Aging Experiment 9 3/4
Double Mountain Brewery & Taproom

batch number 5, 2018. a barrel aged sour stout, not something i have seen a ton of, neat little project from a brewery that i trust unequivocally. thanks to my homie for scoring some rarities during his travels to share with me, liked this a lot, weird as it is, and old as it is now too, which is a factor here i reckon. slick dark brown color pushing black with high shine and more head than expected for its size and age, rather viscous. the nose is strong, heavy roast, burnt coffee, red wine vinegar, trace vanilla and toffee richness, some smoke, some oak, and black pepper and leather nuance, real complex and quite acidic. lots of layers to the flavor too, more malt middle than i can smell, raisin and fig there, also some weirdness in the ferment along with the pucker, things like black olive and ashtray come to mind, not unpleasant even if it sounds that way on paper. a decent bit of sweetness left in this, an almost flemish thing to the sourness, sharp and higher tone, cuts the body and the sugar but this does retain some richness. stale coffee and roast at the end, red wine to me, not sure what barrels this is in, but wine would not be surprising, although i swear there is some barrel char here too more indicative of whiskey. in any event, this has aged pretty well, but sour stout always sounds like an accident to me, like beer that got infected and then is trying to be saved, im sure thats not always true, but its what it always seems like in my mind. this is better than others, quite old now, but fun to share. id love to get lips on some more aging experiments!

Sweet. Strong. Molasses and bright berry (perhaps raspberry?) to start, some dark roasty coffee and baking chocolate in the background with perhaps some salted caramel accompanying. Molasses is the dominant flavor, but it isn't alone and is nicely balanced against the other flavors going on. Very interesting beer.

I've also had the Mayan Bourbonic 2017 by Cascade Brewing, another aged sour stout, and Double Mountain's Aging Experiment 9 3/4s is not as tart, and perhaps more consistent in its presentation, with the smell matching the taste more closely.

Bought this at the Double Mountain pub a few weeks back. I'm assuming it's been aged since 2018 there at the brewery/pub.

Very unique beer. Strong stout taste, chocolate initially. Fades to some sour notes on the end. Tasty sipping beer.