingering bitterness. The beer’s moderate carbonation and distinct lasting bitterness seems to keep the beer from being decidedly sweet. Profile-wise, the sweetness curve shows a log decay, while the bimodal bitter/spice/heat with very long tail sits over this, producing a really neat succession of flavors.

While the early flavor has some stout-like elements of roasty-charred character, and the beer’s malt-balanced brown ale pedigree seems a little hard to find, this is a (very) dark and stoutish ale of super strong character with an amazing barrel expression of rye whisky. I, myself, love rye whisky — more so than bourbon actually (sacrilege to some, I know), but people be warned, this beer has a lot of rye whisky character interleaved into a caramel, dark fruit/nut alcohol bomb. As is, the beer works fine as a superlative finisher/digestif, but would also help to make a slice of good fruited cheesecake disappear. This is a pretty unique and delicious beer, and I salute the brewers.