Summer 2025 Deep Wood | Revolution Brewing
It’s July and that means Revolution starts with their Deep Wood shenanigans again. Ever since 2019, they’ve released a few Deep Wood beers to get people excited for the lineup. Now it’s part of the lineup. Revolution’s summer Deep Wood drop includes Thundertaker, Strawberry Jacket, XV, and XV Cherry Amburana, the variant of the bunch.
Thundertaker | 16% ABV
This collaboration with Binny’s (an imperial rye stout aged in bourbon barrels) returns for the third time. If my memory serves me, the first one veered too sweet while the second one was just right. Let’s see how this one turns out!
Thundertaker pour black with a finger of head that quickly goes away. Definite legs appear on the side of the glass when swirling it around. Some brown highlights show where the glass meets the beer but otherwise Thundertaker’s dark. Aromas of baking spices, chocolate and vanilla with slight roast and bready notes round things out.
And it delivers on those aromas. Rye species and sweet chocolate permeate the sip. A hint of bitter roast peeks through and some bready character joins in. The bread notes might be coming from the rye and messing my brain up, but hey, whatever works. Things move across the tongue, leaving only some sweet chocolate behind.
While still very enjoyable, the sweetness that lingers kind of stacks up, making drinking more than one can extremely difficult. This lines it up more with the first release of Thundertaker, the one that I remember went really sweet. (The second iteration of Thundertaker leaned away from the sweetness and more into the chocolate and spices.) I was done after one can. Can’t say that about…
Strawberry Jacket | 11.7% ABV
One of the original two summer releases (along with Honey Jacket), Strawberry Jacket returns after a few years off (last release: 2021). Revolution aims for this to be their “summer barleywine” with more emphasis on the fruit than the barleywine.
Strawberry Jacket pours with two fingers of head that actually stays around for a while. It still pours a caramel or brown color with maybe a hint of red. It’s not immediately noticeable. It seems like it looks more muddled or murkier in the glass. Your nose, however, does not have that problem. Jammy strawberry leads the way big time while some caramel and butterscotch show up near the end of the sniff. Possibly a little of chocolate and vanilla from the barrels join up as well.
As soon as it hits your tongue, Strawberry Jacket brings the jammy strawberries. Just a ton. As the beer moves across the tongue, it lessens and some of the caramel comes through. But the strawberries stick around long after the sip and that tartness warrants repeated drinking.
I’m usually very critical of Strawberry Jacket (or any Jacket variant) as it always knocks out the barleywine part of the equation. While that is kind of the case here, the jammy strawberries and unusually high carbonation (for a Revolution barelywine) make the beer easy to drink and one that definitely registers to me as a summer barleywine. Excellent double digit ABV beach beer, a category I didn’t know existed!
Fifteen Year Beer | 13.5% ABV
A sort-of returning beer, Fifteen Year Beer celebrates Revolution’s fifteenth year as a brewery. The can also celebrates that, listing out most if not all of the beers Revolution has released over the years. While Ten Year Beer (their last anniversary beer) featured an English barleywine aged in bourbon and rye whiskey barrels with cherries, Fifteen Year Beer does similar yet different things. It keeps the double barrel aging (only in bourbon barrels though) but makes it a blend of Straight Jacket and Ryeway to Heaven and then adds the cherries.
Fifteen Year Beer pours caramel brown with some red tints to it. A finger of head appears and then disappears. Like Straight Jacket, it has crimson highlights and some legs on it. While there are cherries on it, they are not as prominent as the strawberries on Strawberry Jacket. Cherries are there but are joined equally by the caramel, butterscotch, rye spices, slight chocolate and vanilla from the beer and barrels. Very interesting and complex on the nose.
The sweet cherries of Fifteen Year Beer hit the tongue first, followed by caramel and butterscotch. No alcohol burn makes this one also easy to drink, while a little of the rye spice creeps in adding a bit of complexity to the finish. That whole melange sits on the tongue long after you’re done with it and you just want some more. It helps that all or most of the sweetness comes from the cherries and the blend comes off drier. Outstanding beer, worthy of the fifteen year moniker.
Fifteen Year Beer Cherry Amburana | 13.5% ABV
Could I get away with just saying, “Same as Fifteen Year Beer, but in amburana barrels?” No? Well ok. That’s basically what the first Twenty Ten Variant of the 2025 Deep Wood is. While it is very highly similar, there are some differences.
Those differences come from the amburana, the barrel that typically adds cinnamon or Christmas baking spices to the beer. But it doesn’t change the appearance! So that remains the same as the Fifteen Year Beer. Aromatically, the amburana does indeed add a cinnamon or baking spice nose flavor. This, however, comes at the expense of the cherry aroma. It’s still there but definitely hanging out behind that amburana. The caramel, butterscotch, and any rye things are definitely behind that amburana.
Did you know Fifteen Year Beer Cherry Amburana was aged in amburana barrels? Well if the can telling you and the aroma didn’t get through to you, your tongue will. Remember that sweet cherry note on the Fifteen Year Beer? It’s amburana cinnamon now! Everything on the Fifteen Year Beer now comes second (at best) to the amburana. All hail the amburana! At the very end of the sip some sweet cherry, caramel and rye peeks through but even then there’s still amburana barrel cinnamon/baking spices in the mix.
The big takeaway here is that the amburana really throws the balance of this beer off. It leans way too heavy on those spices and the melody of flavors of the Fifteen Year Beer get thrown completely out of whack. A 12 ounce can of this would be perfect; 19.2 ounces is a little much (rather have the Fifteen Year Beer in that format). Definitely one to share as the the amburana notes get to be a little too much over time.
Personal Preference Rankings
4. Thundertaker
3. Fifteen Year Beer Cherry Amburana
2. Strawberry Jacket
1. Fifteen Year Beer
