Upstream NOLITA Rye Ale

The Upstream Brewing Company is a brew pub in Omaha,Nebraska with two locations.  I have only been to the one in the Old Market downtown.  They brew a solid line-up of brews with interesting specialty brews.  They currently have almost half a dozen specialty bottled brews available of differing styles that were all aged in used Templeton Rye barrels.  This beer is 8.0% ABV and was brewed in June of 2011 and bottled in December of 2011.  It is bottle 21 out of only 204. NoLita is a neighborhood in Manhattan, that stands for North of Little Italy, and is, not surprisingly, located just north of Little Italy.

From the website: "This unique rye beer was inspired by The Manhattan Cocktail (rye whiskey, sweet vermouth, bitters and with a kiss of cherry juice and garnished with a cherry). NOLITA starts off with a delicately biscuit-toasted bread malty background that includes three different types of malted rye for an in depth layered rye backbone to start things off. Look for flavors of sweet vermouth from the additions of Italian plum puree added directly to the primary fermentation, and to finish things off we added sweet cherry puree to the brew at the end in the serving vessel & aged for a period of time in Templeton Rye Whiskey Barrel's."

The beer pours a very dark brown in color, with a hint of dark amber to garnet if held to the light.  There is no head and essentially no carbonation.  The aroma is smooth rye whiskey, more smooth rye whiskey, and sweet fruit.  It is interesting that they used plum puree for the fruit when it is inspired by a cocktail that used cherry.  However, the fruit aroma is close to cherry.  Perhaps the plum helps create the combination of not just cherry, but sweet vermouth as well.  The taste is sweet and tart fruit (much less sweet and way more tart than you would expect from the aroma, and much more satisfying and well balanced than the aroma), and smooth rye whiskey.  This drinks like a rye whiskey cocktail without any alcohol burn.  The alcohol is enough to give a light warming sensation without any true whiskey burn.  The aftertaste is smooth rye and cherry/plum fruit, with a lingering tartness.  My only regret on this beer is not getting it closer to bottling when it might have had more carbonation.  I would have liked to see what effect that had.

Upstream has done quite a few TR barrel aged beers based on old fashioned cocktails.  This one is also a winner.  If you get to Omaha and like beer, you best plan a stop to Upstream.