Friday, July 21, 2017

Ölbeat 283: Emelisse / Bad Hair White Label Barley Wine (Yura / Old Pulteney BA)

Brewery: Brouwerij Emelisse (Bad Hair Brewing)
Country: Netherlands
Style: Barley Wine
Abv: 12 %
@RateBeer
What about the beer?
Colour is dark coffee brown with a thin tan head. Aroma has sweet chocolate, dark fruits and boozy caramel. Taste begins with silky milk chocolate. Fruity caramel sweetness and spicy-oaky whisky takes over with boozy bitterness. Towards the end sweet chocolate rises with warming alcohol and growing bitterness. Aftertaste has bittersweet boozy dark fruits, smooth chocolate and lasting warming alcohol.

Sweet, strong and delicious barrel-aged Barley Wine. Fruits, chocolate, caramel - all in aroma, delivered in flavours, too. The whisky adds oak, spices and booze and enhances fruits and bitterness. At least Old Pulteney is clearly present - and hopefully the name of the other whisky on the label is misspelled (Yura -> Jura). Despite one wrong letter, this is a magnificent brew from Emelisse.

Ölbeat

Barrel-aging is based on experimenting with beer. This experiment was done with fine Scottish whisky barrels. So I searched for experimental rock from Scotland. Had some questions - the brew gave me excellent answers. And there we have it.

Biffy Clyro: Questions and Answers (YouTube)

From the 2003 album The Vertigo of Bliss, the song was written by Simon Neil.