Black Magick - Sazerac Rye 18 Year-Old
Voodoo Brewing Co.

Look - Black and hick with slight rimming
Smell - lot os barrel char and slight chocolate
Taste - boozy woody caramel char rye barrel with some chocolage but pretty basic
Feel -medium full body with a lighter carb
Overall -pretty good but not very complex

Bottled on 5/18/2022; consumed on 12/17/2024

Pours a silky, midnight-black body topped with just shy of a finger of pale mocha foam, receding quickly to an inky good of a surface, paper-thin yet creamy collar, and no lacing clinging to the walls of the glass with any longevity.

Aromas of fresh rickhouse and rye spice effortlessly engage charry barrel as black peppercorn accents, developing undertones of bread crusts and distant dark cacao over time.

Taste offers barrel char and musty peppercorn enmeshed in floral rye spice while dark cacao accents advanced across the profile.

Mouthfeel brings a medium body and minimal carbonation, leaving a soft spritz contrasting gentle creaminess over the mid-palate as a pang of semi-acrid bittering/roast settles into the back end.

One of the more base-level, only marginally impressive Black Magicks, largely lacking the committed barrel roast and overarching intensity often exemplified in the series.

 

This pours very dark black color, with a small head, and a little bit of lacing.

This smells pretty bitter and oaky, with leather, tobacco, licorice, smoke, bitter dark chocolate, and some coffee.

Black Magicks tend to run black as night, with more bitterness than the current pastry stout trend. Even with that acknowledged pattern for these stouts, this feels a bit ashier, smokier, and more bitter than some of the other more well regarded entries in this series. It’s still enjoyable, but it’s definitely a challenging beer.

This is medium bodied, creamy, and pretty bitter and biting on the finish.

This is tasty, as most Black Magicks tend to be, but I wouldn’t put it near the top of the series.

 

 

poured from a 12oz bottle dated 5-18-22 into a perennial snifter. pours onyx black with a thin dark brown foam cap that forms a nice collar around the rim of the glass. heavy rye whiskey and oak on the nose with subtle chocolate, smoke, tobacco and charr. the rye whiskey plays so well with the base beer. i get dry chocolate, a hint of vanilla, whiskey-soaked oak, earthy charr and a light smoke. so complex, so good. never comes close to bordering on sweet nor does it lack any barrel presence. thick and chewy mouthfeel with a tingly carbonation on the finish. this was excellent. so complex, which i almost always find to be the case with magicks, but also greatly enhanced with the beautiful use of the rye whiskey barrels. bravo.

This was from June 3rd. I decided not to submit my review at that time so I emailed it to myself and I'm posting it now -

"I have HUGE hopes on this. When magicks are good they're absolutely world class. The best of the best non adjunct stouts out there. Unfortunately they vary so widely and some are average at best. Non adjunct BA stouts are thing, and furthermore non adjunct RYE barrel stouts are my pinnacle style.

I made some trades to land the previous choclate rye magick in hopes it would be my Goldie locks. Unfortunately, while a very good magick, it didn't end up to be the perfect execution of the series that I hoped. Oh well, that's a gamble you take with pre trades.

Once again I took this route and lined up trades to secure bottles of this sazerac rye aged black magick. Here's to hoping these trades weren't wasted.

I've watched a few untapped ratings filter in so far and I can wager this should be a good one. But some early reviews are always garbage from flippers trying to pump trade value (literally 2/3 of the people that win voodoo lotteries [which is okay with me because they swallow hook line and sinker when you pretrade for bottles that end up being masterpieces]).

Look is a 5. Even when they don't impress on the taste voodoo ba stouts almost always impress on the pour. This one probably tops warlock flip flops on density. An actual 5/5.

Smell is too muted. I overchilled this. Its obvious BM aromas with less sweetness than typical. The rye is definitely setting it apart but not but notes I can personally hone in on. I can just attest it is certainly 'tweaked' from the smell I recognize from most magicks - and its in its favor. Woodiness is definitely huge on this. Its a shame its so cold as I could probably get more out of this with even my lackluster nose but I gotta rate it as midrange for a magick (which is still damn incredible). Maybe as I sip it it and it warms I will update this.

Taste. God im excited. 6-3-22 I'm writing this review and after my first sip I decided not to post it. I copied and pasted what I have so far and am finishing it in an email to myself to post later. I do not want to pump this trade value and won't be posting this until I've traded for some more...

The first sip almost stopped me dead in senses. I took it and knew what I had. This is one of the closest beers I've ever jad to a 5/5 on taste and feel. Rich, woody, dry oak, toffee. Deep, deep, rich latte flavors. Less than average sweet. Robust. Again dry. HOT. Absoultely huge mouth. Potent. FILLING. A damn meal.

Overall. I'll post this when the dust settles. Maybe others will disagree but for me this is it.

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Viscous tar black with a short, burnt mocha foam that fizzles out to a fine chain.

The nose exhibits a fresher dark chocolatey stout expression with a spicier cask booze than I usually detect from BM. Coming in closer also reveals ribbons of very dark and seductive maple.

Taste is decidedly rye in spades, delivered by a velvety viscosity. The peppery char is almost caraway it's so intense. This interplays well with the dark chocolate and classic Voodoo roast that emerges thereafter before the lightly chewy dry finish brings up an exhale characteristic of spiced rum with a little more heat.

I just love Sazarac, and it really exerts its influence with an impressive clarity of definition here.

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My god, it's been 3 years?! Here and now in April 2025, this fuckin beast exhibits all the vanilla caviar and Oreo dirt cup in one go, and with the viscosity of heavy cream--it's kind of unreal how all encompassing of a badass barrel aged stout this is. The fact that this isn't a top five Voodoo beer here or on Untappd is only slightly less surprising than just how fucking much I'm enjoying this, three years older, almost in exact inverse correlation of just how much beer I consume these days. I'd bump my score up if this was a current release.