Beyond Good And Evil - Double Barrel-Aged
Hill Farmstead Brewery

 

 

 

 

 

 

2024 vintage

S-- Dried dark fruit, bourbon, white oak, roast, vanilla, fig newton
T -- Maple, very wet bourbon character, simple syrup, herbal hop, bittersweet chocolate. The maple is not at all cloying -- really nice
F -- Not super syrupy. I've been coming around to non-pastry sweet stouts lately
O -- A worthy sibling to an already great beer. If you like really pronounced bourbon barrel character, this is for you

89/100

Bottle: Poured a pitch-black color stout with a dark brown foamy head with some retention and some lacing notes. Aroma of chocolate notes with some strong bourbon notes and light maple notes. Taste is also a mix of chocolate malt notes with some bourbon and vanilla notes with some light maple notes. Body is pretty full with average carbonation with some light discernible alcohol notes. Solid double barrel-aged stout with good balance overall.

Poured from a 500mL bottle into my new Waterford beer glass. Pours shiny black with a thin mocha brown foam cap that recedes into a thin collar around the glass. Heavy bourbon and oak with hints of chocolate and vanilla. It’s about of bourbon barrel yet so balanced and subtle in only a fashion HF could accomplish. Taste follows with less bourbon and oak, although still a fair amount, plus light maple sweetness and tobacco. Damn fine tasting. Full mouthfeel. This is pretty fantastic. I’ve always thought HF’s stouts were a little suspect but this one rocks. Smooth but subtle maple and tons of bourbon and oak plus char, tobacco, vanilla and chocolate. Maybe even a little more maple in the finish. Excellent.

 

This one pours a fairly dark black color, with a small head, and not much lacing.

This smells like roasted malt, high quality dark chocolate, chocolate covered espresso beans, maple candies, oak, and leather.

This has less maple character than the standard Beyond Good and Evil, but that’s fine with me. It’s still there, but more of a component part to the highly excellent barrel character. The combination of all the components kind of remind of a sort of espresso maple candy concoction. There’s lots of roast and oakiness that help keep this balanced and too sweet. There’s also cookie dough, and a sort of leathery herbal character from the bourbon.

This is medium bodied, pretty rich but not super thick, sweet, or heavy. There’s basically no booziness to it, despite what I assume is a fairly high ABV.

I think this is a clear upgrade from the usually still excellent original Beyond Good and Evil.