About 3 hours Southwest of the Mahoning Valley you’ll find the Elevator Brewery in downtown Columbus. While it is likely you won’t find any of their beers up here in the Valley, it is highly recommended you travel down to the state capital to give this beautiful brewery a visit. Or, if the bar scene is not your bag, find any one of their 6-pack selections at a carryout anywhere across the city.
Particularly now is a great time to visit, when Elevator has their winter seasonal available for consumption, the Horny Goat.
The Goat follows along with a major trend with craft beers recently, beer aged in bourbon oak barrels. In Elevator’s case, this is their third year aging their brown porter in the barrels.
As expected the bourbon presence comes to the forefront as soon as the bottle is opened while hints of vanilla swirl in and out of the aroma.
The beer pours a nice dark brown. About a ¼ inch creamy head develops and stays largely intact with each sip, although there is little to no lacing to accompany the head as the beer settles from each swallow.
Other than the bourbon, this porter tastes rather sweet, along the lines of a chocolate beer. There is also a roasted presence to the brew, making it a pretty well balanced beer.
This bourbon infused beer does not have as pronounced a whiskey taste as the Kentucky Bourbon Barrel Ale the Youngstown Craft Beer Examiner reviewed last year. Of course different beers were used, the porter seems to have more of a complex taste than the ale. That said, just a little more bourbon presence would have been welcome.
Otherwise, this is a fine example of this trend, and one of the few available in bottles here in Ohio.
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