You can tell 3 Ravens head brewer Adrian McNulty is being given free rein in the brewery these days. The man has musical tastes of a particularly dark, intense and heavy shade of black and the creation of beers such as Black Mass ' a whisky barrel-aged chipotle and vanilla porter ' and now this Pedro Ximenez barrel-aged Belgian strong dark ale named Druid would seem to reflect brew days soundtracked by intense aural assaults. Having enjoyed the Druid on tap and from the bottle, we feel that maybe more brewers could experiment with drowning themselves in waves of intestine-rumbling drone. The brewery originally obtained the Pedro Ximenez barrels on loan and decided to try and create a beer that reflected the drink that once inhabited them. They brewed a Belgian quadrupel, filled four barrels, left them a while, then blended all four back together before kegging and bottling. The result is a wonderfully complex beer, awash with sweet, fortified wine aromas, stewed fruits, soft, creamy chocolate malts, hints of oak and much more besides. The only downside is that the barrels have now been returned from whence they came so the beer may never be repeated.
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