Thanks to SB 424, Oklahoma breweries have embraced the crap out of on-prem sales, and it’s awesome. The downside? Lines.
God I hate lines.
Anyways, a bunch of craft beer nerds headed down to Krebs a while back to camp out for two brewery-only Prairie releases, Okie Paradise and Bromance. Okie Paradise is a blend of, you guessed it, Okie and Paradise, while Bromance is an Imperial Brown aged in Whiskey barrels.
Both of these releases were very limited and are getting great feedback, so let’s see how this Bromance is!
Company: Prairie Artisan Ales
Location: Krebs, OK
ABV: 12% ABV
Style/Description: Imperial Brown Ale Aged in Whiskey Barrels
Price: $12 per 12oz bottle
Appearance: Pours a deep translucent caramel with a light, fizzy off-white head which quickly dissipates.
Nose: Incredibly boozy with loads of brown sugar, caramel, and a hint of prune juice which I’m digging. I can already tell this stuff is going to be sticky sweet with all the dried fruits.
Taste: Oh lord the booze. This stuff is sticky sweet like the brown sugar simple syrup Kate makes for our cocktails. Behind the sweetness are dried fruits like dates and prunes with some vanilla vibes from the whiskey barrels and a slight hint of dry oak in the back.
Finish: The sweetness falls off pretty quickly and the oak creeps in a bit more and really shows off that 2 years of barrel time. Those dates and prunes linger as does the vanilla. Eventually the booziness comes back big and strong with a faint ethanol characteristic which is the finishing note.
Overall: Holy shit this stuff is sweet and boozy. 2 years in the barrel really did a number on that base. While the barrel presence is there, this stuff aims for your sweet tooth and doesn’t let up. While I feel like Prairie would have been better served to let this hang out for a shorter time in the barrel for a fall/winter release, I still dig it (since I tend to like the sweet beers) but late March probably isn’t the best time to knock one back. Also, Kate didn’t help much with the bottle so I had to sip that syrup pretty much by myself.
Rating: 3.5/5