Bourbon County Bramble Rye

Immediately after winning big at Lake Ronkonkoma Beverage's Beer Raffle, Tom and I picked up a couple of burgers at Wendy's and headed back to my place to try some of our newly acquired beer. I won a bottle of Bourbon County Brand Stout's Bramble Rye and we were both very curious to see how it compared to the regular Bourbon County Brand Stout and Coffee Brand Stout.

Bramble Rye, as its name implies, is aged in rye whiskey barrels and brewed with raspberries and blackberries added. It's classified as an Imperial Stout and American Double and is 12.7% ABV. We cracked open the bottle and were immediately overwhelmed with a huge raspberry and blackberry smell.

Poured into my two Ommegang goblets, Bramble Rye had virtually no head to speak of.

  
Not knowing what to expect, we each took a sip of our beers. Now I wish I recorded a video of this, but I didn't so I'll recall what happened to the best of my ability. Tom's facial expression went from overjoyed and ecstatic, to really weirded out and completely disgusted in a matter of seconds. I'm going to be completely honest with you here; Bramble Rye is the result of a beer experiment that went...wait for it...awry. I feel like the wonderful people over at Bourbon County Brewing were feeling extra inventive the day they came up with Bramble Rye; unfortunately the combination of flavors doesn't really work. Rye and berries? No thanks.

Tom and I continued drinking the Bramble Rye even though it made us cringe with every sip. Even right now I have the goblet with some of Tom's leftover Bramble Rye in it and the smell is making me want to gag. Tom also told me that he almost threw up in the middle of the night after drinking it.

So there you have it folks; a beer I actually don't like. It definitely was an experience trying it, but I think it's safe to say that I will never spend money on this beer ever again, or drink it for that matter. Stay away from Bourbon County Bramble Rye; it's just not good.