Central Waters Bourbon Barrel Barleywine

I'd been drinking mostly IPAs for a few days in order to finish them up before our trip to Belgium and decided I needed a change of pace. So I sort of went to an extreme and opened one of my bottles of Central Waters Bourbon Barrel Barleywine, an 11.5% barleywine aged in bourbon barrels. Which you probably knew from the oh so descriptive name but why not repeat myself.

Wonderful bourbon and vanilla nose with just a hint of fruitiness of the underlying barleywine. Basically sets the tone for what you're about to drink. Thick and powerful first sip. Bourbon first followed by a little alcohol and then vanilla. The base barleywine is basically overpowered by the bourbon and vanilla which is okay in my book. It's not fooling around at all though. If you like bourbon, you'll definitely like this. If you don't it may be too much. I'll say I thought it was pretty delicious and was a perfect choice to change things up.