This month, I am looking outside CA for the featured beer reviews and we start with New Belgium and their recent collaboration beer with Knob Creek, Oakspire.
This is a well crafted and balanced beer. Why? It is a barrel-aged stout without the stout. To be able to pull off the oak on a lighter beer is quite the trick. The burn is there but it just lingers in the corner, more as a reminder. You get malty Fat Tire-ness, you get toasted oak and the coconut from the spires. I am also getting some vanilla at the back to round the picture out. Amazingly there i zero sweetness. A barrel aged beer you want to buy a six-pack of.
