Black Magick - Weller Bourbon Barrels
Voodoo Brewing Co.

 

 

 

Notes. Had at Controlled Chaos festival @ Burly Oak / Nov 2022
Outstanding!
Always been impressed with Voodoo’s stouts, but this one is a masterpiece. Beautiful rich dark pour with creamy thick tan head.
Nose is full of malt, barrel, vanilla, dark fruit.
Taste mirrors but like many great big time stouts the flavors evolve as you sip the beer over time. Flavor profile is well described in other reviews. Can not understate the impact of Weller barreling…and the patience given to letting this grow for 29 months in barrel.
Many attempt; very few pull off this kind of brewing.
Major kudos!
My favorite at the festival.

 

 

 

 

 

 

poured from a 12oz bottle into perennial snifter. pours thick and pitch black with the faintest of dark brown foam swirls here and there. big bourbon and oak on the nose along with a touch of tobacco, leather, chocolate and even a hint of vanilla. much bigger chocolate on the taste - more so than i have found in most magicks. really tasty but also has that earthy flavor to it that reminds you this is a big, bold barrel-aged imperial stout. thick and chewy mouthfeel. even for voodoo and their BM series this is thick. i had high hopes for this one and it delivered all the way. crazy how it hides the 13% abv yet has no shortage of barrel character. it’s also not a complete chocolate bomb either with it’s fragrances and flavors of earthy tobacco, charred oak and leather. this one is top notch.

Amazingly viscous tar black but struggling to build a head, it only musters a sparse dark mocha film that dies swiftly to a nearly smooth, still surface, though gently roiling like a witches cauldron thereafter.

Smell is like Wicked chocolate, spiced of peppery whiskey and deeply decadent of high percentage dark cacao.

Less absurdly thick than it looks, the palate brings more charred oak before shifting to their distinctly acidic cacao with hints of cigar, exhaling toastier wafer and toffee.

The medium body is cut by a crackly carbonation, almost making it light, finishing quite paper dry.

It never fully hit me, but after having so many hype stouts this last week at Great Taste of the Midwest, Voodoo's character is so uniquely distinct I'm not sure there is another clean, barrel aged stout that comes anywhere close to the attributes that they are known for.

 

 

 

Drinking this colder than I usually drink stouts. It's only been out of the fridge 10 minutes so probably within a degree or two of fridge temp. Kind of in a funk right now and just don't really care enough to drink at appropriate temp or give a real in depth review. Whatev.

L - voodoo has impressed me SO MUCH on the appearance of their BRC beers the last 6 months. They literally all pour so dense and viscous and while not being diabetes sugar bombs. I assert they absolutely are the best thick stout brewers.

S - smells almost identical to the rye magick I drank a few weeks ago. Typical world class magick aromas with a heavier caramelized sugar/toffee presence than most magicks.

T - hits you initially being dry and woody. Far more sweetness than most magicks quickly develops.

F - thick, oily, and much less carbonated than other magicks.

O - middle pack magick here. Nowhere near the top and nowhere near the bottom.

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Revisit on 10-17-23

Not a very remarkable magick. Definitely dry and woody. Oak and tannins are heavy. The more I drink it the more unimpressive this one is. This is more like a 4 overall rather than my original 4 rating.

No frills. Pure dark goodness. The barrel is strong with this one.