Bourbon Barrel Russian Imperial Stout
Dragonmead Microbrewery

A pricey $6.75 would-be tulip, I got this as part of my sampler. On the menu, the ABV was listed as "0.0%", which I take to mean "We have no idea" or "Oops, typo."

Appearance: Pitch black with a surprisingly fluffy, brown head on it. A fair amount of lacing as well. Nice as hell.

Smell: Plain cake doughnuts. Maybe cinnamon or some sort of smell like that. Bourbon? Honestly, not so much... not to my nose. It's like the roastiness with the light barrel character provided a doughnut sort of aroma rather than vanilla. Unexpected and certainly strange, but very pleasing. Not at all what I saw coming. Roastiness is also in there, of course, with those coffee sort of notes. Not smelling much of that dark fruit thing. Alcohol doesn't seem to be there to my nose either.

Taste/feel: My first thought -- wow, not much bourbon character, eh? I have an itching feeling that this wasn't aged in the barrels for long. I'd feel safe in saying that if you don't like bourbon/bourbon barrel beers, you may like this one, because the barrel character is very slight. Like the aroma, I get a doughnut sort of flavor (I'm not complaining!) as well as a bit of vanilla and roast. Alcohol? Maybe? I'd have a rough time guessing the ABV on this one. My assumption is that it'd be at least 8% though. The feel is smooth with a medium/heavy body and a pretty light carbonation.

This could easily disappoint somebody expecting a big, bold, bourbon barrel to your face sort of beer. I haven't had their regular RIS, so I can't compare the two, but I really dug this one with its doughnut flavor that strangely was more present than the doughnut in Evil Twin's Imperial Doughnut Break... and this beer (I'd ASSUME) has zero doughnuts in it. Call me crazy.. go ahead!