Nimbus Bourbon Stout
Nimbus Brewing Company

This has a fairly strong Bourbon dominated nose to it; at least enough so that it cuts through my bar neighbors basket of hot wings. The beer is quite black in color, but does show a clear brown hue if held up to the light and looking through a tilted, thin portion of the beer. It is topped by a thin dusting of froth that is a light brown color. The aroma has notes of vanillin, a slight boozy alcohol note, hints of buttery oak and smooth bourbon characteristics. There seems to be a bit more oak influence here than straight up bourbon character, but that can be hard to determine considering bourbon is oak influence.

The beer has a light carbonation to it up front, but does manage to pick up a bit of a prickly feel to it as it moves towards the middle and finish. This is much smoother than I expected, especially after spending 8 months in the barrel for a standard gravity stout; I expected this to be much rougher. It is clearly barrel dominated though with notes of vanillin, light butterscotch and a touch of spicy oak, but there is also still some of the oatmeal stout left here with flavors of chocolate, some sweet malt, a roasted coffee note and a burnt grain character, these last two noticeable especially at the front of a sip. The finish is dominated by the barrel initially, but after a bit some of the roast malt notes enter back into the picture. The texture is the "worst" part of this beer, but even this is quite acceptable; the beer is a bit thin at times, which tends to accentuate the acidity from the dark malt and the hotness from the oak barrel. Speaking of which, sharp, slightly hot, spicy oak notes are not as prevalent as I was expecting, it really only kicks in towards the finish, but is still fairly mellow over all.

The taste summed up is a mix of coffee, chocolate, butterscotch, vanillin and smooth bourbon flavors. This is much more enjoyable than I was expecting (especially given the extended contact time for this 6% beer). This would be really killer on the hand pump / real ale dispenser. In the end it is a bit hard to get a sense of the base beer here, but at least it is able to play a role. This will go over quite well with the bourbon barrel aged beer lovers out there.