Barley John’s Brewpub in New Brighton just minutes outside of Minneapolis offers awesome beers and food. With the return of casks on Wednesdays, a number of great new brews have popped up. This most recent cask beer took their awesome year-round Old 8 Porter and added cocoa to the cask. Normally there is plenty of wonderful roastiness, chocolate, and coffee in both the aroma and flavor but the addition of cocoa added a nice extra hit of chocolate to this favorite. Cocoa Old 8 Porter pours nicely from the cask via gravity pour and leaves a nice frothy bubbly light-brown head. The foam didn’t stick around as long as it normally does on tap, likely due to the additional oils of the cocoa killing head-retention but that just meant it was even easier to get the brew straight to your mouth. The cask pours extra smooth thanks to a lower carbonation level than the normal brew and allows many of the flavors to really come through a bit more than normal. The aroma has nice notes of chocolate and light coffee with the cocoa adding a bit to the chocolate hints. Smooth and light milk chocolate. Light coffee and a light and balanced roastiness with just a hint of roasty bitterness. A very nice addition to the Old 8 Porter.
Wednesday casks offer fun new version of Barley John’s normal brews along with their seasonals beers. With spring coming and their great patio opening at that time, you need to plan a time to drop in for a Wednesday cask offering and checkout the great things they’re brewing at Barley Johns. Drop in soon.
