Driftwood Brewery Old Cellar Dweller 2011 was another fine gift from my beer exchange with British Columbian beer fan Leapbeer.
Old Cellar Dweller is a barleywine style ale, and thus a style that can handle and even improves with some bottle age. This bottle was from their 2011 Vintage and over 2 years old at the time of consumption. Like the other Driftwood beers I’ve tasted so far, this one is a winner!
Appearance: Cloudy garnet, rich mahogony (The haze cleared up as the beer warmed up, leading me to believe there’s a bit of protein chill haze going on. No big deal, just a sign of an unfiltered beer), tan head, good retention.
Aroma: Toffee, sherry, nutty notes, touch of smoke, leather tobacco.
Taste: Alcoholic warmth, round, nutty, leather, tobacco
Overall Impression: This beer still tasted pretty fresh and clearly had some more aging in it. Driftwood is really doing something right up there in Victoria. The beers I’ve tried so far have been consistently very good! This one is no exception.
Availability: Victoria, BC; British Columbia; and Seattle, WA.
11.8% ABV
You can read more of my Driftwood Brewery reviews on my page dedicated to the brewery.
6 thoughts on “Driftwood Brewery Old Cellar Dweller 2011”
I have tried two different vintages of this beer so for and it had been awesome at all ages. I even recently had a 2012 edition in cask. Amazing!
Funny story, you’ll notice the driftwood beers (singularity and OCD/OBD) to be labelled up to or at 12%. However when they are sold in Washington they have a 14% tag. In BC they can’t sell it as ‘beer’ if it is over 12%, so even though it’s a higher test they still label it at 11.8 or 12%.
Beerthirst had to get special permission from the Liquor board to bring up The Bruery Bois, since it’s a 15% behemoth.
Ya the Bois was almost destroyed. I still find it hard to get my head around how we have both brewdog Tokyo 18.8% and Mikkeler Black 17+%.
Glad you found this one. The 2012 one was not as good, in my humble opinion. It was called Old Barrel Dweller and was basically the same barley wine aged in bourbon barrels. It seemed like everyone was doing that last year, I really didn’t get it!
You must have missed it. They did two versions last year. The regular and a barrel aged version. The barrel aged was not as good young but has potential.
No, I saw it too. But I felt the cellar 2012 would likely be the same as the previous years. Was it any different, better or worse?