Beer of the Night: JW Lee’s Harvest, Ale matured in Lagavulin Whisky Casks, 2005
I don’t know why so many breweries fall in love with Flash when it comes to site design. It’s almost as if they really don’t care for people browsing the site. Go Away! Why aren’t you drinking? If their brews were as off-putting, the craft beer industry would still be stuck in the 70’s.
Regardless, I’ve been quite keen to try the Harvest Cask-aged ales since they first appeared at the beer store, but have been put off by the price. Ounce for ounce, these are some of the most expensive brews out there. A 9.3 oz bottle typically starts at $8, and proceeds upwards from there depending on the snootiness of the vendor. Mine came from Southern Season, courtesy of a gift card from work, so you can imagine how much more I paid for atmosphere.
Forty cents a bottle, as it turned out. Not too bad, for Chapel Hill. I also got a bottle of the Calvados-aged. So…two down, two to go.
Of course, at 11.5% ABV, it’s the equivalent of 2-3 other beers in a single bottle. You quickly become one with the bear. The brew itself is quite interesting, with the mouthfeel and sweetness typical of a barleywine, but also holding more than a touch of rauchbier smokiness, obviously a result of the time spent in the Lagavulin cask. I really should have waited until I had a bottle of that as well, just so I could look for similar themes, but that would blow my alcohol budget for a month, or perhaps two.
Here’s another review, at Cask 79.
The BeerAdvocates like it quite a bit as well.
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