Day #3 of 365 Days of Beer - Cold Spring Brewery's John Henry 3 Lick Spiker Ale

Day #3 of 365 Days of Beer

Beer Name - Cold Spring Brewery's John Henry 3 Lick Spiker Ale (Cold Spring, MN)

Serving Type - 12 Oz Bottle served in a pint glass

Style - American Strong Ale (aged in oak bourbon barrels)

Availability - Rotating

This is my first beer of the year that is aged in Oak. For the record, I love just about any beer aged in Oak, the more Oak the better. The pour on this is very very dark allowing no light through the glass. There is about a half inch dark tan head that quickly dissipates ... and I mean quickly .. and leaves a thin line of foam seen in the picture above. The head does however leaves a nice white lacing on the glass.

This beer is listed as an American strong ale but it sure does smell like a porter. The aroma is heavy on the oak, with some chocolate and some malts.

The flavor on this is very nice. Hints of bourbon, molasses, oak with a mild bitter aftertaste. Very smooth and light body ... really wasn't expecting that for how dark this beer is.

Final Thoughts - I was pretty impressed with this beer. Probably because I'm a huge porter fan and to me this was more of a porter than a strong ale. The drinkability of this is really good from a flavor standpoint .... but like the Mad Elf yesterday ... from an alcohol standpoint it's not a good idea to have a lot of this (it runs at 9.1% ABV). For my first ever sampling from Cold Spring Brewery I'll say again I'm impressed. I'm hoping to get a chance to try a few more of their offerings to see if they match up to this one.