Ashcroft - Blacklist Collection No. 0004
Black Market Brewing Co.

Black Market's Ashcroft, barrel-aged imperial brown ale. 9.8% ABV.

A: About a finger and a half of creamy, off-white head. Black in the glass; copper-honey in the dimple. Sheeting is faint, but it has a decent lacing.

S: Very nice oaky caramel/maple. Light toffee. Some light wood and malt aromas.

T/MF: Ooh. That's actually fairly tasty. More of that maple, with some nice caramel malt flavor, and a touch of oak. Almost a bit of pecan, too. A tiny bit of char in the background. A hint of fig and candy sugar.

A pretty solid beer. Better than I'd expected it would be.

 

 

 

This should have "- Blacklist Collection No. 0004" appended to the name. This series has been just great so far. Very dark brown with a glint of amber, and a mustache of foam in the narrow Bitburger glass. Aroma of Bourbon and vanilla with a whiff of raw alcohol. Sharpish and spritzy mouthfeel.

Some distinct hop bitterness. Malty but not very sweet. Dark caramel, a Scotch liqueur taste, and cedar aromatics. Deeply darkly fruity but with the acidic edge of a ripe tangelo. Long bitter aftertaste with a charred note. From the 22 oz bottle purchased at Elizabeth Station in Bellingham, Wash. For some reason Black Market has great distribution in the northwest corner of the US.

03/19/2016

Appearance: No Head at all. Almost as if it’s flat. I expected a little more translucent being a brown ale but this baby is deep brown. Almost to the point of looking like a Porter or Stout but you can still see part way into the pint.



Nose: Boozy upfront. For a brown ale at 9.8% I’m not surprised that I get the bourbon upfront. A good amount of toffee and nougat in there as well.



Flavor: Bourbon and the alcohol from it are right there in the beginning. The chocolate and toffee notes that you get in there do a nice balancing job. Toning the Boozieness down a bit. Great mouthfeel, very silky smooth the lack of carbonation definitely apparent on the palate. This fully flavored brown lingers in the mouth for a long but delightful finish.



Rating: 3.5/5: Bourbon barrel aged porters and stouts want to be this balanced. Toffee and chocolate notes from the malt play beautifully with the bourbon. The coffee flavor that you get from most barrel aged porters and stouts is missing. But it is a brown ale after all. One of the best of it’s types that I’ve ever had!



-Cheers!

This beer kicked my ass for a 9.8% I'm used to pretty strong beers but for some reason this one was tough to drink. If you like heavy imperial barrel aged style brown ales and stouts I suppose this would be a good one.