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.