Odell Fernet Aged Porter

This 9.8% ABV beer is a mixture of 50% porter and 50% porter aged in Fernet barrels. The beer is from Odell Brewing Company of Fort Collins, Colorado. The Fernet barrels are courtesy of Leopold Bros., a distillery out of Denver. Fernet is an herbal liqueur, the exact make-up varies by brand, but the Leopold version uses lavender, honeysuckle, ginger root, bitter aloe, dandelion root, rose petals, chamomile and peppermint.

The beer pours pure black, just the slightest bit of deep, dark ruby and dark brown can be seen on the bottom edge when the light slants through it. It has intense, champagne-like carbonation. There is a huge, foaming, billowing, fizzy, bottle-conditioned head of light tan foam. The aroma is mint, sage, ginger, herbal, floating over a dark roasted malted porter, with char, coffee and dark chocolate. The taste follows the aroma, loads of flowers and herbs, mint and ginger, all together giving tones of sage and black licorice, over a solid roasted porter. The wood is not out front, but comes out in the dry and astringent finish. It has the buzzing carbonation of a bottle conditioned beer. It drinks light for a porter, not a heavy one. Definitely an interesting beer, although it tastes like a liqueur, it drinks fairly light. This would in fact be a good beer to drink along with various liqueurs.