James E. Pepper 1776 Ale Review

By Richard Thomas

Rating: B

Knowing as I do about the problems with sourcing barrels of whiskey that are supposed to be full, I’m never surprised when I hear tales of useless dry and sometimes leaky used barrels from brewers. When an independent bottler buys aged whiskey, it’s not uncommon for a small fraction of the lot to be empty; but in the aftermarket of used barrels, there are hundreds of thousands of the things that aren’t exactly well-looked after dumping.

So one of the pluses for the beers under James E. Pepper’s label is that they are, in fact, under that label. Pepper doesn’t have a brewery (the beer side is from Beltway Brewing Company in Sterling, Virginia), but they supply the barrels for the beer and the beer is under their name. Insofar as barrel quality is concerned, that means they might as well have a vertically integrated operation going on. If you prize the barrel influence in a barrel-aged beer, that ought to matter.

In this instance, the outcome is a solid, tasty, but non-descript barrel-aged brown ale. Unlike with the Pepper 1776 Stout, I don’t think the character of the MGP 95% rye whiskey sang out as much. I could tell it was barrel aged, absolutely; I could tell the barrel was rye whiskey, but I’m not so sure if anyone else could spot the difference. The beer was good brown ale, but nothing spectacular there.

So, yummy, but very much what one would expect: small head, caramel and maltiness plus a little fruitiness and a little earthiness.