Bottle @ home. 2:45am and I’m opening this? Not my most mature decision ever, but fuck it. This stout pours a deep brown/black appearance with a small, yet somewhat lasting, dark brown head. The aroma is pungent even from several feet away. The bourbon in the nose is quite nice without really any boozy notes and plenty of toffee, caramel, and vanilla. There’s also a subtle, yet nice oak element in the aroma along with dark chocolate and more caramel. Really there’s a shitload of caramel in the nose and honestly, there’s a slight spiciness in the nose but really not very much booze at all which is phenomenal. For this, I have to give the aroma a 10. My first taste is loaded with rich toffee and caramel. There’s a big bourbon element but you get all of those delicious, dessert flavors from it rather than the fusel alcohol elements. There’s also tons of vanilla, more toffee, dark chocolate, wood/oak, chocolate cake, and even a touch of fruitiness. You do begin to notice the booze on the finish, smooth as it is. The booze really starts to kick in when the beer nears your esophagus and heads to your stomach. That’s not to say there isn’t some booziness in the flavor, but for 17%, it’s not nearly as strong in the flavor as you may expect. There’s almost a tangy, fruity quality to the aftertaste along with a fair amount of oak. This is a big beer and definitely a sipper, but the booze is contained quite well and there’s plenty of flavors. I thoroughly enjoyed this brew and I think many others will also, but if you didn’t like Avery’s other high abv offerings (The Beast, Mephistopheles, etc), don’t bother. 4.11.2012: 10/4/9/4/18 (4.5)

Round Two, this time at 12:57am. I was very surprised by how much I enjoyed this one the last time around, so I figured I needed to try it again asap. Tons of roasty, dark chocolate malts and caramel in the aroma along with some vanilla and dark fruits and much milder bourbon than my last bottle. This one just isn’t so overpoweringly aromatic as I recall. Rich dark chocolate, caramel, dark fruity flavor with a lot of toffee. It still blows me away how smooth this motherfucker is. Great fucking beer- I’m going to pick up some more. Actually, I enjoy this more than the Bourbon Barrel Meph Addict and Mephistopheles but not as well as Margarete or Meph Addict. Rock on! 4.18.2012: 9/4/9/4/18 (4.4)