A bourbon and red wine barrel aged Belgian dark ale? TALK ABOUT A CROWDED GENRE. So I was wondering if this would be a de facto barleywine, or end up being a riff on some Still Nachte riserva, anxiously waiting for a track to explode on.

The nose is slightly port sherry, red wine tannins akin to a Pinot noir, slight jammy blackberry and the slightest caramel bourbon wafts. It is decidedly more red wine than bourbon, but the estery base beer serves the grape profile better anyway.

The taste is sweet and exhibits a slightly dry oaky finish, there’s a preserve and jelly boysenberry aspect that melds pretty well with the toasted caramel and pumpernickel bready aspects. It leans almost closer to a Belgian Barleywine and serves as a aeolian riff on a familiar malty scale you’ve ran your finger across many times before, with some jazzy minors.

Should you seek it out? I honestly don’t see this getting crushed out of the park on trade values and it’s a novel take that you likely haven’t tried a zillion times before. I dig it, a solid Goosey offering from those boys in the murder capital where they murder for capital.