Vault City: Low Key: A Walking Study In Demonology (Scotland: Barley Wine: 12.4% ABV)
Visual: Very dark brown body. Medium sized bubbly head that doesn’t last long. Still body after that.
Nose: Blood orange and orange cream. Thick American style pancakes. Soft lemon. Burnt brown sugar. Fig rolls. Plums. Vanilla cake sponge.
Body: Creamy, condensed cream. Sweet. Blood orange. Yuzu fruit. Caramel. Liquorice touch. Toffee. Brown sugar.
Finish: Yuzu fruit. Blood orange. Danish pastries. Lemon juice. Crème brûlée . Caramel. Light tannins. Paprika. Chocolate coffee. Cognac.
Conclusion: This is so creamy, something I don’t like in more hop forward beers, but is freaking perfect for this style of barley wine. It has so many sweet flavours yet does not feel dominated by them. There is more emphasis on the fairly fresh and natural feeling fruity character over a super artificial, creamy, American pancake like stodgy base.
Which is not a thing I knew I needed in a beer, but here I am, having bought 5 cans of this over the past month or so and I’m finally doing notes.
Barley wines are almost always heavily sweet, and tend to have a boozy edge, but here the creaminess soothes the rough edges, but still leaves a welcome warming warning of the booziness. The fresh orange, yuzu and lemon notes also helps sooth the sweeter dessert notes while also making them sparkle, the fresher character means that they don’t seem too heavy. There’s even a well done touch of liquorice, which is something I rarely say, but is used well here to just ground the beer when needed.
The, I presume, tonka seem to give such a weight and grip to the flavor – I mean I have never tried tonka beans, this is just based on experience of things that use it. It is big but again that delicious blood orange led citrus freshness work so well against it to keep it from being too heavy, and mixes with it to create orange crème like notes. While the label references maple pancakes and the other ton of ingredients, this doesn’t feel dessert led – there are tannin like notes, dry alcohol and enough other elements that say “This is a beer first”and all those elements just add massively to it while keeping the barley wine base and keeps returning to that as its touch stone.
A fantastic mix of beer and special ingredients, almost as good as the song it references in its name.
Background: A Vault City collaboration with Low Key! I had no idea who Low Key was, sure I have heard the name before but must have forgot, anyway, looks like it is a tap room. Fair enough. Now I know. This is a **deep breath** Blood Orange and Tonka Maple Pancake Stack Barley Wine. Yes I know I sometimes complain about the about of dessert beers out there, leave me alone, I’m allowed to enjoy them some times. So, because of the beers name I went with Hole: Celebrity Skin for backing music. On that note the can says “Hey, so glad you could make it! Our latest Low Key collab is perfect for fans of modern barleywine and obscure 90’s grunge references. “ I was not in the right mindset to find out Hole’s seminal album is now considered obscure. I feel old. Anyway, a beer grabbed from Independent Spirit. Several time in fact, I have now finally pulled my thumb out and done notes on it.