For Tallboy & Moose’s fifth birthday, they went big. Really big in fact, with the Melbourne brewpub making a 20 percent ABV eisbock that spent five months in tank and was freeze-distilled five times before releasing it at the tailend end of 2021. But Birthday Suit’s tale wasn’t to end there, with Tallboy quietly putting some aside and aging it in a whisky barrel from Kinglake Distillery. Clearly, it was one wet barrel too, with Barrel Aged Birthday Suit sitting at 30 percent ABV, which feels like it’s so big that it's crossed the Rubicon and now sits in fortified wine or liqueur territory.
Given the substantial booze jump, that time in barrel has unsurprisingly left its mark on the beer. Impressively, there isn’t really any spiritous heat on display, with the whisky instead coming across like a booze-filled dessert, with sticky date pudding, figs and whisky-soaked raisins all a part of the party. It means that it's not just in the ABV department that this barrel-aged eisbock resembles a fortified wine but in almost every other regard too. It's incredibly rich and smooth and as the big beast warms up, there are further hits of treacle, burnt brown sugar and spiced berry that all leap forward.
If you'd like to sample both Birthday Suits, you can grab a special pack of the siblings from Tallboy & Moose's webstore.
Will Ziebell
Published July 19, 2022 2022-07-19 00:00:00
