Barrell Bourbon Batch 031

Pours a golden orange color, long legs, smells sweet, cornbread, rich caramel, nutty oak, lots of vanilla, marshmallow, a bit of the spice box, maybe even some pine. More spice in the taste than the nose, but that sweet cornbread and caramel hits too, with lots of oak, vanilla, hints of mint, nuts, molasses. Mouthfeel is full bodied and rich, definitely hot but not hazmat levels - pushing it, but it works neat. Overall, delicious stuff, reasonably well balanced, worth the stretch for sure… Beer Nerd Musings: Near as I can tell, there are no beers aged in barrels specifically attributed to Barrell (now, there are some beers in various databases that misspell “barrel” and include an extra “l”, but I don’t think that counts), but since they source all their barrels, I suppose they could make it to a brewery somewhere… Since Barrell seems to be good at picking barrels for their blends, I’m guessing they’d be good fodder for bba beer. Batch 31 is supposedly built around a 99% corn bourbon, which is a rare but not completely unheard of barrel for beer aging (Eclipse had a Mellow Corn variant a while back that was very good)….

A swirl shows nice legs in the glass. The nose presents Tennessee mineral but also nutmeg , prunes, and tobacco. Palate presents sweet and spicy with a touch of artificusl grape. I suspect this has a lot of Tennessee whiskey in it, which I'm not usually a fan of, but this is blenede nicely and has nice pit fruit and fall spice depth. The finish is nice offering sweet chocolate and pepper. It is slightly astringent, however. A large ice cube, added nicely, rounding off some of the harsher notes and bringing sweetness, chocolate, and a touchnof pit fruit forward. Like the finish lengthened, and the pepper tempered. The astringency is gone. Overall, a very nice whiskey.

Lot of spice, which isn’t surprising given the proof. It does seem to drink a bit like a rye to me. Overall it’s decent but didn’t blow me away. Given some other reviews will come back to this one after it breathes a little more. Similar to others, neck pour was very hot and spicy. Went back after to re-rate and had a very different experience. It still drinks like a rye, but with a small cube has a butterscotch and desert flavor with a mich smoother and sweet profile. The bit of kick is still there like a higher rye but the sweetness balances it out greatly. Closest thing I can think of is like sucking on a spicy worthers. Changed from 3.0 to 4.00.

Aroma huge oaky and vanilla..brown sugar, fruits even slight tropical note. Caramel, … faint hint of baking spices. The aroma is tremendous. Really hope the taste follows suit. Taste- well that wasn’t what I was expecting. Completely different than the nose… sweet up front then rye-like spice mid palate then massively sweet finish …. creamy vanilla finish. Might be the most vanilla I’ve experienced. Some almond like notes come up on in proceeding sips. Man these barrel batches are so unique. 31>>>29>30

The neck pour had serious spice. Like cayenne pepper on the finish kind of spice. A little air balances it—the spice is still there, and strong, but the brown sugar/vanilla notes of good bourbon become more prominent. If “smooth” is your jam it’s not likely to be in your wheelhouse, but I’m a rye fan, so this is really appealing for me. I’ve enjoyed Barrell finished ryes (Dovetail, Seagrass) before, but this will get me looking for their bourbon batches too.

Quite oak driven on the nose, with nutty and creamy notes. The flavor is fruit forward, with a mincemeat pie spicy-sweetness. Rich, elegant and very drinkable. At the finish line, there is a lasting impression of pepper, and some char; but all ends well on a sweet note similar to a house-made grenadine. As with each of the Barrell Bourbons we’ve reviewed, this is another lovely addition to their portfolio or numbered releases.