The Setting: Beautiful Slade, Kentucky for rock climbing in Red River Gorge. Late Spring/Early Summer. SUNNY. Cedar Palace.
The Company: Some really excellent guys and gals from Massachusetts. Most from UMass Amherst and, more specifically, the UMass Outing Club.
The Beverage: Kentucky Bourbon Barrel Ale
Listen, I'm sure if I searched around hard enough, I could figure out how we decided to get a log of Kentucky Bourbon Barrel Ale (KBA). Hell, I was partially in charge of gathering the beer once we were down in Kentucky. However, I want it stay mystery. KBA has a magic around it for me now. We all returned from rock climbing every day nearly too tired to eat or drink. But, in the end we found the energy to stuff our faces with burritos the size our heads and drink out fill of KBA.
Lexington, Kentucky (about an hour away) is in an area called Bourbon County. On a whiskey tasting tour, we all sipped sample of Bourbon and genuinely enjoyed what we tasted in between watering eyes and supressed coughs. KBA tastes like the Bourbon we sipped without the watering eyes and suppressed coughs, framed by the pleasant medium of beer. The flavor of Bourbon comes from the release of sugars from the burned barrels it ages in. The longer a Bourbon stays in a barrel, the more water evaporates, the higher the alcohol content and quality of Bourbon flavor. KBA tastes like a Blue Label beer (Blue>Gold>Black>Red).
There was another factor that affected my strong love for this beer: I could NOT find it once we returned to Massachusetts. You know a beer is hard to find when you can't find it in the beer snob's heaven, Western Massachusetts. I felt like some great explorer... Magellan, Lewis and Clarke?? eh, I don't know... on the search for a great new land. I requested all the local liquor store to buy it for me. None did. Man, things were getting dire. Until my lovely girlfriend surprised me and found some at her local liquor store. Excelsior! And, of course, followed an embarrassment of riches when I found that the adjacent business to my work place carried KBA. Suffice to say, I kick back after work when I get home every day with a nice, cold KBA.
In case you haven't figured it out yet, I love this stuff. It's delicious. It's attached to some great memories. And, I give it my highest recommendations. 5 out of 5 stars.
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