A slightly hazy amber beer with a thin beige head. The aroma has notes of berries and chocolate as well as lighlty roasted notes on a slightly acidic back ground. The flavor is sweet and very roasted combined with a light touch of chocolate.

2012-11-28, bottle at la Cave à Bulles, Paris, vintage 2011, courtesy of Brendon, 9-4-8-4-17=42
Dark brown color with small color. The aroma of vanilla and wood is extremely strong, then chocolate, tobacco, nice light oxidisation touch; wonderful. Good body structure, strong chocolate flavor, some vanilla, medium sweetness, some biscuits, light ending astringency.
Very good.

2006-03-15, bottle, Danish tasting, 8-4-8-4-15=39
Dark brown color; thin head. The aroma, quite strong, has mature sweet vanilla and old wood, tobacco. The flavor is dominated by this bourbon vanilla cask, even if ends with more roasted malt and bitterness (and a hint of coffee); alcohol perception, burning. Good but too monodimensional.

Good. Some roasted malt in the aroma. The beer is black. Mostly sweet, and the bourbon is on the light side. Very smooth and fairly heavy.

Reddish amber color, medium tan head. Unusual sweet aroma, honeyed, with strawberries, including the wet vines. Perhaps a touch of brown sugar and apple cider. The aroma is unusual, but I kinda like it. Light palate, vaguely caramelly and nutty, with more strawberry notes on top of coconut and chocolate. Light to medium body, with an easy and soft carbonation. Light finishing bitterness is just enough to balance. Getting through the glass almost ended up a chore though, as the vegetal fruitiness tended to linger on the palate in a semi-coating way, and not altogether pleasantly.

Very dark brown with a touch of red. Slight hint at BO in the nose, with some caramel malt and a hefty nose of oak, baking chocolate. Bourbon character is restrained to my nose, with the woody oak character dominating. Smooth and rounded, slight oak flavors, seemingly alot of caramel malt up front, and a big acrid finish. Husky and tannic, the acrid black malt covers any bourbon character.

2005 bottle from StewardofGondor, sampled side by side with the non-barrel version on 12/22/05 with Rastacouere and Siroy.
Yet another intensely filtered pour yields approximately the same results as the non BA version. The lack of age on this one allows the head to recede a little more slowly, but it is soon only a tan ring on the edges atop a deep, milk chocolate brown body, that is frighteningly clear.
Aroma of strong bourbon aging, translating in to plenty of syrupy vanilla and dry woodiness. German chocolate cake soaked in brandy, quite dry on the end and fairly strong, but lacking any hops or roast.
Flavor begins with a strongly dry wood effect, huge vanilla and warming alcohol notes with the chocolate from the regular version mixing to add a sort of marshmallow like sweetness on the side. But the bourbon barrel is tyrant here, not so much, this time, from an over exposure to the barrel, as it is from the lack of a base stout that can really handle the barrel gracefully. Earthy, composty, salty coffee rinds build on the palate, with the vanilla softening and the alcohol only a slight sting on the end.
Body is mediumish, but horribly filtered and overcarbonated, leading to a vapid, unsubstantial texture. The word complex never really comes to mind. Basically a coffee-chocolate stout exposed to strong bourbon. Horribly lacking texture, no hop apparency. Barrel-aging is interesting, but why is this top 50? Not trying to be cynical and purposefully against the grain, but I just don’t get it. Will revisit in a year.
Rerate. 05 bottle consumed 6/27/06. It’s only been 6 months but still a rerate is in order.
Well this is just strange. Great head retention, nearly perfect and creamy with plenty of lacing. But the aroma is all bourbon, some very light smoke and traces of black malt. Very burnt and dark and like usual, too much bourbon (though the coconut vanilla has died down). The flavor is too bourbony while the texture still disappoints, watery and loose. Still, there is enough malt to keep interest and some nice ashiness and roast on the very end. 6/4/5/2/12.
Total score is an average of the two.

2004 (probably) bottle sampled side by side the 2005 bourbon aged version on 12/22/2005 with Rastacouere and Siroy. Utterly clear and filtered pour shows peanutskin undertones amid a burgundy and dark leather brown body with a fully dissipating beige head that provides no lacing. The aroma boasts of light Spanish coffee (tons of anise in it too), salted peanuts and very dry berry skins. Notes of light vanilla-butterscotch and moderately dry chocolate. Only a soily, light fuzziness of green hops to be found in flavor and only then mostly retronasal. The flavor is coffee and dark chocolate, with light molasses and peanut skins, crusty, earthy barley roast and a chewy, moist honey graham crackers dipped in lightly sweet cream. Coffee with sugar in it, though at least a fair sense of roastedness, with light grapiness and finishing with cookies and cream in the background of the roast. As Rastacouere notes, the mouthfeel is rather insipid. Large, forced bubbles in a sagging body with tremendous filtration effects leading to a lightly watery texture and absolutely no thick, chewy substance that an Imperial stout must have. Again, no off-flavors, and no alcohol noted, but just underwhelming of texture to the extreme.