Imperial Eclipse Stout - Wolfenbuttel (2019)
FiftyFifty Brewing Co.

2019 vintage, a rarity i assume, especially at this point, have not seen a double colored wax beer from this series in years, i always look forward to these so much, and this was is sure one of the most unique ive had to date! straight up aged in jagermeister barrels! not a drink i tend to love on its own, but boy does it take this beer to a place that bourbon and rye barrels never have! gorgeous pour too, a little higher headed than the others we sat down with this time, looks more alive, still with high shine, mirror black, lovely. it smells and tastes more botanical than sweet, which is not how i would describe a shot of jager, this is almost gin-esque, amaro bitterness too, strong suggestions of spruce, raisin, coffee, leather, anise seed, black pepper, licorice, toffee, molasses, amaretto, and dark volcanic soil, its all over the place but its also crazy cohesive. the wood element itself seems lesser here than in many of the other variants, but i dont really miss it, and it makes the beer feel somewhat less dense and heavy, we end up drinking this oddly quickly for how complex it is. a slightly burnt finish is neat in here against some of the residual sugar, and i love the balance between the spicy bitterness and the clinging sweet, its delicious. not only does the jager transform the beer, but the reverse is also true, i have never appreciated it quite like i did when i was drinking this. super unique, the base beer still comes through which is why all of these are so great, but this one ranks among the most memorable for me thus far!

On tap at Swillburger/The Playhouse in Rochester, NY.

This one pours a fairly dark black color, with a small head and no lacing.

This smells like Jager, of course - that flavor just dominates here, with that herbal and stale booziness coming through so strongly. There's lots of spicy oak.

This all kind of overwhelms that Eclipse base stout, as all I get is just waves of boozy spice and oak and Jager. It just does not work for me. It's kind of clear why more breweries have not attempted to age beers in this type of barrel.

This is thin and too light, unfortunately like a lot of the Eclipse series. It's not very drinkable.

From a gimmicky perspective, I'm happy to have tried this. From a purely flavor perspective, this is a mistake.