Bourbon Barrel Champion Ground
Jackie O's Brewpub

 

12.7oz 2022 vintage bottle poured into a Duvel glass at fridge temp 11.8% ABV per label. The beer pours midnight black with no light penetration and a meager medium brown colored head. The head recedes to a pencil thin ring and some micro dots of lacing. The aroma is moderate in strength featuring expresso beans, bourbon, charred oak and bakers chocolate. The taste is semisweet chocolate, caramel, fruity / berry coffee, light sweet bourbon and gentle oak. Mild to moderate bitterness. The mouthfeel is medium bodied with just less that average carbonation and a semi dry finish. ABV is well hidden. Overall, excellent to world class.

Poured from the bottle into a teku glass.

Real nice walnut brown nearly black body, with good reams of fine carbonation. The head is a perfect tan light mocha settling at a nice little one fingers with a thin layer and lovely top.

Delicious aroma. An absolute wonderful balance of rich dark chocolate and vanilla. Thick and velvet like sensing, with a rich hinting sense of cake like density. Minimal coffee notes however, but still a fanstic sense of rich and controlled and barrel aging notes on the nose.

Real fun palate. Mid palate has just a touch of playful carbonation that cuts nicely, but luckily the body is full and thick to give a fantastic experience. Rich dark chocolate, with a big cocoa powder note even with the light bitterness. Slightly milky touches of vanilla, mostly in the finish. The aftertaste does seem to hint of a faint touch of sour fruited coffee, but not off putting, and in a good way. Still much of the coffee character seems buried in a rich chocolate/vanilla rush and a hinted fruit character no doubt from the heat and perhaps ground bean.

Real impressive barrel aged stout, but my only issue is the coffee character is lacking, mostly in aroma. It does seem to have impart some character, but not in the most expected ways.

 

2016 version - aged well but way too heavy on the roast and or bold coffee ground taste for me.

2022, 11.8% ABV

This is satisfies as a coffee stout and I have a high bar, most don't have enough coffee for me. I get deep, robust, medium ground coffee building in intensity from mid-palate through the long, satisfying finish. It works well with the semi-sweet chocolate and light barrel character, primarily booze and vanilla with scant oak. Top notch.

Label says 2022 version. The ABV on this vintage is 11.8%.
Anyway it's still fantastic!

 

Midnight black with a half finger of soupy, mocha-colored head. It quickly settles into a messy crown that leaves similarly messy lacing.

Coffee grounds and hints of leather, vanilla and plum in the nose.

The taste lies on the sweeter side at first, with vanilla, chocolate, amaretto, toffee, plum and a blonde roast coffee in the mix of flavors up front. Some darker, roastiness from the coffee shows more in the finish.

Medium bodied, somewhat oily feel with some strong, tight carbonation.

This beer improved over the course of the glass. Aromas and flavors that seemed light and muddled at first improved in their sharpness and definition, with the coffee in particular showing some darker character. Very enjoyable.

 

 

 

Dark brown, nearly black body. Mild dark fruit coffee bean, a nice mild coffee roast with a milk chocolate and mild whiskey flavor. Medium fuller bodied, good carbonation, nice mouthfeel with a mellow combination of roasty and smooth milk chocolate finish

 

 

 

 

 

Review 1699
Champion Ground
Jackie O's Pub & Brewing
Date: 2021
Barrel-Aged Stout
I am excited to drink this beer! One of my favorite true-crime podcasts has talked about this brewery; I have never consumed any of their beers. I used a tulip glass; the temperature was 46 degrees. A dark tan airy one-fingered head with dismal retention. A hard pour could not create a proper head. The quick retention left nothing on the glass. The color charts around SRM 38, a used dark oily brown, nearly black. The appearance of the beer is okay; nothing spectacular stands out. Sad to see a hyped beer with a terrible debut.
After I pried the cap off, a huge coffee aroma emitted. Nosing the beer, I detected molasses, oaky, char, caramel, toffee, dark roasted malts, toasted bread crust, leather, tobacco, alcohol, and earthiness. The barrel age permeates the beer, which is one of the primary aromas.
The coffee flavors in the beer are quality. The coffee has this rich earthy, floral, leather, and some bitterness. Taking a few more sips, I tasted molasses, smokiness, char, oak, bourbon, oranges, tobacco, a hint of phenols, bready, caramel, toffee, raisins, and chocolate. The beer demands all your taste bud's attention.
The mouthfeel is bitter, chewy, and warming. The body is heavy, has low carbonation, and has a long delightful finish.
When I saw the terrible showing for the appearance, I got a little concerned. However, those concerns quickly evaporated. This is one monster of a beer in the nose and taste. The coffee is immense and flavorful. The heavy-handed barrel aging actually helped mellow the beer a bit. I loved this beer!

 

Look - black thick slight head and rimming
Smell - caramel mocha coffee
Taste - caramel mocha coffee
Feel - full body creamy with a light carb
Overall - fantastic

 

Look: very dark brown, some ruby highlights when held to light. Modest mocha head on the pour that mostly subsides. Clingy, oily lacing.
Smell: roasty, vanilla, mocha.
Taste: like the nose plus a fudgy, rich thing going on. Very nice.

 

Yummy!

 

 

 

 

 

2021 bottle poured cellar temp to a coffee mug. Hey, that was the right move because this is a great cup of coffee. No head, but some islands swirling around. Nose is amazing roasty coffee and charred oak barrel. First sips are wonderful gustatory representation of the olfactory sensation. Coffee flavor is dense, heavy, dirty in a good way. The bourbon barrel adds a nice cut to the coffee, along with a bit of vanilla sweetness. Mouthfeel is thick and full, perfect for the way this tastes. Alcohol has a little bite, but it’s still very crushable for a big beer. I had to drive 3 hours each way to get some Jackie O’s BA beers, but it was well worth the effort.

 

 

 

Thinner than I thought it would be.

 

 

 

12.7 oz bottle, vintage 2019, poured into a snifter at 55 degrees F:
L - black as night with a hazelnut head that quickly disappeared
S - vanilla, coffee, bourbon, malt
T - mild flavors of vanilla and molasses on the nose, with a powerful finish of coffee and bourbon
F - nice, thick mouthfeel with medium carbonation
O - great beer that is well balanced and full bodied

A- Thick 375ml bottle pours into an 8oz tasting glass with a deep black body and a one finger cocoa tan head. The head has a puffy texture and dies down somewhat quickly to a small ring at the edges. Lacing spotty and somewhat rare.

S- Bourbon barrel comes on strong right away but once you dig a bit deeper the beer opens up wonderfully with the malts and the coffee. Chocolate comes to mind right off the bat and that is joined by some caramel from the malts that creates a nice brownie feel. Some nice peppery Bourbon whiskey that gives a bit of dark fruit feel. Suggests booze but that balances with everything else nicely. A lot of vanilla throughout this. Each element comes together in harmony.

T- The barrel is a bit stronger here than in the aroma as far as the overall balance goes but good thing it is a really great barrel flavor. The whiskey, vanilla and softened oak burst onto the palate followed by rich chocolate, toasted nuts, charred barley, cocoa powder and dark roast coffee notes. A subtle smoky tobacco thing happening but secondary to the malts and barrel. Great balance of booze, sweetness and bitterness.

MF- Medium bodied overall with a moderately low level of carbonation. The mouthfeel isn't bad but it does come off a bit more oily and slick from the high ABV and it loses some of the hefty creaminess. Ends slightly warm.

I guess I have learned to trust Jackie O's with barrel aged brews over the years. A large dose of Bourbon barrel leads things off with coffee, roast grains, chocolate and vanilla notes also very strong.