Bottle sample at a tasting at Yoav's place. Dark brown. Chocolate, nuts, sweet, vanilla, oak, bourbon, a bit of oxidation.

35,5 cl bottle @ home Blind tasting containing 2017, 2018 and 2019. My guess on this was 2017 due to this being somewhat bland. Aroma has nuts,licorice and hayish malt. Flavour has grainy malt, licorice, cereal and granola. Sweetish but pleasant. Bourbon is not present at all. 7-4-7-4-37

Bottle from The Davis Beer Shoppe. Pours dark brn/blk with a transient beige/tan head. Aroma of near toasty malt with a touch of leather. Bourbon notes. Med plus body - carbonation slightly fizzy. Flavor is bourbon and just a bit musty wood with a flavor I generally take to be from oats. Not very sweet, heat is detectable, but not obnoxious, and the bourbon heat and oak tend to stand in for bitter to stave off the malt. Tasty brew.

Bottle. Black beer with a brown head. Bourbon and chocolate aroma. Bourbon and chocolate flavor with malt and light caramel. Medium bodied. Bourbon and caramel linger with chocolate and malt.

Bottle (recolte 2018, #006): Literally black, small up to no tanned head, solid sweet- but not too sweet - bitter aroma of roasted malt, raisins and traces of smoky wood, the inevitable vanilla spots are hard to detect; moderate sweet-bitter flavour, full bodied but not overly soft; drier and thinner (!) bitter-sweet finish repeating all in all the aromas from the nose. Disappointing, regarding its price...

Ever since Firestone Walker fell into the clutches of Belgian Moortgat (Duvel), it seems their beers have silently and slowly become more available here in Belgium - and even if I bought this one from a Dutch webshop, I guess Moortgat's ownership still has something to do with that, something I can have nothing against. This is their classic Velvet Merkin, a bourbon barrel aged oatmeal stout, from 2018, so two years old at this point; apparently the first editions were a bit stronger in alcohol volume, which I assume explains why this vintage has its own entry here. Quite densely mousy, even creamy, yellowish-beige, thickly dented-lacing, slightly crackling but very stable, even if eventually 'breaking' head on a blackish (but actually very, very dark bronze) beer with crystal clear ruddy-mahogany edge till the end (this beer has clearly been filtered, or worse...). Pleasantly 'warming' bouquet of cappuccino, charred horse steak, bitter black chocolate, beef broth, old furniture, roasted pecan nuts, burnt toast, some glowing charcoal even, cold black coffee, dry raisin bread, leather, tar, moist nutmeg, dried fig, vanilla-scenting oak wood, hard caramel, oatmeal pancakes like both my grandmothers used to bake them, something unsugared chewing gum-like, dried juniper berries, blood, old brownies, mocha ice cream - and then, subtly lurking around in the background but still detectable to the experienced nose, that typical 'cooked cloth'-like aspect pointing at pasteurization (so my suspicion at the time of looking at its transparent edges, proves right). Rounded onset, sweetish but nowhere cloying and balanced with a fruity-sourish edge (quite obvious even but elegantly and 'neutrally' so) with hints of dried fig, blackberry and blueberry, quite spritzy carbonation for a barrel aged vintage beer - accentuating the sour aspect and even hindering drinkability a little bit; still full, very smooth (oat!) mouthfeel, a lovely combo of 'fondant' chocolate, toasted pecan nuts and burnt brown bread, bittersweet but remaining restrained in its sweetness - it's more an abstract impression of softness provided by the oats in this case than actual sweetness. Full roasted bitterness in the end though nowhere too sharp or ashy, in fact very black coffee-like as it ought to be, with these dried fruit and burnt raisin aspects lingering about; woody tannins add further dryness, working well with that mouth-filling roasted bitterness and back-up hop bitterness, as well as a retronasal whiff of vanilla, enhanced by the bourbon, which otherwise behaves very well, providing a sweet-boozy element in the end without overtaking the beer (as is all too often the case these days). Long, warming but altogether gentle finish combining bittersweet bourbon with bittersweet roasted malts and wood, while a vague touch of liquorice lurks in the background. Oatmeal stout indeed, feeling thick enough for this ABV and delivering the smoothness one expects from the style - though it must be said, the somewhat pungent carbonation does reduce this effect a bit. This overcarbonation, for this kind of beer at least, is the only thing that bothered me a bit; otherwise this is a well-made American style strong stout, packed with all the classic flavours one expects from the genre and even coming across as a tad old-fashioned, due to its roasted bitter, coffee-like character. More or less exemplary in its category, with the bourbon barrel aspect having been applied rather gently; not the greatest highlight in American style barrel aged stouts I ever had, however, so I'm still wondering if this was really worth its rather hefty price tag. I think leaving it unfiltered and unpasteurized would already be a big step in the right direction (compare with BCBS now and before!)...

Bottle. Dark brown, creamy foam. Aroma: sweet, caramel, jam, coffee, bourbon, maple syrup. Taste: sweet, maple syrup, caramel, a little bourbon and vanilla, not bad.