Imperial Breakfast Stout - Weller Bourbon Barrel-Aged
Voodoo Brewing Co.

 

 

Bottled in 2/2023; consumed on 4/29/2025

Pours an inky black body capped with a finger of fluffy, pale, chocolate-hued foam; decent head retention leaves minimal shreds of cap, a persistent, frothy collar, and a tentative few splotches of webby lacing spread around the walls of the glass.

Aromas of fresh coffee seamlessly enmeshed in chocolate fudge expand to pancake batter dosed with soft maple inflections; a fine bourbon undercurrent meets an oncoming char tempered with easygoing barrel over time.

Taste brings deft cocoa cracker and subtle maple upfront, with bright coffee evolving among bits of bourbon-soaked vanillins past the mid-palate into a milk chocolate finish.

Mouthfeel offers a medium-full body and a mild puff of spritzy carbonation, quickly settling to a dense silk coating the tongue with creamy sensations as a moderate char builds and an even, cherry barrel warmth settles through the swallow.

A fully formed presentation of bittersweet breakfast overtones aided by a firm bourbon accompaniment; harmonious and bold in typical Voodoo fashion.

 

poured from a black-waxed 12oz bottle into a TG MD snifter. pours dark cola brown out of the bottle but settles in the glass nearly black with a thin dark khaki foam cap that recedes into a thin collar around the rim of the glass. certainly doesn’t appear as thick as most of their other barrel-aged imperial stouts. barrel and coffee mostly on the nose. the coffee gives off a rich chocolate aromas plus light peppery roast that blends quite well with the bourbon barrels. as it reaches room temperature i get more of the cocoa nibs milk chocolate aroma. even hints of vanilla but virtually no maple syrup. taste is rich milk chocolate, subtle coffee, even subtler maple all finished with bourbon and oak. very tasty even if the additives are on the softer side. thick mouthfeel but not as thick as voodoo is capable of in aphotic or black magick series. this was a good breakfast stout though. i appreciated the subtleties of the flavor additions and it’s fun to try something with additives as these guys usually stick to base beer + barrel.

 

 

8 ball black with a soft tan head that has a softly clinging ridge settling to a creamy but flat collar. The head retains well and resurfaces with a swirl.

A coffee delight, French vanilla and toasty beans meet mild oak with hints of milk chocolate and maple. A funktastic oak char emerges more as it warms.

Though slick and sticky up front, the medium-light body's crackly yet fine carbonation comes to a paper dry swallow.

The freshness alone easily makes this better than the HH/BT batch I enjoyed a couple years post-release, though I believe I detect much more oak complexity here as well.

Don't love it. Something is amiss here and the beer doesn't feel congruent. At first I though it may be the coffee but as I drink on its undeniably lactose. It has hints of literal sour cream that I cannot get on board with.