Brau Brothers Rye Wyne Ale

The Brau Brothers Brewing Company is in Lucan, Minnesota, a tiny town in southern Minnesota.  The beer is brewed using rye, one of the few small grains still grown in southwestern Minnesota.  The resulting ale is then aged in used rye whiskey barrels.  The barrels are from Templeton Rye, from the small Iowa town of Templeton, Iowa.

The beer pours medium dark to dark brown, with hints of ruby and garnet.  There is a half inch of creamy head, off-white to very light brown in color, that leaves thick lacing down the glass.  The aroma is toasted rye, slightly spicy, vanilla, a bit of oaky wood, and smooth rye whiskey.  The beer is creamy, spicy, big vanilla, big wood, big rye, somewhat tangy.  The finish has a very dry and bitter woodiness, but the overwhelming mouthfeel is smooth and creamy.  It is like a vanilla Dr. Pepper and rye cocktail, except more substantial, more creamy and more woody than such a cocktail would ever be.  As the mouth adjusts to the oaky woodiness, it drinks increasingly smooth.  The aftertaste is a pleasant lingering of smoothed out rye whiskey.