Salt Flats Barrel-aged Single Bock and Uinta/Beehive Jack Rabbit Gin-Barrel Aged Saison
Two very different beers showcased through casks
By Mike Riedel @utahbeer
Salt Flats Open Road Series – Barrel-aged Single Bock: This is the first beer in Salt Flat's new Open Road Series of beers. It's a traditional bock bier, aged in Salt Flat's own Bonneville Bourbon barrels.
It pours a nice, cloudy medium-brown; a honey color trickled in and out of the appearance. The aroma was very interesting—lots of bourbon here, which is never a bad thing, and hints of oak. You also get alight caramel touch to it, and lots of malted grains—a rather interesting, and very complex mixture of aromas, almost (but not completely) obscuring the initial style.
The flavor followed along very nicely. Some nice light caramel in the main body as well as a touch of light fruit and a bit of vanilla. The bourbon barrels are very well defined and not too hot. The 8.7 percent ABV is definitely there. The finish was loaded down with oaken and earthy malts and a ton of bourbon, leaving you with that long, lingering bourbon flavor in the back. Medium-bodied with appropriate softer carbonation, this was good—I had no issue finishing off the can, as it was easily drinkable.
Verdict: A tasty barrel-aged lager, and a great debut for this new series. The malt character is a bit tamer than that of a barleywine, which creates more drinkability while remaining complex. Well worth checking out; it would make an excellent Easter beer.
Uinta/Beehive - Jack Rabbit Gin-Barrel Aged Saison: This beer originally debuted in fall of 2016, but it's undergone a few changes in the seven years since then. Gone is the 750ml corked and caged bottles, in favor of 16-ounce cans; the ABV has been dialed back to a more approachable 7.0 percent instead of its potent 9.3 percent. It still features Beehive Distilling Company's locally-made barrel-aged gin.
Objectively, this is a nice beer—a real clean smelling saison with a simple French saison yeast profile, or something similar, and no rustic, farmy, funky or wild character whatsoever. It's also a little sweet, almost like a Belgian tripel with the esters, the malt sugar and seemingly an added sugar source too, like a rock candy or something. In short, it's not as saison-esque as some may like it to be.
Fortunately, the gin barrel element, the aspect that sold me this one in the first place, is killer here. Yeah, there's juniper, but also some citrus peel notes, medicinal sage and even some vanilla from the oak. I think the base beer is well suited to handle the botanicals, the wood and the booze, as the whole is better than the sum of its parts here. The esters of the yeast do make sense with the gin, adding some useful complexity.
The gin isn't super-pungent here, so less grain sugar would make it pop a bit more, I think. Even though this isn't as weird and strongly-flavored as it was in previous incarnations, I think it's a cool beer—obviously high quality from Uinta, and relatively unique still in terms of the taste overall. I'm not sure I would pay $12 (or whatever this cost seven years ago) for it, but it was a fun one to have next to some gin cocktails.
Verdict: This was way more dramatic on the gin the second time around, fresh and peppy and really dynamic. The base saison is still clean, and the barrel character seems really ramped-up. Obviously, this changes from batch to batch at least a little bit, but I was stoked to hear of its return.
Seek these offerings out at their respective breweries. Lucky for you, they're practically right next to each other. As always, cheers!
About The Author
Mike Riedel
Local boy and pilot of City Weekly’s best gig, The Beer Nerd column since 2017. Current photojournalist at KSTU TV (Fox 13) and host of the Utah Beer Blog and Beer Nerd Radio on KUAA 99.9 FM radio.
More by Mike Riedel
-
Beer reviews: Epic Small Batch Series (Pineapple Express) and Offset Just Me (Mt. Hood)
A tried-and-true brew or a blast of the new
- Feb 12, 2025
-
2 Row House Party and Fisher Longevity Light Lager
Two opposites that are part of the same family.
- Feb 5, 2025
-
Kiitos Brewing Fonio Beer
The West African ancient grain brings something completely different to the brewing world
- Jan 29, 2025
- More »
Latest in Drink
