11-16, L25-24340. 2025.

$30.99 on a recent run to the Detroit suburbs.

Oh, this is rather good. A lovely head on the pour that looks much like the original beer in terms of color. Golden, lightly hazed. The head is high, creamy, well maintained, and has great lace. Nice looker.

Nose offers some generic fruitiness.

The beer starts with some fruity acidity that isn’t especially easy to nail down specifically, but even with relatively minimal warming that changes. It reverts to a sweet, chardonnay, vanilla, barreled, oaky experience. Oak and chardonnay butter are things which I want very, very, very light amounts of, and this beer really hit that spot nicely. At the end of the first glass the fruit is still there in the form of white grapes and a little apple, and the sour note is beautifully balanced and lightly balanced with sweet.

Mouthfeel is very smooth.

I liked this a LOT more than I thought that I might. The oak really brings a grape-must effect that is one of my favorite taste profiles in beer. Very smooth, great depth of flavor. The grape must element is big here and very welcome.

Cracking beer – delicious.