A Very Merry Dock Street Christmas

I had a few bottles of various Dock Street bottles burning a hole in my basement so what better time to open a few than during Christmas? I planned on opening four different ones but never made it to the fourth bottle as I kind of forgot to put it into the refrigerator. Oh well, I just had to deal with only three, woe is me.

Since it was the newest one, I started with the Man Full of Funk Porter, their porter dosed with Brettanomyces and then aged in apple brandy barrels for like three years.

Tart nose, reminiscent of sweet apples, with a hint of chocolate and roast. Lightly tart body followed with some bittersweet chocolate and a tart apple finish. The porter flavors kind of came and went but the tartness was the major point so that wasn't really a big deal. Definitely a pretty unique beer and a tasty experiment.

Next, we opened the Flemish Red next but I have no notes or pictures apparently. I'll just say it was delicious and even better than when I had it on draft last year. The sharp tannin bitterness from the red wine barrel really settled and it was just a nice and delicious now.

And the final thing we opened was their Barrel Aged Barleywine. This is the oldest of the bottles I had and is originally from 2009. The actual beer is from even further back as it was aged for at least a year in red wine barrels before being released.

The nose had some light oakiness, a little caramel, and a little fruity tartness from the barrel. Complex and inviting. Not a ton of carbonation was left making it pretty thick. The body contained a decent bit of apple fruitiness, some sweet, caramel, and finished with an oakey, alcohol bite. The apple tartness was different than the funk porter with it being more fruity than tart. Maybe it was getting a little oxidized at this point but it was really mild and I thought this was still really solid. Some people I know think it's getting a little old, which it kind of is at 3 years, though I didn't think it affected it too much. I'd still probably drink it sooner rather than later if you have a bottle. At the last release, I was told Dock Street is finally out of bottles so now it's all in private hands. We'll see next bottle release if that's true though!

I like themed drinking nights and this one was quite fun. It's funny I didn't drink the Barrel Aged Prince Myshkin since it's the only one I have two bottles of, but I just didn't have room in the refrigerator for it. I'm glad I chose these three, though, as they were all very different and gave a nice variety across the night. Nice, solid offerings from Dock Street, too. Looking forward to whatever they have planned for their next release!

Coming up next should be some write-ups of our time in Asheville, North Carolina. I can see myself being lazy tomorrow, though, and only writing a short beer post and waiting until Monday to star the longer ones. We'll see though!