Review: Oxbow Barrel Aged Farmhouse Pale Ale

I may be a beer geek but I'm not familiar with Oxbow Brewing out of Newcastle & Portland, Maine, but when I saw their beer available at Quality Beer Store, their Barrel Aged Farmhouse Pale Ale called my name - I had to buy it! I love Saisons/Farmhouse Ales and being someone who hasn't had a Barrel-aged beer in a while.. oh, I could go for this right now!

This Barrel Aged Farmhouse Pale Ale was bottled in August 2018 and had a production time of 14 months. 6.5% ABV

From the website: Barrel-Aged Farmhouse Pale Ale (BAFPA) is an American-hopped mixed-fermentation saison aged in oak barrels. It is produced by blending varying vintages of our flagship farmhouse ale that have been resting in French and American oak barrels.

Appearance: Well, this is not quite a gusher of a beer but it's definitely quite over-carbonated with a good deal of foam sneaking out of the bottle. The beer's body is a bright golden straw with a lot of cloudiness to it, you can see some light through the beer but that's about it. While I did see that it was quite a bit carbonated, the head doesn't have too much carbonation as it has a half finger thickness of off-white appearance to it, and the head doesn't really diminish at all as the beer warms up, but as it slowly get savoured, it does leave behind a light amount of lacing.

Aroma: This beer has a moderately tart presence of it that's reminiscent to a hint of red wine. There's a bit of what people would call "barnyard funk" (my dad was in a barnyard all of yesterday, manure isn't something you smell in a beer, thankfully), a hint of woodiness, notes of lemon, pear/apple, oak and a bit of a soapiness at the end.

Taste: This is a very tart/sour Farmhouse Ale to the point that I can actually feel the tingling of the beer all the way up to my nostrils.. weird, huh? One of the first things that I get is that it's very dry and carbonated for the mouthfeel. Now back to the taste, it's got a got a good deal of barnyard funkiness to it - some wood, grain, a bit of a bitterness from the hops. There's a good deal of oakiness in here, notes of lemon. There's a bit of apple and pear in there, a grassy hop presence and a slight hint of bubble gum. There's a weird lingering aftertaste (a bit like a sparkling wine but with a bitterness) that I just can't describe but it's kind of making me feel a bit nauseous.. but aside from that I'm enjoying it.

Overall Thoughts: The aftertaste is really weirding me out but I don't mind this beer otherwise. It's quite carbonated, has notes of pear and apple, a good amount of tartness through each sip and a bit of a barnyard funkiness to it.

https://oxbowbeer.com/beer/barrel-aged-farmhouse-pale-ale/