Toast Tuesday: Bourbon Barrel Aged Beer

I’m just going to start out with telling you, I chose poorly this week.  I picked two terrible beers.  So today’s post will be about what not to drink.

Since the last two weeks I have chosen very nice beers (here), both of which were bourbon barrel aged (and here), I thought I’d go low brow this week and hit the regular ole grocery store and see what I could come up with.  We have a rather sketchy grocery store here that just happens to have a pretty decent beer selection.  This store is so sketchy, that until someone I trusted told me they shopped here, I wouldn’t even stop in the parking lot.  They have a build your own 6 pack rack with probably about 50 different beers to chose from and this is where I found one of my beers.

To follow up on last week’s query of how to make beer, I scoped out a local homebrew store in search of a kit or a class.  On my way there, I spied a Middle Eastern deli and imported beer market.  I pulled the car over and they also had a build your own 6 pack deal.  It was here I found Labatt’s Bourbon Barrel Aged Ale.  I cannot honestly recall if I’ve ever had a regular Labatt’s so I was looking forward to this.

First taste, there was a hint of vanilla and a slight woody taste at the finish.  A few more sips and it started getting really bitter, a kind of bitter build up.  I drank a few more sips, just to make sure this was as bad as I thought it was and had to stop.  Call it alcohol abuse if you will, but beer number one went unfinished.

Moving on to one I was actually looking forward to, because to be honest, the bottle looked cool.  This beer, Oculto, broke the rule in that it wasn’t bourbon barrel aged, but blended with beer aged on tequila staves.  I love tequila and I love beer. Hopes were high and very quickly dashed.  From the start, there was a weird flavor to this beer, and I think I’ve decided it’s an attempt at a hint of lime.  Again, I really didn’t want to finish this beer, but I hated to waste another one.  I googled for some beerita recipes and they all called for frozen limeade concentrate which sounded as wretched as this beer.  Ultimately I decided a beerita with this would be a waste of tequila and gave up.

So, this week is not a failure.  The whole point of this endeavor is to try something new.  I now have two beers that I never need to try again and I can move on down my beer bucket list.   Visit Meg to see how she fared this week.  Plus she has a great story going with Fictional Kevin that is quite entertaining.

I am really looking forward to next week, which is Absinthe.  I’ve got a great cocktail (or two) to share.

What are you Toasting Tuesday with this week?