Bottle, bb 5/16, Sessions Box Hill. Black with a ~cm of tan head. Shyish roasty aroma with some earthy and dark fruit notes. Upon a taste the fruit is obviously the cherry wood - both fruity and drying. It's nice but maybe pushes the roasted flavours a little far back. But it's smooth and gracious. Good.

11.2 oz bottle. SB.23.02i. Imagine at best this was brewed in 2023..so at least two years old. A pinch of oxidation perhaps, but that could just be the barrel tone, which does add some cool wooden flavor. Really a great beer on most levels, a better body than 90% of Stouts out there. Some odd herbal, vegetal undetones from the wood. Imagine this is amazing fresh in Japan.

Black with a medium sized foamy brown head. Roasty and dry with cocoa, wood and a bit of anise. Long finish. Medium body.

Bottle with code SB 24.03a, drunk 10/16/24. Quite dark, probably clear. Light tan head quickly fizzling to edge. Big umami in there, seems fitting for a Japanese beer. Light ash, lots of rich, salty soy and plentiful dark chocolate. Not really getting any barrel (that I'm familiar with, anyways). But it's a clean, competent, rather rich, yet not overly roasty stout. Brown sugar galore. Reminds me of a toned down (less sweet) version of Dragon Stout. Mild chocolate, more brown sugar, caramelized sugar, turbinado sugar. You get the idea. Maybe the barrel dries the beer out and/or rounds it out some, but it doesn't seem to yield much flavor. Is there some cherry character here? Definitely a bit lingering on the finish. Very pleasant stuff, though a bit sugary and rather light-bodied/watery for an Imperial Stout (ha). Not quite enough complexity and body for its size.

From a bottle. Pours black with a short lived tan head. Aromas are chocolate and brown sugar. Flavors are sweet cocoa with refined bitterness.