Bottle - pours black with a tan head - nose and taste of vanilla, bourbon, rich milk chocolate, dark walnut and a touch of coffee - full body

2017 bottle shared by AdamC on 7/7/17.
Inky/oilly, pitch black, undetermined clarity, assumedly opaque.
Smells very rich and intense and quite good. There’s a ton of moderately fudgey caramel-chocolate up front, with vanilla filling out the edges, but it transitions quickly to more dry bourbon notes and finally plentiful acidity from the coffee and dark malts. Really enjoyable cherry-vanilla-like character created from the mix of the barrel/bourbon and base malt with no overdone coffee, toasted oak or even alcohol. Surprising, given how young it is.
Slick, with intense vanilla and strong cherry and fudge flavors. Huge amounts of base malt provide a very malty, soft texture with low but engaging carbonation keeping it buoyant. The oak and/or bourbon provides a lot of coconut but there’s enough malt to soak it up and it doesn’t seem to dominate. With warming, more cherry, moderate tar and long toffee notes emerge to add complexity and dry the beer out slightly, in concert with roasted acidity. The very spritzy, tight carbonation, barrel tannin and acidity here provide enough balance and the beer shows enough attenuation to prevent it from coming off syrupy, even despite the massive amount of malt/sugar in here. Long, long, complex, lingering flavors of bourbon, fruit and coffee. Alcohol pretty well-concealed underneath all of the malt. Very pleasant surprise to find this not a syrup/fudge/bourbon bomb. Reminds me a lot of Cycle.

Pint can pours with a murky opaque dull copper gold body that supports a dirty white head of foam. The aroma offers up a bit of dank onion and then papaya, guava and tangy lime with a bit of floral hops in the background. The taste delivers smooth mango, papaya and guava as well as a modest level of onion spicy hop bitterness. Juicy mango, papaya and lime meet up with an oat like maltiness and floral hops that ride off into the finish. Solid IPA balance.

Thanks Ryan for sharing the bottle! Poured into a tulip glass showing pitch black with sparse latte coloured foam lacing. The nose shows a strong roasted malt forwardness followed but balanced and moderately intense notes of maple, cocoa, molasses, vanilla, and roasted coffee bean. The palate is full bodied and fully carbonated. Strong roasted malt forwardness with balanced notes of maple, vanilla, and cinnamon revealed on the mid-palate. Short and very light dark chocolate/espresso bitterness on the finish. Bourbon shows throughout the background in combination with a moderate alcoholic and cinnamon spiciness.

Bottle, shared at Northern Monk. Very dark, chestnut brown. Ring of dense, tan head. Legs for days. Nose has raspberry ruffle chocolate bars, which is a very good thing. Loads of vanilla booze. Raspberry pip. Dark chocolate. Toasty, buttery malts. Taste is sweet and jammy, with some chocolate bitterness. Lovely balance. Smooth and silky mouthfeel. No trace of the ABV. Jammy toast to finish. Awesome.