They left it late for the year, but Deeds finally submitted their entry for 2023 Tongue-Twister Of The Year with one of two bourbon barrel-aged beers to leave the brewery as summer heated up. Rearrange the words in Doppel Bourbon Barrel Bock – a phrase that gets harder to say the further down the can you travel – and you'll work out what it is: a strong, German-style dark lager aged for 15 months in ex-bourbon barrels.
There's little hiding the time in those barrels either: there's copious sweet, slightly spicy bourbon beckoning you in, those aromas segueing straight into rich toffee / treacle / cola malts. Add in some ripe banana on the one hand, an underlying oaky dryness that leave the beer relatively lean of texture compared to barrel-aged stout brethren, and you'll be doppel-barrel-bock-n-rolling into the night.
The other bourbon barrel-assisted release is Silent Town, which hasn't just been aged in oak for a year: there's toasted almonds and vanilla in the mix too. The impact of the bourbon is somewhat smothered – at least compared to the doppelbock; it's still present but more of a supplementary feature than the main thing. Instead, Silent Town is more a case of the barrel and other adjuncts taking some of the characters you might find in a big, unembellished stout and augmenting them: there's still heaps of choc fudge forming the core around which they’re spinning, but with an added creaminess and splash of amaretto over the top.
James Smith
Published December 28, 2023 2023-12-28 00:00:00
