Well I finally get to dig into this award winning slice from arguably the most Life forward state in the Union, apologies in advance Cook county and Michigan. I really enjoyed the non barrel aged version of this with the cringey and terrifying label, so it stood to reason that this would organically be exponentially better. It’s more a question of whether you consider 1.5 to be a noteworthy superscript. It’s good, it’s very well done, hits all the marks and lands somewhere exceedingly close to Arctic Devil but below mother of all storms in that odd blend of sweet and bitter oak. It has this cinnamon Babka and yeasty kind of allspice that almost reminds me of a boozy winter warmer that I once knew on some Usher shit. The finish is cut lumber and dusted cocoa powder. It takes some expectation calibration but as it warms I enjoy it more and more. I simply can’t believe Alaska keeps consistently dropping staggeringly well done barleywine without exception. It’s becoming the Pajottenmalt leading the stylistic excellence. Im tryna pet a moose and avoid the Palins.