Big Bad Baptist - Pecan Pie
Epic Brewing Company

Review: 2206
Name: Big Bad Baptist Pecan Pie
Brewery: Epic Brewing
Location: SLC, UT
Style: Barrel Aged Imperial Stout
A.B.V.: 11.5%
Canned: 2020
Date: 22 Sept 2024
I decided to try one of my Big Bad Baptist from the cellar tonight. I served the four-year-old beer in a tulip glass at 46 degrees. The pour created a one-fingered creamy, foamy, dark tan head with average retention. Some quick dissipation left some lacing on the glass. The beer is black with dark mahogany hues, charting at SRM 38, and opaque. The beer's appearance is average for this style; again, I would have liked better retention.
Nosing the glass, I smell nuts, caramel, molasses, oak, burnt sugar, and caramel. Smelling the glass again, I notice a faint cinnamon, coffee, chocolate, dusty, vanilla, whiskey, char, and earthy note. The malt profile is bready, roasty, toasty, and has some sweetness. A slight hop aroma is noticeable but hard to define. The aromas are not vibrant, thus making it a challenge to smell all the beer has to offer.
The flavors start with chocolate, nuts, caramel, coffee, tobacco, oak, and char. As I roll the beer around on the palate, I taste bourbon, coffee, molasses, vanilla, floral esters, earthy, cinnamon, dusty barn, char, and raisins. The beer does remind me of a chocolate pecan pie with whiskey.
Nothing stands out as a star; the flavors are all muted. Sadly, the barrel aging does not add any complexity.
The mouthfeel is chewy and thick with a slightly warm finish. The body is heavy, with medium-light carbonation.
Overall, this beer is average. I taste nuts, chocolate, whiskey, and a doughy malt, but it is all muted. It is boozy, with the cinnamon adding the most flavor to the overall experience. As I continued trying higher caliber beers, I realized brewers could amp up nuts and chocolate with a deeper barrel finish, bringing more character to the beer. Would a fresher beer be better?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

8 ball black with a bubbly chocolate milk head of moderate height receding to a thin collar.

Really intensely chocolatey and syrupy, moreso than any of the other BBB's to start, in part because the casking is so surprisingly mild, particularly after having just had the rye. However, the exhale is warming and oaky, whereupon second sip the cinnamon amps up some of that heat without contributing too much flavor. It also becomes a little milky over time.

Poured a black body with minimal khaki head and lace ring down the glass. Mainly an aroma of chocolate and vanilla with a hint of pecans. Smooth, slightly boozy, has a pecan and vanilla sweetness with a smattering of chocolate. Doesn't really remind me of pecan pie too much but there is sweetness and even a touch of cinnamon on the boozy finish (will say that the booze didn't really come out in this beer at all).

 

Ok so this is a strange one. Very good beer. Love the big Bad Baptist series. Like this one, a lot! But the whole time I’m drinking I’m not picking up pecan pie at all. But now that I’m done my mouth feels like I just ate a slice!

 

 

Large bomber bottle, poured into a Spiegelau barrel-aged snifter at ~40 degrees and given time to warm during consumption.

L: Pours your standard stout inky black, though it seems more like a dark cola at times along the edges during sips. A fairly aggressive pour produced a head of dark brown foam roughly a finger and a half thick, with okay retention ere becoming a cap and ring.

S: Nutty, sweet, with a dark chocolate and pie crust tone. Faint coffee and oaky-caramel booze in the distance.

T: Sweet indeed, up front and center, like brown sugar with some pecans ground in. Once past the initial sip, some coffee and dark chocolate manifest, alongside a smidge of vanilla as the sweetness yields to a loamy bitterness. As it nears the swallow, the barrel appears, softly, in the backdrop, charred oak and caramel. The alcohol barely seems present save for a bit of an afterburn.

F: Thin for a stout, light to medium in body.

O: Interesting, though not likely to be a repeater for me.

Good head production and decent retention.

Nose may not exactly evoke pecan pie, but it's very inviting. Whiskey, chocolate, vanilla, cinnamon, caramel, brown sugar, molasses, coffee, oak. It smells absolutely delectable.

It's less sweet on the palate, and a bit thin for my preference. The whiskey is surprisingly hot given at least a year of age, especially mid-sip - but pleasantly so, not burdensome. It's not quite dessert stout territory, maintaining some nice bitterness from the roasted malt, coffee, oak, and even the whiskey. The cinnamon is noticeable but restrained, yielding to the vanilla just before the whiskey takes over. Pecans are definitely an afterthought, not really a factor until the last third.

This is an excellent flavored BA imperial stout. It does not taste like pecan pie to me, but I think that's for the best, because the result is damn delicious. It's less a pastry or dessert stout, and more a flavored BBA imperial stout, along the lines of Bourbon County (albeit thinner).