Old Beer: Good Beer: AB03

Old Beer: Good Beer: AB03

So, another look at a beer that has had some ageing under its hood. Let’s see what the year has done.  This beast is the AB03, a raspberry  and strawberry packed beer aged in whisky casks.  The original was tasty, if a tad harsh, and explosively gassy.

Since there were good chunks of fruit still in the beer I thought I would keep this to ageing at only a single year.  Fruit sugars can be a tad off for ageing, though the high abv at 10.5% should help offset that.

The first instant difference was that it was far less explosive. Despite an accidental knock of the beer before opening it did not spurt in the slightest.  A pour confirms, it still has a decent head on pour, but looks far less gassy. Seems the year has settled it then.

Flavour wise it still has that big rocky, smoke and slightly medicinal touch, though the sharp raspberry now seems far more obvious than the strawberry which seems to have subside a tad.  No alcohol burn, and despite being a powerhouse it seems a lot smoother.  The lack of excess fizz definitely helps.  The less pleasant elements seems less obvious as well. There’s now an odd sweetness at the end, kind of like that off chocolate taste you get from Hershey’s chocolate. It’s only small, but an odd developed touch.

Overall the main flavours have changed very little, still powerful, still fruity sharp, if some of the outlying flavours have become muted.  The ageing has done it good though, smoother and less obvious alcohol, plus far easier to pour.  In fact despite its fruit nature I think it could easily have survived another six months to a year to smooth it out a bit more.

Not a beer that changes heavily from ageing, but does benefit from it in significantly in the few aspects that do change.