Bourbon Barrel Solitude Stout
The Lucky Monk

 

 

 

Very good but could use more aging

 

 

 

Served on tap at the brew pub. Pours dark brown with reddish highlights at the edges. Minimal head and lacing. Nose is full of bourbon vanilla notes along with a touch of oak. The taste fails I live up to the nose... Sweet malts followed by lactic sourness... Is this intentional? Not working for me. The finish has some chocolate and roast, but the sour quality really ruins this for me. Mouthfeel is thin and watery with mild carbonation. Overall, I'm wishing I didn't order this. Something seems to have went wrong in the barrel.

This beer was extra’d to me by Rwmiscik during one of my first trades. Wax-dipped 22 oz bottle. Pours pretty much jet black with a small, brown, quickly settling head and minimal lace. Nose is a mix of prominent chocolate and bourbon, lesser oak and vanilla notes.

Flavor follows suit; there is ample bourbon barrel character here, plenty of vanilla and chocolate, and an appealing oakiness. Average roastiness and char, hints of coffee but the chocolate/cocoa flavor is dominant. Moderately sweet. Pretty tasty for a non-imperial.

Medium bodied with moderate carbonation, not very full or smooth but that’s expected for the lower ABV and the style in general. Fairly dry in the finish. Overall this was a pleasant surprise; the flavors were big and tasty and there was nice melding of sweet chocolate, bitterness, and bourbon character.

 

 

Enjoyed @ The Lucky Monk while enjoying some fried deviled eggs. Odd combo, don't judge me :)

Pours dark brown, almost black with.cola edging. A finger of light mocha head sits for about 30 seconds. Spotty lacing.

The nose has subtle bourbon and malt notes such as vanilla, caramel, cherry and roast.

The taste is much the same but with a bit more of everything. Vanilla, oak and caramel come out from the JD barrels but the base stout still offers a pretty decent roast characteristic.

The mouthfeel is a tad thin and falla short in this department. Nice carb tho.

Overall, decent bba stout with pretty nice overall qualities, drinkability being one of them along with a nice flavor profile.

Served in a tulip snifter at the brewpub.

A new iteration of this beer, I was told by the brewer that it was the Solitude Stout aged for three months in Jack Daniels barrels. Clocks in at 5.6% ABV. It pours a deep onyx topped by a finger of tan foam. Quite lovely, actually...for a beer. The nose comprises bourbon, chocolate, molasses, oak, light vanilla, light roasted malts, and a very light touch of chicory. Smells downright delicious. The taste does eventually bring in more of this tastiness, but it is preceded by slight tinge of sour cherry, which then recedes into a strong banana flavor. Then the bourbon stout-iness returns, along with more oak, an extra blast of bourbon, a healthy amount of buttery toffee, and some light char. It would be great, were it not for the sour fruitiness at the beginning. The body is a straight medium, with a moderate carbonation and a pretty dry finish. Overall, what could have been a damn fine stout suffers from a possible minor infection...if not that, it's just a bit too thin, a bit too fizzy, and a couple of the flavors are skewing off a bit. I was told, though, that a new batch, this time with Jim Beam barrels, is coming in a few months, so we'll see what happens then...

A: Served in a tulip snifter with a about a 1/4" of very thin, very big bubbled, but also very resilient light tan head (it was as if some one had put a straw into the glass and blew the bubbles that became the head on this beer). Opaque black in color. Visibly thin.

S: Heavy aroma of vanilla and oak and to a lesser extent, chocolate. Very fragrant. Smells like a freshly baked chocolate chip cookie.

T: Unfortunately the taste did not follow through on the smell: Very thin flavor of vanilla and oak on the front end, rounded out with roasted malts. Develops a long cocoa finish.

M: Medium in body and much thinner than I would have expected. Low carbs. Dry on the finish.

D: This beer has a host of problems, not the least of which being their servers don't know what it is. I was told by my waiter that this beer was the exact same beer as the porter, but aged in bourbon barrels and he actually sold me this beer as a Bourbon Barrel Porter. But when I went to speak with one of the bartenders, he told me it was a entirely different beer, which I am inclined to believe given the difference in ABV's. This beer is also very thin in both mouthfeel and flavor and the low alcohol content doesn't do much to reinforce the "bourbonly" qualities of the beer. However, the lightness of the beer does make it a bit easier to drink, though I am not sure how serious I can really take this beer.