The Bruery Mash and Vanilla

Opened this up to share with some friends at a barleywine event at our favorite local haunt! And right off the bat it threw me for a loop, as it ended up being an unexpected gusher! But once we cleaned it up, the vanilla notes shone through most strongly at all, with a solid malty, caramel, and barrel-forward character showing up on the back end, and the booziness that once overwhelmed this brew having subsided quite a bit. Age has …

The only major criticism I had about this beer when I first tried it was the booziness, and I'm really happy to say that enough time has passed that that one concern is no longer a problem! The nose smells very strongly like it's a Bruery barrel-aged beer, but the sip is a wall of vanilla with perfectly roasty and malty notes coming in to provide the backbone once the initial notes fade. The finish is silky smooth and delicious, …

Split a bottle with a friend from across the driveway, and my first truly shared beer in a very long time! Much like the first bottle, this one hit all of the right notes without pushing any too far. A big cinnamon and maple aroma, but the initial taste is very straightforwardly malty, with the adjuncts present but not overpoweringly sweet. A rich maple finish lingers for just long enough, begging for another sip without the treacly heaviness you might …

After a year-long hiatus, this guy makes a triumphant return! On draft, it was super vanilla-forward, but out of the can the vanilla presents most strongly on the nose. The palate is a tad boozy, but it's still that Bruery barleywine base that they've dialed in so nicely. A beer that could have potentially been too aggressively sweet manages to straddle the line perfectly. Happy to have this guy back in my life!