Big Bourbon Series Discombobulation Celebration Ale - Shoreline Brewery And Restaurant

hoppymeal

Michigan

4.1/5  rDev +3.3%
look: 4 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4

2007, released 2009, part of the Barrel series.

Pours a nice ruby and amber color, mainly clear. An agressive pour yields very little head, just a faint thin layer of cream colored bubbles that fades to a ring around the glass. Aroma is fairly complex, a nice mixture of sweet prunes, raisins, caramel, vanilla, some grapes, berries, also a hint of coconut and bourbon. Vanilla, caramel, and fruit dominate in the smell. Taste follows with the vanilla and caramel coming thru very well, sweet, though not overly so. Some grapeiness as well as a stronger dose of the coconut then was in the aroma, pretty large bourbin and alcohol bite towards the finish. Mouthfeel is medium to heavy in body, definitely not overly thick for the strength or flavor, decent warmth and bite from the alcohol strength leads into a drying finish. Overall a very good ba'd barley wine, my first taste of the barrel series. Alcohol is a bit up front and in the face, but not so hot that it turned me away, aroma and flavors were very good, impressive.

Serving type: bottle

08-18-2009 01:53:28 | More by hoppymeal

mikeincharleston

South Carolina

3.75/5  rDev -5.5%

05-22-2013 01:33:18 | More by mikeincharleston

enelson

Illinois

4.5/5  rDev +13.4%

05-20-2013 14:46:00 | More by enelson

TerryB

Indiana

4.5/5  rDev +13.4%

04-27-2013 10:52:43 | More by TerryB

mdaschaf

Washington

3.75/5  rDev -5.5%

03-03-2013 22:50:38 | More by mdaschaf

jwb06

Indiana

3.89/5  rDev -2%
look: 3.75 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 3.75

2009 vintage poured into CBS snifter

Appearance: Dark red in the glass with very little cream head. No lacing

Smell: Bourbon, bourbon and bourbon. Also some oak nice malty notes

Taste: Smooth and bourbony. Oak an vanilla come through mid-mouthful. Finish is a bit of alcohol heat

Mouthfeel: A little thinner than I was hoping for the style.

Overall: a nice barrel aged barleywine if you like bourbon. Its a pretty big bourbon bomb. Glad I got to try it but not sure it is worth the price.

Serving type: bottle

02-05-2013 03:53:34 | More by jwb06

t0rin0

California

3.75/5  rDev -5.5%

01-05-2013 03:16:52 | More by t0rin0

klipper

Michigan

3.5/5  rDev -11.8%

11-05-2012 06:54:38 | More by klipper

monitorpop

Michigan

3.75/5  rDev -5.5%

10-07-2012 06:45:03 | More by monitorpop

4DAloveofSTOUT

Illinois

4.25/5  rDev +7.1%

07-05-2012 17:36:41 | More by 4DAloveofSTOUT

kawilliams81

Illinois

3.63/5  rDev -8.6%
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 3.5

Poured from a 750 ml bottle into a Bell's tulip.

A- Pours a near black color with a 1 finger white head. Large bubbly lacing on the surface of the beer.

S- Nice caramel, bourbon, vanilla, and some slight roast.

T- Leather, toffee, bourbon and booze.

M- Medium body and low carbonation. Little thin feel for the style but the booze is definitely noticeable.

O- Nice barleywine with nice barrel characterisitcs but thinness takes and heat take away from the beer some.

Serving type: bottle

07-05-2012 17:07:37 | More by kawilliams81

Duff27

Illinois

3.75/5  rDev -5.5%

07-05-2012 01:48:25 | More by Duff27

rudzud

Massachusetts

3.88/5  rDev -2.3%
look: 4.5 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 4 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 3.5

A big thanks to JLindros for sharing this bottle with me. Reviewed from notes.

A - An awesome two finger off white rocky head that leaves thick, clumpy side lacing. All atop a nice ruddy garnet slightly hazy pour.

S - Aromas of light bourbon and slightly funky doughy yeast. Smell is of older hops. Does smell slightly past its prime.

T - Taste is nice and smooth bourbon and dark raisin fruits Good, slightly boozy. Semi one note though.

M - Mouthfeel is just shockingly wow for a 2008 beer. Shockingly carbonated which helps hide the ABV very well and the carbonation keeps the barleywine from being heavy.

O - Overall this was a bit too one note for me. The appearance and mouthfeel were outstanding for an aged beer but the taste and aroma just fell a bit flat for me.

Serving type: bottle

06-19-2012 20:05:54 | More by rudzud

jlindros

Massachusetts

4.28/5  rDev +7.8%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.5

Thanks to ptwnblr for this 2008 vintage. Been hanging on to it for a while, and finally got around to cracking it.

Pours an awesome head surprisingly, fizzy and fluffy white about 1 finger head that fades super slowly with nice lacing, super dark molasses brown colored beer.

The nose brings dark malts, Belgian like, bottle conditioning, lots of dark fruits, brandy soaked raisins, fig, plum, date, etc, cinnamon, hint of cocoa, nougat, cognac, light barrel and bourbon aromas, quite malty, with a hint of booze.

Taste starts a bit sweet, malty with molasses, caramel, hint of chocolate, etc. Then fruits, fig, date, brandy soaked raisins, cereal flavors, fairly sweet with a bit of warming and tingly booze kick. Fluffy nougat, malty, light toasty oak barrel flavor, and a bit of whisky. Finish comes with more fig, candied raisin, molasses, fairly sweet still and out comes a fairly bitter kick of earthy spicy hops.

Mouth is med to heavier bodied, good carb, bit of warming and tingly booze.

Overall nice, good dark malts, decent bitter finish even after 4 years, nice whisky and barrel additions, bit of booze but still drinkable for 13%!, and lots of great fruits, and a great beer all around.

Serving type: bottle

05-09-2012 18:33:58 | More by jlindros

ChainGangGuy

Georgia

3.63/5  rDev -8.6%
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 3.5

2007 vintage.

Appearance: Slips out a dark, dulled amber-hued body with a thin, off-white head.

Smell: A spirited nose of bourbon spirits with tones of toasted wood and vanilla. This is definitely not a barrel-aged beer that leaves you wondering where any of the barrel character is. Some cowed, underlying notes of orange, raisins, and dark caramel present, too.

Taste: Quickly plunges into the wood and vanilla accented bourbon, leaving any hints of lowly sweet dark caramel maltiness to trail lazily behind. The alcoholic heat is unquestionably in play here, it's pretty hot, encroaching on harshness. Touches of raisins, hints of orange peel. Dry, faintly fruity, heated finish.

Mouthfeel: Medium-full body. Medium-low carbonation. Smooth, creamy mouthfeel.

Overall: Woof. The bourbon and alcohol presence here is very self-assertive, so, please have some friends on hand, plenty of water, and a DD on stand-by.

Serving type: bottle

02-29-2012 17:49:03 | More by ChainGangGuy

mjmadsen21

Indiana

4.5/5  rDev +13.4%

01-13-2012 06:20:22 | More by mjmadsen21

Gehrig

Illinois

4.03/5  rDev +1.5%
look: 4 | smell: 3 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4 | overall: 4

Today was the first time I made the trek up to Shoreline Brewery and Restaurant in Michigan City, and I like the place quite a bit. The bar atmosphere is nice, the food was very good, and I rather liked the beer. The first beer I got was Discombobulation Celebration Ale, listed as an American Barleywine, enjoyed with a Reuben on marbled rye.

A nice, durable finger of light tan froth tops a cloudy black body; nice duration on the 10 oz. tulip. The aromas overall are faint, barely emitting a dried fruit smell with some caramel malt. The nose is unimpressive, to be honest.

The underwhelming nose makes the taste all the more remarkable, for it it is packed with dried fruit such as fig and raisin, molasses, chocolate, toffee, and some light roasted coffee. The taste and texture do not speak out American Barleywine to me, but rather English with the malt driven taste, the smooth texture, and the toned-down hops. American Barleywine, to me, stands out as a much more hop-forward take on the style, and Discombobulation is malt-dominated. This is not a bad thing, for it is delicious, the very high ABV (13%) is scarcely present, and it is a very enjoyable beverage. But this is much more English than American.

Shoreline has certainly impressed me with their place and their wares. Good food and quite good beer, and I will be sure to return to Shoreline when visiting family nearby. Good beer, well worth trying.

Serving type: on-tap

12-19-2011 02:41:19 | More by Gehrig

GrindFatherBob

New York

5/5  rDev +25.9%

11-26-2011 16:38:05 | More by GrindFatherBob

DavoleBomb

Ohio

4.1/5  rDev +3.3%
look: 3 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.5

Poured into a snifter. 2007 vintage. Big thanks to Rempo who sent this ages ago.

3.0 A: Opaque purplish black color. Just a tiny, tiny frothy beige head despite an aggressive pour. I'll give this a bit of a break since it's four years old, but there still should be more carbonation in this.

4.0 S: Nice nose on this. The bourbon is leathery and earthy with hints of peat. There's hints of astringency among the oak and vanilla. The barleywine gives lots of plum and prune and caramel and toffee to a much lesser extent. Molasses and brown sugar. This is almost unique in how earthy it is. Booze is nonexistent. A touch of oxidation, but just a touch.

4.0 T: A lot more caramel and toffee than the nose suggests. Plum, prune, and black currant fruitiness. Molasses, brown sugar, roastiness. Leather, peat, and earth from the bourbon. Good amounts of vanilla and oak. There's a bit of booziness in here, but not nearly as hot as I'd expect a 13% brew to be. A touch of chocolate and even a light vinous note. Sweet overall. Interesting and not bad.

4.5 M: Heavier body. Surpringly, there is enough carbonation in this. In fact, it's an ideal amount. Creamy without being chewy. Good here.

4.5 D: A couple categories could have been a half point higher, so a 4.5 here. This is both sweet and earthy, which apparently works fairly well in a barrel aged barleywine. Solid all around. Easily the best of what I've had of the series so far.

Serving type: bottle

09-24-2011 03:27:22 | More by DavoleBomb

jale

Michigan

1.85/5  rDev -53.4%
look: 4 | smell: 3 | taste: 1 | feel: 3 | overall: 1.5

Had on tap at the brewery.

A: Pours a light brown/copper with two quarters of tan head.

S: Light roasted malt.

T: Sweet malt upfront moving quickly into big hop bitterness. I get zero bourbon taste in this beer. The sweet and bitter in this beer clash so bad, it is not drinkable. The sweetness in this tastes like table sugar added before kegging.

M: Medium body with average carbonation.

O: Two ounces is more then I could stomach and at 3.50 for 5 ounces it is absurd. This place is 2 for 2 on horrible beers.

Serving type: on-tap

09-20-2011 00:52:17 | More by jale

Urbancaver

Ohio

3.88/5  rDev -2.3%
look: 4 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 4 | overall: 4

Another shared by Chris...
Pours a surprisingly dark brown. Lots of reddish hues. Getting dark at this point so the colour is less definable but still pretty. Lots of tan head. Smells malty and vanilla heavy. Lots of sweetness and not much hops on the nose. 2008 vintage so I suppose the hops will likely have disappeared. Tastes like a dark malty english barleywine. The barrel is strong but not overpowering> Vanilla, Oak, but something is a bit odd. Overall well carbonated and enjoyable

Serving type: bottle

09-18-2011 15:18:14 | More by Urbancaver

CrellMoset

Virginia

4/5  rDev +0.8%
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4

750 mL red waxed bottle courtesy of pittsburghkid66 - thanks! Poured in to a 22 oz. snifter. 2007 vintage.

Appearance: Pours a rusty, mahogany hued body, filtered and transparent when held to extreme light, but opaque enough when full by virtue of the depth of its color. An intense pour yields a very slow rising head, with millions of fast furious bubbles rising slowly like cola bubbles towards an equally fast fading head. An equilibrium is achieved at first, but for no more than sixty seconds - creation, destruction, rising, falling, cresting, breaking, until after thirty or so seconds it calms, still, relaxed. There's very little side lacing of which to speak, nor is there much of a lacing presence on the surface, though that's to be expected - 13% abv definitely leaves a path of destruction in its wake.

Aroma: Hot and a little harsh in the nose, in a spicy, chemical-y way at points. It seems to hit a particularly nasty point midway between chilled and room temperature, which is nice in a way (all things must pass), though the esters and wafts of alcohol notes are present at most points during the experience. Perhaps this beer's weakest aspect, though honestly not all that terrible given the age and abv%, this one showcases an interesting array of dark malt notes (mostly smack in the middle of the spectrum), a few fruity notes (apricots, prunes, and cherries), faint oxidation, tons of vanilla, and a few wafts of bourbon.

Taste: Toffee ahoy. A huge, fat toffeebomb, this one's definitely mellowed out in to a fantastic malty treat. It's still fairly sweet, with the sweetness perhaps intensified relatively vis a vis the faded hops, though there's plenty of crisp, attenuated, toasty dryness. From caramel and honey to the aforementioned fat toffee to hints of butterscotch (diacetyl is beginning to sneak through around the edges on this one, fairly intensely at points, and particularly as it warms) to toast and faint cocoa, just at the tips, really. It's thick and creamy, intensifying the malts excellently. Thick tropical fruits mingle with the free sugars nicely, pineapple and stone fruits, cherries and raisins. One of the most intense flavors around is vanilla, courtesy of the barrels. It far outshines (at least, relative to what you normally get) the bourbon, itself spicy, only faintly warm, and very earthy, as well as a few hints of coconut and oak. The hops interplay well with the fruit notes, adding a little bit of levity to the dark/stone fruit presence, though there isn't much here in the way of bitterness.

Mouthfeel: A thick, fat, flat(-ish) beer with a slick, oily kick to it that makes for something that's a little slippery, but that slides down easy despite its heavy, borderline-cloying nature. The carbonation on this one is subtle - it seems to explode early, as noted above - and I'm sure at one point it was more intense than this. That being said, it's not terrible now, and the oilyness and the slickness does a lot to prevent it from being syrupy.

Drinkability: A mixed bag, this one. It's not so much about the bourbon at this point - even as it warms, the bourbon is only, maybe, 10% of the flavor/aroma components here. There are a ton of barrel notes wafting around, particularly vanilla, though this one really does taste like it might have at one point been a strong, feisty, bourbon-y, hoppy barleywine ... and is now just a malty, faded, oak bomb. That's not a bad thing (plenty of people like their malty oak bombs), but it is something to note going in to it. The 13% isn't hidden, and that is here more of a negative than it is in other 13% beers of this heft - that is, the 13% comes across as boozy, chemically, abrasive, though not hot. Some people like bourbon in their barleywines/RISs (count me as one of 'em) - this one had very little of that presence, and a lot of what I wasn't after. All that being said, it was good to see this one holding up after nearly four years of cellar treatment, and I think what was here a year or two ago would have been excellent. Crack 'em now if you got 'em - they ain't on the incline.

Serving type: bottle

03-11-2011 06:37:04 | More by CrellMoset

srandycarter

California

3.95/5  rDev -0.5%
look: 4 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 3.5

A - Slightly browner than cola, but pretty close. Thin light tan head, leaves to ring. Some cling lace near surface.

S - Booze is prevalent, followed by pregnant, cooked, sweet dark fruits. Huge nose.

T - Brown sugar and hard alcohol mixed with cooked fruits. Aggressive. So far so good.

M - Not terribly balanced. Huge sways of booze and sweetness. Hot sticky mess comes to mind, but in a fairly good way.

D - How am I going to even finish this one? Big ABV and way over the top flavors makes drinkability low for this one.

Serving type: bottle

03-03-2011 03:55:37 | More by srandycarter

JohnGalt1

Idaho

3.4/5  rDev -14.4%
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 3 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 3.5

Another Footbalm brew.. Eric always throws down.. this one was very unexpected... Thanks Eric!!

Pours deep amber with a healthy off white head.. good retention and lacing.

Nose shows thick caramel and vanilla.. the bourbon is not really present as a whole, but scattered among the traditional BW aromas.. boozy, but not that bad.

Flavor is a big barrel presence with good caramel and more than a little oxidation.... some lite cardboard has snuck into the mix.. the hops are gone and left behind are shards of vanilla candy and oaky remnants.

Expected thick body.... carbonation seems a tad light.. Too bad.. this bottle shows all the bones of a great barleywine, but age grabbed it too soon.

Cool Eric.. nice bottle, but just not for me I guess... I bet this was fantastic fresh.

4/4/3/3.5/3.5

Serving type: bottle

02-20-2011 07:49:12 | More by JohnGalt1

lightindarkness

Indiana

4.15/5  rDev +4.5%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4 | overall: 3.5

black waxed 750mL bottle, 2008.

Hard pour yields a strong ivory cascading head over deep coppery amber body. Nose of earthy bourbon notes, some dark soft fruits and green wood. Pear and brown sugar.

Taste is initially soft and delicate with pear and light grains, but quickly intensifies into hot bourbon notes over strong barleywine flavors of tightly packed warm grain. Nice mix of depth and up-front flavors. Moments of sweet mixed with bitterness and a deep richness under it all. Bitter bite and hot on alcohol, but quite tasty.

Full and round on the palate, not quite syrupy, but definitely sticks. Overall very very tasty and well worth the try.

Serving type: bottle

01-28-2011 21:52:46 | More by lightindarkness