Colorado Barrel Collective #2: Ice Cream Clone Barrel-Aged Milk Stout
Bull & Bush Brewery

BOTTLE: Maroon label with a classy design. Bottled 09/10/14. Purchased at Bull & Bush last year. Branded pry-off crown cap. 1 pint .9 fl oz. Brown glass.

Served cold into a Guinness goblet and allowed to come to room temperature over the course of consumption. Expectations are high given how much I've enjoyed barrel aged stouts from Bull & Bush in the past. Reviewed live as a barrel aged milk stout per the label.

6% ABV.

No bubble show forms as it's poured.

HEAD: Occupies 90% of the glass. Khaki-tan colour. Creamy and frothy to style, with a nice even thick consistency. Leaves rings of lacing as it recedes. Retention is excellent - about 10 minutes. Impressive. Soft-looking and inviting, though it could be darker and richer, with a better complexion.

BODY: Opaque solid black. No yeast can be seen within.

Looks right for the style. It's not unique or special, but the head retention is noticeably great and it looks good across the board.

AROMA: Cream, subtle genuine vanilla bean (probably from the bourbon barrel), Hershey's chocolate syrup, fudge, milk chocolate sweetness, dark malt sweetness, and a hint of toasted coconut (probably from the bourbon barrel). I don't pick up on any rich white oak or toastiness in terms of the barrel wood, but the barrel character seems seamlessly integrated into the base beer, never eclipsing it or otherwise clashing. While it does seem sweet, it's not the cloying beer you might fear given it's an "ice cream clone."

There are no overt yeast or hop notes, to style. It's not a boozy aroma by any means.

Aromatic intensity is mild.

TASTE & TEXTURE: Does it succeed as an ice cream clone? Not really. But all the flavours are there...vanilla bean, milk chocolate, Hershey's chocolate syrup, cream. While it is soft in terms of mouthfeel, an even softer, creamier, and thicker texture would play into the ice cream motif better. A bit more body would be nice. It's smooth and wet, which fits the premise but doesn't serve the beer; less of a porter-like mouthfeel and more of a roasty coarse & dry stout mouthfeel would improve this. There's plenty of lactose/milk sugar sweetness, but luckily it never dives fully into Whoppers territory.

The balance is roughly there, but it could use some dialing in. Well-built for a milk stout, but the bourbon barrel character isn't coming into focus...I question how long they actually kept it in barrels. There's a hint of faint bourbon, but the toasted coconut promised by the aroma never manifests and there's no oak presence at all. Just more vivid, expressive, and deep flavours in general are needed to help this build run with the big dogs. I like it, but the flavour duration could be improved and it's a bit shallow. More intricacy, subtlety, nuance, and care in its execution would really help.

OVERALL: There's no quite a harmony of texture and taste, and the beer isn't gestalt...but there's a lot of potential here, and the premise of the beer is a good one. Like ice cream, this doesn't get better as it comes to temperature; I'd recommend drinking it colder than you would most milk stouts. As much as I enjoy this, if you're brewing a milk stout in Colorado, you're up against Left Hand and that's tough competition. I can't see the discerning drinker picking this over that, and that's a problem - especially since this has the ostensible advantage (and concomitant price hike) of being barrel aged. It sits uncomfortably between the ice cream clone build they're after and traditional style conventions, but with some tailoring this could really be solid.

Low B- (3.27)

 

 

 

 

This beer has an odd sweetness that masks any potential stout flavor. Drinks close to a white stout in the lack of roast and body. It looks like a watery quad. There's nothing on the nose to give you an impression of what you're going to drink.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks to Wowcoolman for sharing this one at Oneinchaway's tasting.

Bottled 9/10/14.

Pours an almost opaque super dark brown with a foamy dark khaki head that settles to wisps of film on top of the beer. Small dots of lace slowly drip into the remaining beer on the drink down. Smell is of dark roasted malt, cocoa powder, vanilla frosting, bourbon, and wood aromas. Taste is much the same with cocoa powder, cinnamon, spice, vanilla, and bourbon flavors on the finish. There is a mild amount of roast bitterness on the palate with each sip. This beer has a lower level of carbonation with a slightly crisp and medium bodied mouthfeel. Overall, this is a good beer with tasty flavors that are almost root beer like in my opinion.

Serving type: bottle.

 

Black in color with minimal penetration to light. A fingernail of khaki colored head covers the majority of the top. Aroma is of lactose, vanilla,and chocolate. The flavor is mainly lactose,vanilla,and dark malt. The mouth is creamy and a bit sticky.

 

Big thanks to ASak10 for this delicious treat!

Black, thick beauty, languishes in the glass with a lasting finger of thick dark tan foam.

Light/medium strength aroma, but full of barrel notes of oak, alcohol, and vanilla, also some nice candy sweet to balance the roasty notes that are represented by chocolate and light bitter smoke

Taste is all of the aroma, with the barrel stepping back a bit, and the sweet, roast, and alcohol stepping it up. Funny, they call it Ice Cream Clone, and the creamy chocolate, sweet vanilla of it really do justify the name. End of sip is juicy and clean, with warm sweet alcohol caressing the lightest bitter roast.

Quite coating and light carbonation make a wonderful treat on the palate, creamy and clean.

Wonderful beer, fantastically simple and well done, a treat that needs slow sipping and a great cigar to accompany. Highly recommended

So much going on here, just a delicious, very drinkable beer. The bourbon comes through strong in the nose, but almost imparts a chocolate milk taste.

A great beer that I wish there was more of...