Churchill's Finest Hour (2014)
Port Brewing Company

'14 batch, blue wax.

This one pours a fairly dark black color, with a small head, and not much lacing.

This one smells like rich dark chocolate, spicy oak, cookie dough, dark fruit, vanilla, coconut, and bourbon.

It's kind of crazy how well this one held up for being 7 years old. It's not a thick boy like modern barrel aged stouts, but the barrel character is just phenomenal here - it adds vanilla, coconut, cookie dough, oak, and light bourbon. This all goes on top of the wonderfully dark chocolate heavy base beer. I also get some light dark fruit and roasted malt.

This is medium bodied, a bit thinner than you'd be used to with how modern pastry stouts are, but not really thin either. There's basically no booze here - it seems to have aged basically perfectly.

This was absolutely phenomenal. I'm really lucky and happy to have been able to try this one.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A: Moderate bourbon aroma, some char, heavy malt roast with a light bitter dark chocolate malt aroma.

A: Black color, totally opaque with a very fine ring of head that recedes to nothing.

T: Big bourbon character, light bitter dark chocolate malt, almost anise-like with plenty of oak and a light bitterness on the finish.

M: Full bodied with light carbonation. The beer is super viscous and really coats the mouth.

O: Pretty delicious; the big bourbon aroma and flavor has mellowed over the last two years and is a bit smoother and not nearly as sharp when fresh. Yum!

 

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