River Rats
Voodoo Brewing Co.

 

 

Pretty damn uninspired for a voodoo BRC. love the dark dense pour and thick feel but the taste is quite [again] uninspired. Its got some ashy bitterness and char but it doesn't particularly taste stout-ish to me. It really doesn't taste right at all and I do believe I'm also detecting off flavors of sourness.

2021 vintage (released on 1/20/2021); consumed on 4/8/2022

Pours a dense, motor oil-black body topped with a sliver of dark mocha foam fading quickly to a largely blank surface surrounded by a more expansive, creamy collar and minimal spots of lacing dotting the walls of the glass.

Aroma highlights a dark chocolate umami into soft brownie crust while dark fruit esters invigorate the backdrop; a dry barrel hints at campfire ash before softening to sweeter tones of caramel and leather over time.

Taste brings silky dark cocoa prominent upfront, with warm vanilla and subtle caramel notes contrasting a more rye-forward bourbon influence; over the mid-palate, smoke clears into heavy, acrid char, leaving lighter shreds of tobacco and leather with a charcoal lingering through the finish.

Mouthfeel offers a silky, medium body with a pillowy fluff of moderate-low carbonation levying a level, prickly grit across the palate as it meets a potent barrel char lingering in the backdrop as a soft bittering forms against a progressive dryness on the finish.

Barrel char is advanced to a worrisome extent, leaving a noticeable acridity distracting from the softer, sweeter barrel elements rife with leather, caramel, and a balanced malt roast; a certain silkiness persists, though, providing enough of a base for this one to remain a steady barrel-aged sipper.

 

The thickly viscous void black body builds an amazingly dark brown head that itself is almost black like caviar but slightly lighter, like if brownies made eggs lol. This short head settles out to a thin but raised and creamy ring.

That first whiff, wow. It's syrupy and peppery, savory and chocolatey, but more like a mocha liqueur, and even a balsamic reduction. It's just super intense and acidic smelling, but in a very decadently magnetic way, not in any way like a sour, if that makes sense.

Crisp and tingly up front, quickly gliding into a more viscous yet medium body, that mocha liqueur element arrives first on the palate, but develops even more so into straight up freshly roasted cacao that's acidic in the same way that some of my favorite African coffee beans can be. This settles down into a deeply savory, roasty sort of nutty quality in the semi-dry finish, like a financier, before exhaling vanilla.

At times it seems like a Hoppin' Frog stout with that intense roast, but it departs with its drastic hopping rate reduction, as well as its bold presence of neutral yet saturated wood. The oak also contributes a mild char that adds complexity by giving off a bit of cigar skin. Either way, the malt really shines here, even developing a pie crust character, which, now that I think about it, actually may be attributable to the barrel as well, considering Old Forester selections often give off a similar note.

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Holy shit, a year and a couple months later and River Rats is now even more intensely woody. Good god it's like biting into some split logs. But then that only tells the story of this cellared bottle's first couple sips. Thereafter it becomes concentrated cocoa liqueur again, exhaling smoky Raisinets.

Holy fuck what an adventure! I'm really glad I hung onto this one.

 

Big roast on this one. Not as sweet as I expected and that's a good thing. Syrupy, glass staining, lots of dark chocolate. Nice barrel. 4.75/5