The 2014 version in this series of Festival Blends made by the Carlsbad installment of Pizza Port, bottle shared by Trevor at Belgium Chimipalooza, cheers. Creamy, pale brownish beige head, black robe. Enticing aroma of espresso, coffee liqueur, chocolate sauce, soy sauce, bayleaf, bourbon, wet oak, vanilla, wet leather, toffee. Pleasant, refined candied sweetness, candied fig, candied banana, raisin, meaty umami edge, softish carbo, thick and oily mouthfeel, deep caramelly and chocolatey malt sweetness with balancing toasted bitterishness, even a tad roasted and coffeeish in the end, drying wood with lovely retronasal oak vanilla, spicy hops, warming bourbon-like alcohol. Even better than the 2013 version in my opinion and in all a different beer altogether, but this blend still results in a notably stout-like ASA, a bit reminiscent of Lost Abbey’s Deliverance.

Bottle shared at Belgium Chimipalooza. Lightly lacing, pale greyish beige head, black robe. Intense aroma of fondant chocolate bars, cappuccino, soy sauce, rum-soaked raisins, baked banana, bourbon, glueish solvents, coffee liqueur, kahlua, wet oak, bayleaf, beef stock. Lovely rounded and refined candied sweetness in the mouth, beefy umami edge, softish carbo with thick oily mouthfeel, deep chocolatey maltiness making a pleasantly toasted bitterish turn in the end, accompanied by a touch of spicy hops and warming, bourbon-like alcohol but also some varnish-like solvents retronasally (apart from beautiful vanilla tannins), lovely drying wood effects. A blend which has resulted in a very stout-like ASA. Impressive, but since it has a lightly stronger solvent-like aroma than the even stronger 2014 version, I slightly preferred the latter one.