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CR&FTWERK™ American Brandy aged in craft beer barrels


tanstaafl2
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The four Cra&twerk brandies from Copper & Kings just landed in the Atlanta area recently. Anybody have any experience with them? I initially thought it sounded a bit gimmicky but a few reviews seem to have been pretty positive. The descriptions linked above made the Scottish Ale barrel sound interesting.

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I'm curious.  Caught between discovering something new and having too many bottles.  They hit here yesterday and I probably don't have too much time to decide.  I don't drink brandy and I feel like aging brandy in beer casks to make it taste like beer or even whisky might be a step too far.  Really wish I could get a little taste before taking the plunge.

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9 hours ago, berto said:

I'm curious.  Caught between discovering something new and having too many bottles.  They hit here yesterday and I probably don't have too much time to decide.  I don't drink brandy and I feel like aging brandy in beer casks to make it taste like beer or even whisky might be a step too far.  Really wish I could get a little taste before taking the plunge.

Yeah, that's about where I am. It's intriguing, but I'm not sure I need brandy that tastes like beer.  Given there are four of them it would be an ideal thing to be able to sample.

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For years I've wished American Brandy to achieve more prominence but this?

Like high abv overly roasted highly hopped beers aged in old whisky barrels at some point I have to ask when the lines between different and better became so blurred.

If the answer is "that's what sells" I'm fine with that.  Just please don't tell me the multiple price jump is justified because it's made with passion, craft and enthusiasm.

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I bought and we tried the Against the Grain Smoked Scottish Ale version last weekend as part of the GBS Irish night. I wrapped it up and served it as a mystery "whiskey" before we started to get our Irish on!

Others who got to try it can chime in as well but I found it enjoyable. This is one review.

Against The Grain Mac Fanny Baw Finish

This expression smells like a rich whiskey – caramel, vanilla, fruit and a touch of oak char.  I even get some brininess.  If you gave this to me blind, I’d say this is a barrel-finished Island scotch whisky.  Taste-wise, there are no surprises on the palate – vanilla, toffee, brine, fruit and a faint touch of smoke.  Think Talisker with the smoke dialed way down and the fruit notes turned up.  The finish is spicy, long and sweet.  Add ice and the sweet notes become more prominent.

 I found it to be a little bit sweet and I am not sure I could describe it as a "rich whiskey". Definitely had vanilla and caramel but I got no brininess and maybe only the barest wisp of smoke or char. A couple of people recognized it as brandy pretty early on. I haven't had the regular C&K brandy in a while to compare but I did find it an interesting alternative. Not sure yet if I will try one of the others. Leaning towards the 3 Floyds if I do.

All that said at $50 or so a bottle it is a bit spendy to take a flyer on. A set of the four in 200 or 250 ml bottles would be interesting though.

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I agree with the overall sentiments here - seems a bit gimmicky. However, they also sound delicious, and given that I love beer AND brandy (including the C&K Butchertown) I ponied up the money for two bottles of this, one of the Oscar Blues IPA version (for my pop) and one of the 3 Floyds Dark Lord version (for myself). I'll report back here when I open them, but it may not be in time to help anyone make a decision about purchasing. Not that my palate is worthy of helping people make such decisions anyhow.

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  • 2 months later...
On 3/17/2016 at 6:20 PM, Kpiz said:

I agree with the overall sentiments here - seems a bit gimmicky. However, they also sound delicious, and given that I love beer AND brandy (including the C&K Butchertown) I ponied up the money for two bottles of this, one of the Oscar Blues IPA version (for my pop) and one of the 3 Floyds Dark Lord version (for myself). I'll report back here when I open them, but it may not be in time to help anyone make a decision about purchasing. Not that my palate is worthy of helping people make such decisions anyhow.

Have you tried these yet?  I'm curious on your thoughts if you have.  I have a bottle of the Dark Lord version but haven't opened it yet.  I am thinking of putting together a tasting with some friends to try the regular Butchertown along with the Dark Lord Cr&ftwerk and a bottle of Dark Lord.   I like the crossover between the beer and brandy, I think it could be fun.

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43 minutes ago, NightCru said:

Have you tried these yet?  I'm curious on your thoughts if you have.  I have a bottle of the Dark Lord version but haven't opened it yet.  I am thinking of putting together a tasting with some friends to try the regular Butchertown along with the Dark Lord Cr&ftwerk and a bottle of Dark Lord.   I like the crossover between the beer and brandy, I think it could be fun.

Not yet, unfortunately, but I may open my 3 Floyds Dark Lord version this week and will post here as soon as I do. I'm also considering including it in a tasting with my friends.

 

I gave the Oscar Blues IPA version to my dad and was hoping he'd want to open it right then, but no such luck. He promised to save a little for me though so I'll have notes on that at some point in the future.

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I finally dug into my bottle of Cr&ftwerk 3 Floyds Dark Lord edition. I do get the beer notes but not in the same way I would have thought. It smelled and tasted more like a malt finished in a sherry cask (malty, sweet, some funk) than brandy aged in a beer cask. Certainly not bad and it is interesting (and honestly, "interesting is pretty much what I signed up for on this one). I don't usually draw conclusions from a freshly opened bottle, so I'll get back into it this weekend, write some better notes, and report back again.

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48 minutes ago, Kpiz said:

I finally dug into my bottle of Cr&ftwerk 3 Floyds Dark Lord edition. I do get the beer notes but not in the same way I would have thought. It smelled and tasted more like a malt finished in a sherry cask (malty, sweet, some funk) than brandy aged in a beer cask. Certainly not bad and it is interesting (and honestly, "interesting is pretty much what I signed up for on this one). I don't usually draw conclusions from a freshly opened bottle, so I'll get back into it this weekend, write some better notes, and report back again.

 

Maybe it will change but I suspect not. The one I tried from Against the Grain was also "interesting" but in the end didn't inspire me to get any of the others.

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53 minutes ago, tanstaafl2 said:

 

Maybe it will change but I suspect not. The one I tried from Against the Grain was also "interesting" but in the end didn't inspire me to get any of the others.

Damn. My notes will be fairly scant then! I had about a 2oz pour and continued adding drops of water as I drank through it, but it never really seemed to open up.

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On 6/3/2016 at 0:10 PM, Kpiz said:

I finally dug into my bottle of Cr&ftwerk 3 Floyds Dark Lord edition. I do get the beer notes but not in the same way I would have thought. It smelled and tasted more like a malt finished in a sherry cask (malty, sweet, some funk) than brandy aged in a beer cask. Certainly not bad and it is interesting (and honestly, "interesting is pretty much what I signed up for on this one). I don't usually draw conclusions from a freshly opened bottle, so I'll get back into it this weekend, write some better notes, and report back again.

This is about what I expected.  I was hoping for something more but "interesting" is still worth the price of admission for one bottle.  Thanks for your notes, I've been really curious about it.

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  • 3 months later...

I took a break from this bottle for a couple months but have had a few pours of it in the past couple weeks. I like it a little more than I did before so I figured I should add some additional notes. I get a lot of chocolate and orange notes now, very similar to one of those chocolate oranges they used to sell around Christmas time, though the finish is still dominated by some funky sherry-like notes. The best word to describe this is still "interesting", but it has grown on me. Hopefully I continue to like this more as I work my way though the last 2/3 of the bottle!

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I opened my bottle of the Dark Lord aged version some time ago, it was long enough ago now that I can't remember really specific notes but I do remember being pleasantly surprised.  My expectations going in weren't that high though so that might have helped.  I did like it better than the regular Butchertown release.  Normally I'm all for high proof but this is an instance where I think a reduction in proof improves the end product.  I think the powerful malt character also helped to add some complexity and make the brandy a bit more interesting.

 

Now that some time has passed I'll have to give it another try.

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4 hours ago, NightCru said:

I opened my bottle of the Dark Lord aged version some time ago, it was long enough ago now that I can't remember really specific notes but I do remember being pleasantly surprised.  My expectations going in weren't that high though so that might have helped.  I did like it better than the regular Butchertown release.  Normally I'm all for high proof but this is an instance where I think a reduction in proof improves the end product.  I think the powerful malt character also helped to add some complexity and make the brandy a bit more interesting.

 

Now that some time has passed I'll have to give it another try.

I'll have to add a few drops of water the next time I try this. It seems like an obvious thing to do, but I sometimes seem to forget that it's an option. I'm a big fan of their Butchertown brandy but that one needs a lot of water to come to life, in my opinion.

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  • 2 months later...

I just tried the Oscar Blues IPA version and it is pretty good. It's a little sweet and has some strong pine-y notes. The beer influence is obvious and works a little better than in the 3 Floyds Dark Lord version.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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