Petite Mort (Bourbon de Blé)
Brasserie Dunham

 

So based on the previous review, I'm gonna go ahead and review this one here. This is the "wheat bourbon barrel aged irs" according the label.

I think Adam or Sheldon broke this one out. I think it looks like Adam's house in the background of the pic. Pours black. Brown head goes up 1/2" but recedes into a thin head after just a minute. While it does smell barrel aged of a whiskey type, it also has a huge yeasty profile of an imperial russian stout giving harsh dark fruit bitterness, hefty booziness and significant roasted malt.

The taste is much the same, this is a challenging 11% IRS to drink. That licorice and dark fruit bitterness permeates the entire drinking experience. The mouth feel is enveloped with anise and dried fig. After that, heavily roasted malt continues to the push to what feels like 100ibu. The wheat barreled bourbon barrel doesn't stand a chance, no vanilla notes, just a woodiness that further dries an already dry profile. Wasn't a fan, but glad I got to try it as I rarely see the rare stuff anymore.

1L howler from Sherbrooke Liquor store - I assume that this is a wheaten Bourbon barrel-aged Imperial stout? Or something to that effect?

This beer pours a solid black abyss, with nary a trace of basal edges (not that common an occurrence), and three fingers of puffy, rocky, and somewhat bubbly brown head, which leaves some splendid snow rime lace around the glass as it lazily sinks out of sight.

It smells of gritty and grainy caramel malt, wet Wheat Thins (I am duly familiar with this concept via my pre-schooler), sort of edgy and woody barrel notes, bittersweet cocoa powder, some free-range char, faint cafe-au-lait, and very tame earthy, musty, and soused-up floral green hop bitters. The taste is bready and doughy caramel malt, damp ashes, a mildly spicy wheatiness, acerbic chocolate, day-old coffee grounds, subtle vanillan Bourbon staves, earthy black licorice, and more understated leafy, weedy, and floral noble hoppiness.

The carbonation is average in its palate-propping frothiness, the body a dense medium-heavy weight, and sort of smooth, but for a growing sense of metallic alcohol ingress at this particular juncture. It finishes off-dry, but moderated well enough by the hoppy and boozy counterpoints.

Overall - this is an interesting turn on the whole BBA Imperial stout bent. I had never even really heard of the idea of a 'wheat Bourbon' before (but it makes perfect sense now), and this offering displays it in spades. There's lots of barrel character here, however it lacks the typical rye grain astringency, essentially. Not to mention the mostly integrated 22-proof wowee sauce component, and, yeah, this is some great stuff.

mistaken recommendation from a fellow Quebec native. not holding up with some sourness. cask days 2017. just another tired imperial stout cask today that is not delightful.