Punctuation matters. (As does attention to detail.) There I was thinking Working Title had added everything bar the kitchen sink to their bourbon barrel-aged Belgian dark strong, In Bruges – raisins, cherries, apricots, caramel, coconut, vanilla, five grams of cocaine and a racist dwarf* – to emphasise the characters one would hope to extract from a combination of specialty malts, Belgian yeast and bourbon barrels. However, it turns out that shopping list represents tasting notes, not adjuncts – the power of reading a full stop as a comma...
Either way, their entry into the 2024 Carwyn Cellars Black Box pours a dark enough ruddy chestnut colour to warrant its place in the box, swirls with a murkiness that seems to yearn for that comma, and is topped by a slow-forming head that settles like a crema. Sweet, rich, Christmassy candi sugar malts grab you first, although it takes just one sip to start pondering just how much bourbon residue was left in the barrels, both from the distinctive flavour and a spicy heat nudging its way through the fruity milk chocolate raisin mélange.
I'd recommend starting off pouring the beer into your chalice cooler than any Belgian worth their stoemp would allow, just so you can enjoy the transition through its many stages and back again.
James Smith
*Well, most of those.
Published July 4, 2024 2024-07-04 00:00:00
