Williamsburg AleWerks Bourbon Barrel Porter

I don’t really know what constitutes colonial speak, but let’s just pretend I’m wearing some 18th century garb and lecturing on the merits of this most excellent barrel aged brew, sent my way by Dave, the Drunken Polack, in our recent trade (many thanks to Dave!) It comes from Williamsburg AleWerks (sometimes referred to as just AleWerks), a brewery I’m not particularly familiar with, but which sounds like it’s been doing good work over the past few years. Take this sucker:

Williamsburg AleWerks Bourbon Barrel Porter – Pours a dark brown, almost black color with a finger of light brown head. Smells of toasted, roasted malts along with a sweet bourbon aroma, oak and vanilla too. Taste starts sweet, with rich dark malts, a light roasty character, and that bourbon, oak, and vanilla coming through strong in the finish. Very sweet, but never approaching cloying, which is good. Mouthfeel is full bodied but it’s got a nice, crisp carbonation that keeps it manageable. Overall, really well done bourbon barrel treatment here, delicious, complex, and balanced. A-

Beer Nerd Details: 9% ABV bottled (22 oz. bomber). Drank out of a tulip glass on 3/23/13.

Quite a showing for these fellas, I’ve got another bottle of their stuff in the fridge, their Coffeehouse Stout (also courtesy of my trade with Dave) that sounds promising. I just missed out on the release of Bitter Valentine, which is another brew I’d love to try sometime… There’s always next year!