Plead The 5th - Bourbon Barrel-Aged
Dark Horse Brewing Company

Poured from a twelve ounce can, the body is an opaque black with light tan. Brief, small head. Light lacing.

Aroma previews taste: sweet bourbon barrel. Taste also features vanilla, oak, lightly sweet chocolate, and a bit of earthy hop. The barrel briefly flashes hot (good in my book) but backs off long before approaching abrasive. Finish dries up quickly and a bit of barrel lingers.

Mouthfeel is medium. A bit light for the style and carbonation could use a tick or two up. No dealbreaker but room for improvement.

The pour is stout black with a short brown head that left scant lacing.
The taste led with dark fruit, merging into coffee and chocolate, a touch of bourbon and a hint of oak. Other flavors swirled around, vanilla and molasses, a touch of leather and earthy goodness.
Well balanced, more AIS than RIS in my opinion, but I still really like it.
The feel is slightly viscous but certainly short of chewy. A little too easy to quaff for the ABV.
OA, I enjoy these annually because they’re really good.

 

Canned version. Pours an effervescent chestnut/mahogany with one finger of rapidly falling mocha colored head. No head retention or lacing

S: Some barrel notes, coffee, some brown sugar notes once warmed up, plus vanilla. Sort of tails off as it warms

T: Follows the nose, oaky dryness, dark chocolate, hints of vanilla & leafy hops, roastyness as well up front. More coffee, Baker's Chocolate, oaky dryness& a little bit of booze smack as this beer warms up, coconut also asserts itself & just a little bit of barrel twang. Finishes with plenty of coffee, dark chocolate, plus good amounts of coconut, vanilla & barrel & a little leafy hop

MF: Medium body, restrained carbonation, warming & a little sticky

This is about as coffee forward as you can get on a BA Imp Stout for me to really enjoy it, all flavors are in harmony. A bit of a sipper to be sure. I do wonder if this is better from the bottle. If everything was as good as the flavor A++ Just an A/A+ instead

 

 

L: Dark pitch black as it should be with no light at all. Looks very thick.
S: Dark chocolate, Dark coffee roast, some faint dark fruit, and bourbon barrel age is well hidden.
T: Absolutely heavenly and smooth with the flavors mentioned under the smell. Does not feel like an 11% ABV beer, yet you get the effects afterwards.
F: Thick, smooth, and luscious.
Overall: This is the best Imperial Stout that I've had and it's not even close. I first had this in 2021 during the warm weather months and it's truly better than even KBS.

 

Very good head production, but retention is lacking, fading to only the thinnest possible ring around the rim of the glass before long. Body is a lovely obsidian hue, cola-like along the edges.

Aroma is quite strong, prominently featuring the bourbon. Notes of bourbon mash, brown sugar, oak, leather, red grape, cherry, coconut, syrup.

Flavor absolutely delivers on a classic, BCBS-like BBA imperial stout. Lots of bourbon, but not overpowering; moderate char; bitter, but not overly hoppy nor too roasty, coming across on the more restrained side of RIS. Toffee, ginger cookies, raisin, coffee, prune, bourbon, oak, leather, white pepper, blackstrap molasses.

Exceptionally easy to sip, savor, and chew, despite the ABV and barrel influence. Does finish fairly hot on the back third, letting you know just how big it is.

This is an excellent BA RIS, with tons of complexity and an admirable restraint on all fronts. It's supremely drinkable, and less rich than most others, without sacrificing flavor. That said, I personally wish it delivered more richness along with that complexity, perhaps just a touch more sweetness and thickness. I also favor AIS over RIS, which certainly influences my take on this one.

 

 

 

Plead the 5th from Dark Horse Brewing. 12 oz can. Stored at 34 degrees at home. Received from @Whyteboar in NBW BIF #16. Reviewed 05/12/22. Note that I use DD/MM/YY protocol.
Undated can. Served at 53.4 degrees in a hand washed and dried Jester King snifter. The final temperature was 57.7 degrees.
Appearance – 3.5.
First pour – Amber Brown (SRM 18), clear.
Body – Brown (SRM 20), opaque. Under direct light, same. When rear lite, opaque except at the edges – bottom edge ruby, top edge olive.
Head – Average (Maximum 1.2 cm, aggressive center pour), buff, high density with a few surface rocks, quickly diminishing to a 0.1 – 0.15 cm crown and a thin island.
Lacing – None. Not much expected at 11% ABV.
Aroma – 4.25 – Chocolate, weak char, and some hints of bourbon. No hops, no yeast.
Flavor – 4.5 – Chocolate and slight char with a slightly bitter aftertaste. Bourbon not detected. Slight oakiness. No hops or yeast. No ethanol (11 % ABV as marked on label) aroma or taste. Moderate gastric warming occurs. No dimethylsulfide or diacetyl.
Palate – 4 – Medium, dry side of creamy, soft but lively carbonation.
Final impression and summation: 4 (After deducting 0.25 point for undated personal container) Look unremarkable, pretty much like every other high ABV RIS or Impy stout. Aroma is fairly typical but has a char note that many lack and lacks the coffee notes that many have. Bourbon is present on the nose but seems absent in the taste. The taste also has both chocolate and char as well as an oakiness from vanillin but lacks the tannin notes. As the temperature reaches the end, some bourbon notes finally appear. Overall, a good RIS that’s certainly more subtle than most.

 

I had a 2016 and was curious what 6 years of aging would do. Definitely mellowed it out a bit and knocked off the rougher edges. Mostly left with a mellow oak and vanilla bourbon flavor over a nice toasty base stout. Quite nice.

 

 

 

 

Look - Fantastic black and thick with a really nice thick foamy tan head
Smell - dark chocolate caramel molasses roasted malts boozy and bourbon woody smells
Taste - chocolate coffee with that woody caramel molasses bourbon barrel from the get go. Slight dark fruit and vanilla in the back with a little bit of bitterness
Feel - medium full body with a very light carb. Could use a little more thickness to it in my opinion but still nice
Overall - Really nice Classic BA Russian Imperial. Very complex with a ton of smells and flavors.