Max Tun
Oxbow Brewing Company

 

 

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

This smells like old coffee, ash, rye, smoke, heavy roast, and booze.

Oxbow is a very good brewery, but unfortunately it doesn't really seem like they make great stouts. Saisons and the like seem to be their forte. This is just so ashy, astringent, and boozy. I don't need my stouts to be mega-pastry-sweet, but there's literally no sweetness to this one. i don't get much interesting barrel character, just booze, along with heavy spice. I'm not sure what rye whiskey barrels were used, but I don't think I'd like the spirit itself based on this.

This is thin, bitter, and lingers on the palate, with too much booziness. I would have hoped some of the boozy bitterness would subside with time, but it didn't.

I didn't really like this one. No matter, Oxbow is great at the saison game, and that's clearly where I'll stick with from now one.

December 2018 bottle from Blending and Bottling in Portland, ME. Pours black with a finger of light tan head, boozy fingers on the glass, smell is bourbon, burnt caramel, chewy boozy toffee cake, and brownie batter, taste is quite boozy with bourbon that transitions to dark roast malts and a fair amount of alcohol burn on the finish, hints of diner coffee and vanilla, feel is surprisingly light to thin with minimal carbonation. This has moments of nice roast character, but the booze dominates.