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By my count, I've had three other versions of this beer. I had the original back in 2017, and it was a different world back then, so who knows if I would rate it the same today. Much later in 2017, I got ahold of the vanilla version, and that thing was really, really good. Then, I had possibly too high of hope for the Utopias version of the beer. Well, this one claims to have been aged in wood tanks, whiskey barrels, and Utopias barrels.
The beer is predictably and predominantly black, but the red around the free ends cannot be denied. The off-white head isn't much to begin with, but barrel-aged beers don't have much head in the first place. The aroma is quite strong, and I think I can smell it from a foot and a half away. Those delicious aromas get more refined as my nose gets closer to it, and it smells sweet, woody, and it smells like it wants me to join the dark side. Well... okay.
First sip is probably not benefitting from the cold temperature I typically start the reviews at. The wood is too cool, so it's intruding on the beer a lot more than I would hope. That is not to say I didn't expect (or even want) wood in this beer. It was made from wood, so wood should be featured prominently in the taste profile. However, cold wood in beer is very different than warm beer. It's the difference between a cold hot dog and a warm one. They are not the same.
Tip-in is wood, chocolate, seared brown sugar, and absolutely no carbonation intrusion. The middle winds out with a syrup thickness with about half the sweetness, as the sweet is cut down by the wood and heavy alcohol (but none of this makes it less enjoyable to drink). The finish turns quite dry while remaining sweet with the syrup of burned molasses, oak, and brown sugar head into the trail off.
Bottom Line: That is pretty dang tasty.
3.75/5
