Blazing Barrels
Old Schoolhouse Brewery

Sampling a cellar temp 16 oz can poured into a snifter. Can is date stamped 2/27/2023. The beer pours a dark cola brown color and rests in the glass with no light passing through. A fizzy beige head barely covers the surface on the pour and is gone soon after the can empties into my glass.
The aroma on this one is a little bourbon and some hints of fudge, but also a fruity note and something that is sort of lemony. Didnt expect the lemon. No fusol booze here though.
First sip reveals a medium body and smooth texture with very fine tingly carbonation. Beer drinks very easy for a 12% imperial stout.
Flavor is a little muted up front. there are hints of dark chocolate and molasses, that fades and then a strong whisky note and roasted malt with hints of char shows through and lingers long after each sip. no hop profile that I can detect.
There is some warming booze on the finish and this lingers as well.
I have to say this beer isnt what I thought it would be from the description. is it bad, no. But it isnt much like a BBA Imp Stout as I have come to expect from this style.
Definitely a little sneaky on the ABV though. Id pass on this one next time. its definitely not a bad beer, seems subdued and a bit of general mildness.

Blazing Barrels Whiskey BA from Old Schoolhouse Brewing. 16 fl oz can from @snaotheus in NBW BIF 17. Reviewed 08/05/23 (Review 3095). Note that I use DD/MM/YY protocol.
Bottom of can stamped “02/27/23”. Stored at 34 degrees at home. Served at 55.9 degrees F in a hand washed and dried Jester King snifter. The final temperature was 59.7 degrees F.
Appearance – 4.5
First pour – Ruby Brown (SRM 24), nearly opaque, allowing minimal light transmission.
Body – Ruby Brown (SRM 24), opaque. Under direct light, same. When rear lite, opaque with some light penetration at the bottom edge – ruby.
Head: Average (Maximum 1.5 cm, aggressive center pour), chestnut but lightening to fawn as it aerates, high density, average retention, reducing to a 0.2 – 0.3 cm crown fed by carbonation, and a thin complete cap.
Lacing – Good. Tight bands of very tiny bubbles, with occasional windows separating the bands.
Aroma – 3.5 – Weak roasted malt, no hops, no yeast. Oddly, neither bourbon nor barrel. No ethanol (12 % ABV as marked on the label) aroma.
Flavor – 3.5 – Chocolate, light roasted malt. No hops, no yeast. No bourbon, no barrels. No dimethylsulfide or diacetyl. Moderate gastric warming.
Palate – 4 – Medium; creamy; soft but lively carbonation.
Final impression and summation: 4 Very smooth! The bourbon barrels are distinctly background players, at least for this very young stout. I’d like to put a couple of these back for a year or two and see how they mature. For now, this is a delicious, easy drinking stout that will sneak up on you.