Combined review of two, 12oz bottles that I recieved from both Hoppymeal and Brewfan in seperate trades. Thanks guys.
Initially I have to say that I am a bit confused by this beer. Frankly I hardly get any “oaked” character at all. I guess that there is a very slight vanilla note in there, but without knowing I was drinking this beer I’m not at all sure I would have noticed it. This seems largely like a regular AB to me. If there is one significant difference it’s the lack of sweetness that I get from the original AB.
Pour is superb. Beautiful garnet color, good carbonation, head is a super, ivory dense affair and the lace is nice. Good looking beer. Nose is hop based, but seems balanced. Similar with the taste. VERY light vanilla notes, but outside of that it’s simple a bitter, hop based West Coast bomb.
I like this beer, but I think that’s simply because I like AB, not because this is a sigificantly different brew from the original.