Fort Collins Brewery Barrel Licked Bock

I have been waiting for the release of Barrel Licked Bock from Fort Collins Brewery since I heard about it a month or two ago.  It sounded like a great beer.  I managed to find it on tap at the Brick Store here in Atlanta and had some.  It was very good.  I then picked up a couple of bottles at the store.  Here is my review:

Appearance: The beer poured a nice dark coke color with a hint of red in it.  The head was a nice light tan color.  Lacing was good.

Smell: The smell was pretty complex with a fair amount of malt sweetness along with vanilla and a sweet smoke aroma.

Taste: The taste was slightly sweet with nice oak/vanilla flavor.  I also got some chocolate.  The smoke was there, much like a sweet hickory smoke that comes from BBQ ribs.  It was a very good mix of flavors.

Drinkability: The beer has a medium body and a slightly crisp finish.  There is a hint of hops on the finish.  This beer tasted and drank like it had a fairly high ABV.   I couldn’t find an exact # but a couple of reviews on Beer Advocate suggested it was around 10.2%.  The higher alcohol affected the drinkability a bit.

This is a very good beer overall.  There is a good mix of malt sweetness and smokey goodness.  The beer falls somewhere between the Bock and Smoked Beer styles.  I liked it and only wish it was available more than just the one time release that it was.  I do have an extra bottle saved for later.

Here’s the score:

1. Appearance- 7 points (out of 10)
2. Smell- 8 points (out of 10)
3. Taste- 16 points (out of 20)
4. Drinkability- 7 points (out of 10)

Total 38 (out of 50) Points- 4 Mugs