Maman | Perennial Artisan Ales

4.75/5  rDev +3.3%
look: 4.75 | smell: 4.75 | taste: 4.75 | feel: 4.75 | overall: 4.75

4.65/5  rDev +1.1%
look: 4.75 | smell: 4.75 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.75 | overall: 4.75

Strong oak and barrel flavors out of the gate. As the beer warms, the flavors transition to sweet molasses and bitter chocolate, wrapped in sharp tannins from the barrels. Thick mouthfeel and a sweet dessert finish.

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4.75/5  rDev +3.3%
look: 4.75 | smell: 4.75 | taste: 4.75 | feel: 4.75 | overall: 4.75

5/5  rDev +8.7%
look: 5 | smell: 5 | taste: 5 | feel: 5 | overall: 5

Maman 2018

Pours a truly oily, coal black color with a fluffy, beige head, receeding to a smaller ring of lacing.

Smells of profound bitter chocolate, bakers chocolate, campfire and a gentle, yet profound bourbon aroma. Relatively straight forward on the nose, yet equally intriguing as for its complex bourbon and chocolate interplay.

Drinks surprisingly easy, thick with a fuller body, its booze being perfectly soaked up by the luscious chocolate flavor profile. This features almost a flat level of carbonation, while the beer‘s mouthfeel is that that thick, that it benefits tremendously from the lack of potentially mineralic effervescence, highlighting its multi layered chocolate decadence.

Tastes of rich milk chocolate, soothed by layers of whipped cream and oaky, slighty warming bourbon barrel. Warms up even more with a rustic barrel presence, soothed by the incredibly smooth and silk mouthfeel, accompanied by bitter chocolate and slightly spicy licorice. Finishes a little sweeter, reminiscend of a rock sugar cocoa blend, tied together by tobacco and even more whipped cream, more licorice and a little bit of charred malts, topped off by a long lasting, spicy bourbon aftertaste.

This is astonishtingly complex while the beers drinks incredibly easy at the same time. Also this offers the most incredible mouthfeel, smooth and soft, caressing the tongue in the most pleasant way, while handling the 13 abv playfully. On the one hand this is a pretty straight forward chocolate imperial stout, on the other hand this opens up the palate to a plethora of finely nuanced flavors, resulting in a truly complex tasting beer. What a treat, this is a clear winner due to its emphasized world class mouthfeel, allowing the flavors to shine like in no other beer.

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4.63/5  rDev +0.7%
look: 5 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 5 | overall: 4.75

4.5/5  rDev -2.2%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.5

4.66/5  rDev +1.3%
look: 4.75 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.75 | feel: 5 | overall: 4.75

4.09/5  rDev -11.1%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 4

Used motor oil black with an intensely dark rolled mocha collar.

Smell is all the dark fruit. It's really intense of date, prune, raisin, and more--all cocoa dusted, dried and well aged. Enhancing this effect is a potently dark charred oak that has a maple character.

Taste brings tons of wood to the palate, while dark fruit still plays a major role with a sort of rum raisin character. The oak again is maple-esque before it melds into hot vanilla extract and toasted coconut.

While this beer is very complex and layered, it's also numbingly boozy. The thin to medium body is assisted by a super thick, firm fizz and a very dry finish.

I'm very happy I got to try this on draft instead of trade a pirate's booty for a stout that's overall very comparable to some of our solid, more accessible barrel aged bottles from this area.

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4.69/5  rDev +2%
look: 4.75 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.75 | feel: 4.75 | overall: 4.75

4/5  rDev -13%
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4

4.5/5  rDev -2.2%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.5

4.52/5  rDev -1.7%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.75 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.5

4.49/5  rDev -2.4%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.5

4.93/5  rDev +7.2%
look: 4.75 | smell: 4.75 | taste: 5 | feel: 5 | overall: 5

07/2016 - 2015 vintage - This is a perfect, non-adjunct stout - wow! So fudgy, rye, rich cocoa nose; luscious mouthfeel that lingers for days, plus some light smoke, super roasty, lightly bitter, wee toffee, and some vanilla on the back of the palate; negligible booze, roast, dark chocolate, whiskey on the finish. Blown away!

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4.53/5  rDev -1.5%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.75 | overall: 4.5

4.75/5  rDev +3.3%
look: 4.75 | smell: 4.75 | taste: 4.75 | feel: 4.75 | overall: 4.75

2017 Bottle
Pours pitch black with a thin deep brown ring of head. Looks viscous in the glass, stains the glass gold. Nose is huge vanilla, marshmallow, spicy whiskey, rum, milk chocolate, coconut, smoke, char, wood. Taste is big chocolate up front, spicy rye whiskey, vanilla, charred marshmallow, some sweet toasted coconut. Big, thick, chewy stout. Enjoyed this start to finish, hides the booziness, but the barrel notes are extraordinarily layered. The shining example of what a non-adjunct stout can be. Absolutely phenomenal!

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4.75/5  rDev +3.3%
look: 4.75 | smell: 4.75 | taste: 4.75 | feel: 4.75 | overall: 4.75

2015-4.75
2017-5
2018-4.5 (wine and cheese shop version, needs time to mellow barrel)

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5/5  rDev +8.7%
look: 5 | smell: 5 | taste: 5 | feel: 5 | overall: 5

4.71/5  rDev +2.4%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4.75 | taste: 4.75 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.75

4.9/5  rDev +6.5%
look: 5 | smell: 5 | taste: 4.75 | feel: 5 | overall: 5

5/5  rDev +8.7%
look: 5 | smell: 5 | taste: 5 | feel: 5 | overall: 5

4.94/5  rDev +7.4%
look: 5 | smell: 4.75 | taste: 5 | feel: 5 | overall: 5

5/5  rDev +8.7%
look: 5 | smell: 5 | taste: 5 | feel: 5 | overall: 5

4.74/5  rDev +3%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4.75 | taste: 4.75 | feel: 4.75 | overall: 4.75

4.54/5  rDev -1.3%
look: 4.75 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.75 | overall: 4.5