Beer Review - Barrel Aged Cognac Porter

 

The 2025 Festival of the Arts at Epcot has a barrel aged dark beer….let me run as fast as I can before this festival screams to an end so I can be somewhat confused! Disney, you’re making me think too hard!

At the 2025 festival, a new booth was offered in “Fictional Victuals” which is described as “Novel Dishes Inspired by Beloved Books.” Let’s be honest, theme park adults, we love some themed food, regardless if it’s Avatar, Star Wars, Harry Potter, Minions and more. This should be a hit. But why can’t them tell us what’s inspiring the dishes. Some non-Disney descriptions list 20,000 Leagues Under the Seas as inspiring something there. But is it the Squid or Octopus or both? Is Cognac a favorite of Captain Nemo? Hey are the kids reading Jules Verne today, and is this really a happening booth. I’ll argue there is plenty of food I’d like to try to from Disney stories. I just don’t get this booth. I mean wink wink nudge nudge, the butterscotch milk shake if inspired by books feels like it should be over at Universal!

Oh yeah, the barrel aged dark beer! Let’s run to that!

Barrel Aged Cognac Porter

"Barrel Aged Cognac Porter” by 3 Daughters Brewing is giving us the festival barrel aged beer, The taste is very malt forward, providing us a dark bread, rich and malty flavor. But there is also a slight sweet tang from the barrel, which is very different than the caramel or chocolate sweetness I get from many bourbon barrel aged stouts and porters. Honestly, I think I have had cognac once, and the internet tells me that cognac flavors can be all over the place so I don’t think the sweet tang is against the brewery goals for this 0 IBU dark liquid treat from Saint Pete!

I’m still lost,on why cognac and why butterscotch at this booth! But let’s not question and just drink!

Who Drinks This? Barrel beer fans will want to give this a try, even if it’s just once. It’s good to try out the different things wood and the homes of former spirits can do to a brew. I found it interesting, but not really enough for a second pour. The nice thing about an Epcot festival is you can try and play, and this is what 3 Daughters is offering me here, the chance to have some fancy undersea (maybe) fun?

Brewery Review - Zymarium Meadery

Zymarium Meadery

Let’s drink like Thor Disney Adults!

It was date day, but I wasn’t fully in a brewery mood. That’s a lie, I am always up for a brewery! Okay, let’s be honest after visiting some fantastic Tampa area breweries the week before…I figured my date would consider non-beer options their first choice. So I got sneaky and went with a Meadery!

Having convinced my companion that we were running to Sideward, I led our longship to Zymarium Meadery.

The first question on my companion’s mind is simply what was mead. It wasn’t a good start for me to say the preferred brew of the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s god of lightning. Mead is an alcoholic beverage that is made by fermenting honey, not grain like beer, and adding other ingredients for flavor. It has been called honey wine, but whenever I watch Thor, our hero is drinking it from big tankards like beer. As the server and the internet explained to me, there are still meads that very much come off like an Ale, which I believe the Norse one’s drink of choice. And there are bubbly ones that are more like wine, which I automatically knew was not my zone. There is also a whole range of dry to sweet, which means a range of flavor profiles could be satisfied.

"Florida Lychee"

My table ordered two very similar items, but with different tasting profiles. My companion ordered “Florida Lychee” a 6.5% ABV mead with zero IBUs. The choice was based almost entirety on the use of Lychee, a household favorite flavor, to flavor the mead. The light yellow liquid was a true sweet sweet lychee bomb, which may not please those who want a drier taste.

"Lychee Mead-Mosa"

I went with the “Lychee Mead-Mosa” which was labeled as being on more of the dry side. It was an 8% ABV, with what I assume was no IBUs, but it’s also Untapped unrateble as it was a blend of the “Florida Lychee” with their “Miel de Miel” mead which is the traditional mead that I think the hammer wielder would enjoy. The blend flattened out the sweetness quite a bit, making it more approachable for the non sweet lovers. And I found it delightful, and a great substitute for a fruit-forward ale. It also had a feel that felt more beerish to me than the non-blend which was more wine like in feel.

Feeling Like a Hive?

The taproom is a wide open medium room with seats and booths with a lot of black splashed around the room. The black does make the metal tap handles on the wall pop out. It’s a clean hip vibe that made me feel comfortable. But I will admit, having been to a lot of Midwestern Norse themed breweries, it was different than what I expected.

You don’t want to try mead…well, you must have gotten dragged here then! There are a number of beer, wine, and non-alcoholic options. I was lucky enough to pick up the collaboration beer “City Brewtiful” IPA which was brewed by pretty much every Orlando brewery together and has awesome artwork. I was tempted by a beer/mead collaboration where I could have selected a beer and a mead that Zymarium and Tactical brewed separately to be drank side-by-side.

I will say, I’ve spent some dough on specialty beers before and will do so again. I honestly have a price point in my head that says a good beer can cost this much to take home and a great beer can cost that much. And those prices for me generally all end at $50. But Zymarium had a lot of take-home meads that ran past and laughed at my number, making drinking a taster or pint on-site seem a lot more affordable. Is this what wine costs? It felt like I had entered the land of bourbon and not beer price tags!

Who Drinks Here? Honestly, if you like beer, wine, or spirits, you should give this a try. The menu is extensive enough that I think most tastes can find something to enjoy, much like my small little party did. It’s a nice spot to break up the IPAs in your life as you may visit other nearby venues like GB’s Bottleship or Sideward. I think that everyone, of drinking age, should give this spot a try at least once. Whoever drinks this mead shall have the power of Thor! I mean, who doesn’t want that?