552. Taxman Brewing Co. (Bargersville, IN) - Evasion

“A small-batch variant of 2018 Evasion conditioned in rum barrels with cold-press coffee from Tinker Coffee Co.”

This was a gift from my buddy Shane, who got it from one of his buddies; and since Shane had already tried it, he was kind enough to pass this one along to me, with the caveat that it had obviously been sitting around for at least five years. I don’t know much about cellaring beer, so I’m not sure how its age is affecting the taste—but it doesn’t taste bad or off. It has more of a coffee mouthfeel than a coffee flavor, and I suspect that the rum flavor from the barrels may have faded. (It certainly doesn’t taste strongly of rum the way that Wooden Cask’s RedRum does.) It also doesn’t taste as strongly of alcohol as I would have expected for something that clocks in at 13% ABV. (I do, however, feel that high ABV kicking in as I get toward the end of it.) All told, not bad—but almost certainly not what it would have been when it was freshly tapped.