Hellshire XII
Oakshire Brewing

On tap at Roscoe's today. Another Hellshire beer under my belt.

The beer pours the expected blackish brown color with very good head retention, but surprisingly light lacing. On the nose, the prototypical ba RIS here. I'm getting bourbon, molasses, vanilla, chocolate and light brown sugar. The flavor profile replicates the nose pretty closely in this fairly sweet impy stout, but is much richer than I was expecting. Also, unlike some previous vintages, the molasses component isn't over the top in this beer. Mouthfeel is very full, with a long finish. This is a sizeable ba impy stout. Alcohol is pretty well integrated into the flavor profile, and so drinkability isn't too bad. That being said, you can tell the abv. is up there in this one and so one small glass was all I could do.

Another solid effort from the folks at Oakshire, and one of the better Hellshire beers I've tried. Well done!

Poured into a Fremont small snifter. Pours nearly black, appearing opaque black in the glass with a two finger chocolate head with great retention and solid lacing; looks great. Aroma of dark toasted malt with moderate char, coffee, baker chocolate and whiskey. Flavor is dark toasted malt with light char, bakers chocolate, plum and cherry, bakers chocolate, coffee and hints of vanilla; bourbon chocolate finish. Moderate to dense bodied with creamy mouth feel. Haven't seen this bad boy up in our area for a while, but grabbed one when it arrived; glad I did. A very dark, rich and almost viscous stout. Excellent chocolate and bourbon character with some coffee and interesting fruit notes from the bourbon barrels; the cherry note was unexpected. Stellar. Looks, smells, tastes and feels great.

L: as you'd expect looks like motor oil
S: Getting a cocoa nose with something resembling nuts.
T: more cocoa with leather, a dark fruit component (dried cherries?) and a touch of vanilla followed by subtle coconut.
F: is thick but not cloying
O: A very complex stout. buy a few this will age very well.