Teddy Bear Kisses - Bourbon Barrel Aged with Cacao & Orange Zest
Upland Brewing Company

12 ounce can, canned on 11/06/25. Label says this version was aged in Bulleit bourbon barrels, purchased from the cooler at the Upland Jeffersonville location about a week and a half ago. Served in a snifter, the beer pours dark brown/black with not quite an inch tan head. Head retention and lacing are both good. Aroma is nice, the brew smells like burnt/charred malt, orange zest, vanilla, cacao and some bourbon. For the most part I think the taste is similar to the aroma, but with the addition of some graininess. All the flavors are well balanced, with a nice amount of barrel character. Mouthfeel/body is medium/full, it's a bit creamy and coating with a good amount of soft carbonation. I liked this barrel aged stout, definitely worth picking up if you get the chance!

Not as bad as polar bear kisses.

Had Teddy Bear Kisses - Bourbon Barrel-Aged with Cacao & Orange Zest poured from 12-oz. can, bottom stamped (apparently) canned on "101220 . . . ," into small crystal snifter.

Pours absolutely black with 1/2-finger tan head, which quickly dissipates to a persistent film, leaving some sketchy rings of lace down the glass. Moderate aromas of milk chocolate and citrus off the pour and continuing, but surprisingly not much else is ever in evidence, except a little caramel and perhaps some very mild roast malt aromas. Begins a bit sweet, smooth and creamy, with moderate carbonation, delivering orange citrus and mild chocolate, then warming whiskey joins with some mild caramel, over moderate roasted malts, before a drying, grainy cocoa, sharply citrus and eventually rather warming (but not clearly alcoholic), peppery finish.

Flavors of chocolate, orange and bourbon deftly added to Upland's smooth and hearty, rather than massively-roasty, but still huge imperial stout.

 

 

 

 

Poured from the 12oz orange can into an imperial pint glass.

A: The beer is perfectly black with a creamy 2 finger brown head that has a few minutes of retention.

S: Chocolate and molasses big time. A hint of fruit in there and a boozy bourbon note underneath.

T: Bourbon and chocolate up front. A hint of fruity sweetness in the middle there. I guess this is the citrus zest. Comes across as a bit of bright bitterness. A light roastiness throughout. Sweetness washes everything down and covers up a big boozy hit at the end.

Overall: This was a pretty tasty beer for a little bit, and then it turned pretty cloying as the beer warmed. The sweetness kind of spins out of control. It's an interesting experiment, but comes out a little unbalanced in the end.

 

 

Canned on 10/25/19.

A - Dark brown and almost black in color with thick toffee colored lacing. (Just like all the other variants.)

S - Chocolate char, dark malt roast, and delicate orange aroma.

T - Light and delicate orange with chocolate, chocolate roast, bourbon, and nice lingering orange, bourbon, and chocolate on the back end.

M - Thick, viscous, lip smacking sticky, and silky smooth.

O - This one caught me off guard (in a good way). My experience with orange has been overpowering and very artificial in flavor. Not this one. This is extremely well done.

 

 

 

 

 

Welcome back for New Beer(s) from @jkblr Sunday (Week 777), MKIII, Part 4! I had CANsidered CANtinuing with these at the end of last week, but @jkblr gave me the wave-off & I aborted the mission at that juncture. Today, I have gotten an early start in the hope that pacing will enable me to get them al in over the course of the day. We shall see.

From the CAN: "Bourbon Barrel Aged Imperial Stout with Cacao & Orange Zest".

My efforts have paid off as I am nearing the end. I paced myself nicely to the point that this is my last really big Crack! & Glug of the day. I went with a slow, gentle C-Line Glug into my awaiting glass & then sat back as it formed just under three fingers of dense, foamy, rocky, deep-tan/light-brown head with decent retention. Color was jet Black/Opaque (SRM = 44), allowing ZERO light penetration. Nose smelled like one of those dark chocolate crème-filled oranges! 8=O Ovation Break-Aparts is one brand name. Mmm. The Bourbon-Bbl. aging was light & unobtrusive, more towards my preference since I like Rye as opposed to Bourbon. In this case, the flavors melded well to provide the taste of a slightly alcoholic, liquefied dark chocolate crème-filled orange. 8=O Mmm. It was certainly a dessert beer, but CANversely, it was a pleasant drink as opposed to the slog of this morning. I just felt overwhelmed & beaten down by them where this was a nice interlude. Finish was semi-sweet, which might not be optimal for the style, but it did the trick for me. YMMV.

Thanks to barrelbeer for this extra that arrived recently in an excellent trade. Orange 12 oz. can.

Black. Nose of orange, chocolate, vanilla. Missing the barrel. Hopefully it’s stored in the taste section.

Teddy Bear Kisses – Barrel Aged with Orange Zest is creamy. And orangey. It tastes like a liquefied traffic cone. If circus peanuts candies were orange instead of pale cream, this is what they’d taste like. Artificial orange, underlying sugar rush, with a spare touch of cocoa. Barrel? Not in this beer. I should have split this can with my wife.

It takes finesse to drop a fruit into a stout & get it right. That finesse ain’t here. Lack of barrel, fake oranges, but the underlying stout seems solid. End game? Very average.

Appearance - There seemed to be hidden streaks of orange in the blackness of the stout.

Smell - There was so much fresh orange in the nose coupled with the roastiness of the stout.

Taste - The initial impression was chocolate covered oranges. The chocolate behaved more like a dry baker’s chocolate. The orange aspects were very fresh, lingering nicely.

Mouthfeel - For the style, the beer lacked sone viscosity. Yet I would not say it was thin.

Overall - There was not enough orange stouts. For that reason alone, this is worth seeking.