Dark Horse / Local Option Militiagan

I picked up this limited collaboration between Dark Horse and Local Option at the Dark Horse brewery during the summer of 2013. There is no bottle date but I am pretty sure this was pretty fresh when I bought it. Militiagan is referred to as a Potable Oak Wine, so this is a slightly different take on an American Barleywine. This is bottle 5 of 666. \m/.

It took me nearly forever to get the cork out of the bottle, that cage was in no way necessary! The aging did not really help the appearance of this beer. I’m not sure if it was this ugly originally, but in addition to the massive chunks in the bottom of our glasses, the beer seemed to be swirling with yeast or something. I decided to stop looking and just get to the smell, which was outstanding! Lots of rich caramel, figs and raisins with just a hint of hops. The taste follows with the same flavors but everything is taken down a notch in the taste. Add to that a dry finish with a bit of hop bite and dryness on the tongue, maybe just the slightest amount of oxidation starting on this bottle. The carbonation was very low, but it still had just enough for me considering the style.

This was fun to hold on to, but I don’t think I would suggest aging it too much longer if you have one.