Try?
Remember Crazy Eddie? His prices were insane. Ever heard of Weyerbacher? Their beer is equally loopy. OK, if you don’t know what I’m talking about, then let me clue you in: Crazy Eddie was a discount electronics retailer in the New York and New Jersey areas in the seventies through nineties. Crazy Eddie himself spent time in prison for securities fraud (I think) and his company went bankrupt. His commercials, which I used to see on New York’s channel 11 on cable, were often kind of funny, though.
Anyway, Weyerbacher Brewing is not from New York (rather, Easton, PA), and I don’t expect them to go bankrupt or have the SEC bear down on them anytime soon. Still, I can’t help but think of Crazy Eddie’s when I come across Weyerbacher Insanity. Maybe my flashback will make sense to you, or at least amuse you. Now I’ll return you to our regularly scheduled beer review, already in progress.
Weyerbacher Insanity is really the delightful Weyerbacher Blithering Idiot Barleywine aged in bourbon barrels. This is a formidable beer indeed at 11.1% alcohol by volume, perfect for gentle sipping as you while the evening away. Insanity is a seasonal release, for 2012 it hit store shelves in February. My bottle is actually older, as I bought it in 2010 and sat on it for a few years. Needless to say, this is a beer that you can easily age to good effect. My bottle did have some protein sediment, but was none the worse for that wear.
Weyerbacher Insanity pours to a dark murky chestnut color with a very minimal head formation and a powerful whisky and oak nose. The beer has a big luxuriant mouthfeel as I gently pull at it, and I loll the liquid around my tongue to enjoy the hearty texture. A big caramel presence up front is quickly followed by strong vanilla notes, toasty oak, raisin, mincemeat pie, soft cherry fruit, prune, spice cake, and rum.
In the finish, there’s a formidable alcohol note and warmth, and more of that whisky aroma. As the beer warms the barleywine notes of the Blithering Idiot base beer start to take over and the oak aging notes become less apparent, although they are still there, especially the vanilla. As I said, this is definitely a beer to savor slowly, a wonderful beer that packs an amazing amount of complex flavor in each sip.
Highly recommended, I can’t find my receipt or recall how much I paid but I suspect somewhere in the $8 to $10 range. Well worth that price range, I think.
And remember, try a new beer today, and drink outside the box.
*Pricing data accurate at time of review or latest update. For reference only, based on actual price paid by reviewer.
(B)=Bottled
(D)=Draft
(G)=Growler
