Brewery – Quaff Brothers/ Mt. Carmel
Beer – Wee Honey
Style – Barrel Aged Scottish Ale With Honey
ABV – 11.1%
Wee Honey is a smooth 11.1% brew, a barrel aged Scottish strong ale with honey and pecans brewed at Mt. Carmel Brewing Company in collaboration with Quaff Bros.
If you live in Cincinnati and aren’t aware of Quaff Brothers, you’re really missing out on something spectacular. The collaborative effort is not really a brewery, but a mindset. They team up around town with various breweries to produce some of the most sought after and tastiest barrel aged offerings that this city has seen to date.
The first place they ever worked with was Mt. Carmel, who they’ve again teamed up with for this beer.
Wee Honey starts it’s life off as a big Scottish Ale… a malty, smooth beer that only improves as it meets the wood for the first time… and the barrels? Holy smokes… they don’t mess around with the barrels that get used to craft this. They used a variety of bourbon barrels from:
- Buffalo Trace
- Jim Beam
- Four Roses
- Jefferson
The beer then slumbered away before getting the blend that we now get in our bottles.
My Thoughts on Quaff Brothers Wee Honey
Aromas immediately kick of with a caramel and honey sweetness. It’s backed up by a woody aroma that goes with it all perfectly. I could waste hours of my day, spent with my nose in this glass.
The taste is big, and bold. The honey never lets up, but is met by a lot of vanilla and oak wood bite that helps round it all out. It’s all wrapped in a big, full bodied and sweet mouthfeel that sits really well with me this time of year. You can sip on this beer for a long time as the weather cools down.
I’m extremely curious, though, as to what happens with this in the cellar for some time. Rest assured that I have some of it stashed away… I’ll make sure to update you on my cellaring experiences with it as time goes on!
