Kentucky Bourbon Barrel Ale

What comes to mind when you think Kentucky? For Two Guys, it's basketball, bourbon and bees. We wish there were some other animal that Kentucky was internationally known for but bees are all we have. Our extraordinarily smart 4 readers know that none of those three things are related to a journey of beer exploration. Well in this case that would not be correct, a brewery in Kentucky has decided to age ale in barrels that were used to hide Coach Calipari's recruiting violations and boy does that beer taste bitter. Just kidding, they used barrels that were previously used to age Kentucky bourbon. We will not detail to our very alert readers what ale is since we have done so in previous blog posts. We will just go straight to the beer.

Joe: The beer we tried for this sample is a Kentucky Bourbon Barrel Ale brewed by the Alltech Lexington Brewing and Distilling Company located in the, no way shaped like a basketball, commonwealth of Kentucky. As previously mentioned the ale was aged in barrels that were used to age bourbon. The beer has a hefty 8.19 ABV. It a dark beer with high carbonation. As you can imagine the ale had a strong taste of bourbon with a hint of malty vanilla and caramel. It is advertised as a sipping beer and with the bourbon taste that is best how it is drank. You need to savor this beer. While I am not a bourbon guy—this is not a bourbon blog, after all---I did enjoy this beer. I give it 3 stars.

Joe, Justin, Jim Beam & beer

Justin: I wasn't sure what to expect with this beer and with good reason. It is a very unique sipping beer with strong bourbon flavor and subtle hints of vanilla and oak. The ale is aged for 6 weeks in spent bourbon casks from some of Kentucky’s finest distilleries. The flavor is strong right out of the gate and it doesn't let up. You definitely want to take the advice and 'sip' this one. I enjoyed the beer and I think that it would grow on me. I expect this would be the ideal after dinner beer for bourbon connoisseurs. Three stars!