Epic Brewing Company Smoked & Oaked

This beer from Epic is an attempt at something I don't believe I have ever heard of.  It is a Belgian dark ale, like a dubbel or a quad, with smoked barley in the malt bill.  Specifically, they use cherrywood-smoked barley malt.  The final beer is then aged in oak whiskey barrels for an unspecified period of time.  I like Belgian dark ales, I like smoked beers, and I frequently like whiskey barrel-aged beers.  Naturally, this piqued my interest a great deal.

Upon opening the bottle, I was greeted by the dull sound of a minimally-carbonated beer lazily outgassing into the air.  It poured similarly, thick liquid sauntering down the side of the glass.  I can't in good faith notch a barrel-aged strong beer for low carbonation (they often lose a good deal of CO2 during the aging process), but Belgian-inspired beer shouldn't be this thick.  The color is within the bounds of Belgian dubbel/quad.  Overall, I say Oaked & Smoked breaks even on the eyes.

The aroma is as curious as the brewing process, all the more so because I cannot detect a whiff of whiskey.  The smoked component, meanwhile, more closely resembles the peat smoke of Scotch than anything else.  I have had cherrywood-smoked beer before; it doesn't smell or taste like peat.  Perhaps it is some phenolic byproduct of the Belgian yeast they used.  There are certainly some other phenols to be had here, lending a spice to the aroma.

Cherrywood-smoked malt, like oak-smoked malt or beechwood-smoked malt, should resemble campfire smoke with maybe a hint of burnt red meat; think smoked steak or bacon.  I am disappointed to find none of those qualities here.  Instead, we have a rather curious abrasion of peat smokey phenols (think Scotch whisky) married to the caramelized raisins of latent oxidation.  The relationship is a bit rocky at this point.  Some vanilla sweetness appears mid-palate, the only suggestion of oak present.  No hint of bourbon or any other American whiskey, though that's presumably the source of the barrel.  Not much more than a hint of ethanol heat.  There is a fairly big flareup of medicinal flavors towards the end, not unlike accidentally biting a Tylenol tablet.

The texture is interesting, and probably the high point.  The beer is thick and not especially carbonated, so I expected a sticky barley syrup with alcohol burn.  There is a hint of alcohol heat, but its primary function is to keep the sweetness in check.  The presence of so much phenolic flavors---peat, spice, that unfortunate touch of medicine---also dries the beer out a bit.  Just to be clear, I can feel the presence of a thick sweet beer here, but it is deftly balanced.  The acidity feels a bit high and out of whack but it doesn't offend, and never approaches sourness.

I should be tasting something resembling a rauchbier-dubbel cocktail soaked in bourbon.  This is not what I taste.  Altogether not a bad beer, but a somewhat deceptive label.  This would probably benefit mightily from a different (fruitier) Belgian yeast strain and a longer barrel-aging time.

I should be tasting something resembling a rauchbier-dubbel cocktail soaked in bourbon.

I should be tasting something resembling a rauchbier-dubbel cocktail soaked in bourbon.

rather a curious abrasion of peat-like phenols. 

rather a curious abrasion of peat-like phenols. 

Firestone Walker Stickee Monkee 2014

This is a beer Firestone Walker has made for years but never bottled until this year.  Ever since their tenth anniversary in 2006, they have made one beer every year that is a blend of a variety of barrel-aged beers.  The types of beer, the types of barrels, and the ratio of each beer changes every year.  Several of the component beers (namely Helldorado, Bravo and Good Foot) are only brewed to be blended into the anniversary beer.  This beer, Stickee Monkee, was one such beer until this year.  It was previously used in their 14th, 16th, 15th and 17th anniversary ales.

First things first, lest you be misinformed: Stickee Monkee is not what Firestone Walker says it is right now.  Today, Firestone calls this beer a "central coast quad."  For the last five years they called it an English barleywine.  The recipe for the newest release is the same as every previous release, when they called it a barleywine.  In other words, it's the same beer as when they called it a barleywine.  In other words, it is a barleywine.  Do not buy this expecting it to taste like a Belgian beer, because it isn't and it won't.


Got it?  Good.  Now that I straightened out what Stickee Monkee isn't, let's look at what it is.

It is, first of all, a nearly flat beer.  There was barely any pop when I pried open the cap.  As you can see below, there was no head formation, which of course means there was also no head retention. At first glance it looks quite a bit like a stout, actually, nearly black in color.  It doesn't show here, but holding the glass directly to the light reveals this to be more transparent than a stout, albeit still murky.  This actually comes very close to resembling Goose Island Bourbon County Barleywine (BCB), possibly a bit darker.

Yes, that says 13.4% alcohol and 22oz.  Just think of it like drinking a bottle of wine.

Surprisingly, it smells like BCB too.  There is an unbelievably huge barrel character here, chock full of vanilla with a touch of coconut and buttery oak.  I can also pick out caramel, toffee, and some chocolate.  Honestly, this is a dead ringer for BCB.  It smells more like it was aged in barrels that held a stout than barrels that held a whiskey.

This more or less translates to the flavor as well.  The beer itself provides caramel and toffee flavors, while the barrel provides vanilla.  Coconut is a bit more pronounced here, as is sweet milk chocolate.  This genuinely tastes like it had some contact with barrels that had held one of Firestone's stouts (perhaps Parabola or Velvet Merkin), or else had a stout blended into it.

The only real drawback to the beer is the texture.  It is, indeed, very sticky.  One of the sweetest beers I think I have ever had.  I am used to sweet, sugary barleywines but if I hadn't had someone to split this with it would have been unmanageable. This would be better served with a touch more carbonation.

My good friend Hans sacrificed his liver for this review.

Stickee Monkee is, I believe, the closest any brewery has come to mimicking the flavor profile of Goose Island Bourbon County Barleywine, which means it is also the closest any other brewery has come to mimicking Goose Island King Henry.  While not opaque, it is so dark that I will be truly shocked if Firestone ever definitively states this was not aged in Parabola or Velvet Merkin barrels.  Much like King Henry and BCB, it looks, smells, and tastes like it was aged in whiskey barrels that also held stout. 

It's delicious, just make sure you have someone to split it with...preferably someone with a resilient Nordic liver.

Skål!