By Iron Chef Leftovers
One of my favorite things about NW Peaks is that their brewer, Kevin, is not afraid to take some risks and put out a beer that isn’t exactly commonly found in the Northwest. He took his already tasty Redoubt Red and effectively doubled the malt and hops and made a delicious malt/hop monster. He then decided to take it one step further and aged some of it in a new whiskey barrel and blended it back with the base Double Redoubt to come up with the Oak Aged Double Redoubt.
The beer pours deep reddish brown in color with copious amounts of malt, strong notes of hops and hints of wood and oak on the nose, with the oak really being a supporting cast member rather than dominant as it is in so many oak aged beers. Malt and an almost creamy mouth feel are your introduction to tasting this beer before it moves slowly over to a spicy citrus middle, with very mild hints of bitterness, before finishing with a slight oak character, interspersed with hints of whiskey, malt citrus, spice and resin that lingers for a very long time, and, when it does fade, you wish it would come back. The beer is extremely well balanced – malty without becoming syrupy sweet, hoppy without becoming overly bitter or citrusy, warming without an alcohol burn, and notes of oak that don’t overpower everything else in the beer. This is the perfect beer for a chilly Northwest evening, complicated and rich, but one you could easily go back and have a second of (yes, I did) or switch over to something else and not have killed your palate in the process.
NW Peaks outdoes itself with the production of Oak Aged Double Redoubt Red, erasing any doubts you might have with a perfect 5 stills out of 5.
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