-
Stop lurking! Log in to search, post in our forums, review beers, see fewer ads, and more. — Todd, Founder of BeerAdvocate
Bourbon Barrel Aged Imperial Porter
Central City Brewers + Distillers
- From:
- Central City Brewers + Distillers
- British Columbia, Canada
- Style:
- Imperial Porter
- ABV:
- 9.5%
- Score:
- 86
- Avg:
- 3.84 | pDev: 13.54%
- Reviews:
- 21
- Ratings:
- Status:
- Active
- Rated:
- Jun 16, 2018
- Added:
- Sep 29, 2011
- Wants:
- 1
- Gots:
- 10
Aged in Maker's Mark bourbon barrels.
Recent ratings and reviews. | Log in to view more ratings + sorting options.
Ratings by UCLABrewN84:
Reviewed by UCLABrewN84 from California
3.74/5 rDev -2.6%
look: 4 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 3.75
3.74/5 rDev -2.6%
look: 4 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 3.75
Bottle I brought to share at Retsinis' tasting.
Pours an opaque black with a foamy dark khaki head that settles to a film on top of the beer. Foamy streaks of lace form around the glass on the drink down. Smell is of dark roasted malt, cocoa powder, vanilla, bourbon, and wood aromas. Taste is much the same with cocoa powder, vanilla, bourbon, and wood flavors on the finish. There is a mild amount of wood bitterness on the palate with each sip. This beer has a lower level of carbonation with a slightly crisp and medium bodied mouthfeel. Overall, this is a pretty good beer with rough but solid bourbon barrel aged aspects all around.
Serving type: bottle.
Apr 20, 2015Pours an opaque black with a foamy dark khaki head that settles to a film on top of the beer. Foamy streaks of lace form around the glass on the drink down. Smell is of dark roasted malt, cocoa powder, vanilla, bourbon, and wood aromas. Taste is much the same with cocoa powder, vanilla, bourbon, and wood flavors on the finish. There is a mild amount of wood bitterness on the palate with each sip. This beer has a lower level of carbonation with a slightly crisp and medium bodied mouthfeel. Overall, this is a pretty good beer with rough but solid bourbon barrel aged aspects all around.
Serving type: bottle.
More User Ratings:
Reviewed by Jeffo from Netherlands
1.74/5 rDev -54.7%
look: 3 | smell: 1.5 | taste: 1.5 | feel: 2 | overall: 2
1.74/5 rDev -54.7%
look: 3 | smell: 1.5 | taste: 1.5 | feel: 2 | overall: 2
TASTE: This is definitely oxidized, unfortunately. There’s some oak up front and in the finish with notes of bitter cacao in there, but the metallic and cardboard flavors are pretty much all over the place. Oxidized flavors and alcohol linger on the finish.
PALATE: Light body with higher levels of carbonation. Foamy on the palate, goes down airy and finishes a bit mouth-coating.
OVERALL: Not good. This is definitely old and oxidized at this point. The weird “born on” date on the bottle doesn’t help me figure out when this was actually brewed, but after putting it at the two and half year mark, you’d expect it to be in much better shape than it is. This one has seen better days, which is unfortunate, as I have generally enjoyed Central City beers. Would love to see a more recent vintage of this one again, but the 10th Anniversary bottling is past its prime.
Aug 24, 2016PALATE: Light body with higher levels of carbonation. Foamy on the palate, goes down airy and finishes a bit mouth-coating.
OVERALL: Not good. This is definitely old and oxidized at this point. The weird “born on” date on the bottle doesn’t help me figure out when this was actually brewed, but after putting it at the two and half year mark, you’d expect it to be in much better shape than it is. This one has seen better days, which is unfortunate, as I have generally enjoyed Central City beers. Would love to see a more recent vintage of this one again, but the 10th Anniversary bottling is past its prime.
Reviewed by Offa from California
4.43/5 rDev +15.4%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.5
4.43/5 rDev +15.4%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.5
I bought a bottle of this in Jan. 2016 and just had it, finding it to be an excellent, full-bodied, characterful, yet easy-drinking imperial stout.
It was black with a large brown head, steadily shrinking, leaving a touch of lace.
Aroma was rich, rum cake, roasted dark bread.
Taste has a nice balance of sweet and biter, both robust but restrained, with nice hint of sourness. Booziness was just enough without overpowering or dominating, making it nicely warm. It had a rich rum-cake, burnt-fruit-cake character. It went down very easily and stayed interesting the whole way. Feel was fairly creamy, slightly oily but not overly so.
Aug 04, 2016It was black with a large brown head, steadily shrinking, leaving a touch of lace.
Aroma was rich, rum cake, roasted dark bread.
Taste has a nice balance of sweet and biter, both robust but restrained, with nice hint of sourness. Booziness was just enough without overpowering or dominating, making it nicely warm. It had a rich rum-cake, burnt-fruit-cake character. It went down very easily and stayed interesting the whole way. Feel was fairly creamy, slightly oily but not overly so.
Reviewed by metter98 from New York
3.68/5 rDev -4.2%
look: 3.75 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 3.5
3.68/5 rDev -4.2%
look: 3.75 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 3.5
A: The beer is jet black in color. It poured with a quarter finger high beige head that died down, leaving a thin head covering the surface, a collar around the edge of the glass, and some lacing down the sides.
S: Moderate aromas of bourbon are present in the nose, but these are more in the line of toasted coconuts with notes of dark fruits—cherries seem to stand out in particular.
T: The taste is a near mirror image to the smell and is dominated by flavors of bourbon from the barrel aging, mostly having flavors of toasted coconuts. Slight hints of alcohol are also perceptible.
M: It feels a bit more than medium-bodied on the palate and has a moderate amount of carbonation.
O: The bourbon in this barrel aged beer is quite unlike any of those that I've had before—instead of the normal vanilla and oaky flavors there are flavors of dark fruits and coconuts.
Serving type: bottle
Feb 01, 2016S: Moderate aromas of bourbon are present in the nose, but these are more in the line of toasted coconuts with notes of dark fruits—cherries seem to stand out in particular.
T: The taste is a near mirror image to the smell and is dominated by flavors of bourbon from the barrel aging, mostly having flavors of toasted coconuts. Slight hints of alcohol are also perceptible.
M: It feels a bit more than medium-bodied on the palate and has a moderate amount of carbonation.
O: The bourbon in this barrel aged beer is quite unlike any of those that I've had before—instead of the normal vanilla and oaky flavors there are flavors of dark fruits and coconuts.
Serving type: bottle
Reviewed by DrSpaceman from California
2.76/5 rDev -28.1%
look: 2.75 | smell: 3 | taste: 2.75 | feel: 2.75 | overall: 2.5
2.76/5 rDev -28.1%
look: 2.75 | smell: 3 | taste: 2.75 | feel: 2.75 | overall: 2.5
Picked up this along with Thor's Hammer on a whim, good price for good styles of beer. Pours a dark brown opaque, foamy as all hell. Smell, toasted marshmallow and campfires galore. Taste is artificial smoke, booze, and INFECTION. Definitely a soured batch, doubtfully on purpose. Feel is thin and watery, definitely not in line with the style. I have had a handful of beers from this brewery, and all have been big letdowns. If anyone wants to point me to a beer that would turn this around, I would greatly appreciate it.
Oct 31, 2015Reviewed by ClavisAurea from New York
3.96/5 rDev +3.1%
look: 3.75 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 4
3.96/5 rDev +3.1%
look: 3.75 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 4
Bottle from 01/2015 served at cellar temps in a tulip glass.
Appearance: dark brown to black with a nice frothy and creamy head. The bottle gushed a bit when I opened it. Some dark sediment left in the bottle.
Nose: initial hit of hops lead to tons of barrel character, vanilla, bourbon, caramel, oaky, coconut, marshmallow, creamy, chocolate, some char and roasty character.
Taste: followed the nose exactly. The initial taste is intense bitterness from the 60 IBUs then the barrel kicked in. Chocolate, oak, marshmallow, vanilla, bourbon, coconut, roasty yet creamy. Medium carbonation once the semi-gusher settled down. If the beer were served cold I suspect it would have poured normally.
Overall: This is an interesting take on an English Porter. More chocolate would have pushed it higher in score but it was nice. The BA category says RIS whereas the bottle says Imperial Porter. I'm going to say it is more of an English Imperial Porter because the mouthfeel was not as rich as a RIS should be. Either way, this is a wonderful beer and a steal at $9 for a bourbon barrel aged porter bomber.
Sep 27, 2015Appearance: dark brown to black with a nice frothy and creamy head. The bottle gushed a bit when I opened it. Some dark sediment left in the bottle.
Nose: initial hit of hops lead to tons of barrel character, vanilla, bourbon, caramel, oaky, coconut, marshmallow, creamy, chocolate, some char and roasty character.
Taste: followed the nose exactly. The initial taste is intense bitterness from the 60 IBUs then the barrel kicked in. Chocolate, oak, marshmallow, vanilla, bourbon, coconut, roasty yet creamy. Medium carbonation once the semi-gusher settled down. If the beer were served cold I suspect it would have poured normally.
Overall: This is an interesting take on an English Porter. More chocolate would have pushed it higher in score but it was nice. The BA category says RIS whereas the bottle says Imperial Porter. I'm going to say it is more of an English Imperial Porter because the mouthfeel was not as rich as a RIS should be. Either way, this is a wonderful beer and a steal at $9 for a bourbon barrel aged porter bomber.
Reviewed by TheSevenDuffs from Canada (ON)
2.61/5 rDev -32%
look: 2.5 | smell: 2.75 | taste: 2.5 | feel: 2.5 | overall: 2.75
2.61/5 rDev -32%
look: 2.5 | smell: 2.75 | taste: 2.5 | feel: 2.5 | overall: 2.75
A - Massive over-carbonation on the pour. The glass was over 2/3 head on the pour. Had to scoop it out with a spoon two times to get a decent amount of beer in the glass. Poured dark brown eventually.
S - The nose is heavy char, oak, roast and light chocolate.
T - Palate is over-roasted malts and heavy char. Lighter bourbon and vanilla notes from the barrel and some chocolate. Tastes like burnt chocolate with a heavy dose of oak. The flavours don't come together at all here and the massive carbonation doesn't help.
M - Medium body. Extremely high carbonation, especially for the style.
Aug 17, 2015S - The nose is heavy char, oak, roast and light chocolate.
T - Palate is over-roasted malts and heavy char. Lighter bourbon and vanilla notes from the barrel and some chocolate. Tastes like burnt chocolate with a heavy dose of oak. The flavours don't come together at all here and the massive carbonation doesn't help.
M - Medium body. Extremely high carbonation, especially for the style.
Reviewed by manfromanotherplace from New York
3.78/5 rDev -1.6%
look: 3.75 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 4 | overall: 3.75
3.78/5 rDev -1.6%
look: 3.75 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 4 | overall: 3.75
Smells of booze and dark fruit, not that much body to it but the taste is the best part of the beer.bit smokey and cant detect much of the chocolate, pretty good brew though, not one of the best in its class, however.
Aug 15, 2015Reviewed by ManBearPat from Colorado
4.59/5 rDev +19.5%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.75 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.5
4.59/5 rDev +19.5%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.75 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.5
Really enjoyed this brew!
Not sure why BA lists it as a RIS, while the label says 'imperial porter', but nevertheless I was pleased with this offering.
Great value for a barrel-aged beer at ~$7 for a 22 oz.
Solid bourbon flavors, though somewhat boozy tasting.
Lighter mouthfeel, indicating it's more of an imperial porter vs imperial stout.
Will definitely buy (and thoroughly enjoy) again!
Jun 26, 2015Not sure why BA lists it as a RIS, while the label says 'imperial porter', but nevertheless I was pleased with this offering.
Great value for a barrel-aged beer at ~$7 for a 22 oz.
Solid bourbon flavors, though somewhat boozy tasting.
Lighter mouthfeel, indicating it's more of an imperial porter vs imperial stout.
Will definitely buy (and thoroughly enjoy) again!
Bourbon Barrel Aged Imperial Porter from Central City Brewers + Distillers
Beer rating:
86 out of
100 with
50 ratings
We love reviews (150 characters or more)! Check out: How to Review a Beer. You don't need to get fancy. Drop some thoughts on the beer's attributes (look, smell, taste, feel) plus your overall impression. Something that backs up your rating and helps others. Thanks!