Twelve Gauge Imperial Stout (Mexican Chocolate)
Payette Brewing

Taster at Black Friday. Inky black pour, nice cap of thick creamy beige head. Smoky, bitter aroma, chocolate. More if the chocolate in the taste, some cinnamon. Mellow, but potent.

2018 bottling here, shared on Thanksgiving with the family, definitely past its prime but still carrying some heat, both from the spicing and also the barrel character...back of the throat has a nice little burn still after the swallow. Chocolate notes are still there with the caramelly bourbon, cinnamon.

a barrel aged imperial stout with cocoa nibs, cinnamon, and chili, really well done, and the 2017 vintage is drinking real nice now a couple of years later, no sign of its strength at all, and if the adjuncts have faded, they must have been pretty intense to start with, as everything seems so well in balance here, i liked this a lot. its smooth and thick and deep brown without a big head on it from the tap. aroma is chocolate forward with some vanilla from the whiskey there, and then the cinnamon as well, less from the chili. the flavor has just a little warmth to it from the chili and the booze, but to me the cinnamon is the most forward of these added ingredients. lots of chocolate too with the malt and the cocoa together, very smooth to drink on, mellowed well by the time on oak and the time in the keg too by now, but i dont taste a lot of wood here. the whiskey is lighter than it smells too, so not super bourbon barrel aged tasting to me, although the feel is right and i dont miss it really, i think the flavor is excellent as it is. the cinnamon makes it kind of cozy and wintery, and the pepper is never too much. quite a bit better than its ratings here in my opinion, perhaps it just needed some time to mellow and develop, but i really liked it...

 

 

Pitch black body with thin toasted brown head. Lacing is hard to distinguish, and this is most definitely a sipper.

Flavors are multilayered; sweet malts and chocolate then hops and alcohol and peppers. The end result is similar to a traditional aged stout; but the way it gets there is what makes this fun. The way the peppers and alcohol is interact... very good. The cacao and sweet malts are likewise melded, the hops projecting moderate pine.

Very good.

Not good. Don't let the wax fool ya. Had this at a BA cinnamon/coffee/vanilla stout share and it was by far last place. Attractive packaging, but not a winner from these guys, whom I have had some pretty good beers from.