Barrel Aged Dark Sorceress
River North Brewery

2024 vintage, aged in colorado rye and whiskey barrels. Gold wax, 375ml, 19.2% (!) abv.

Hot dang! Shheeeesh! Massive rye whiskey nose! Dutched dark chocolate! Candied dark fruits, cardamom-maple toffee, gentle espresso notes. Thick and luscious but not syrupy. Perfect carbonation to lift the feel and rouse flavors. Awesome smokey char notes with immense, delicious whiskey presence and heat, and more maple near the finish. If you’re not expecting a lot of heat from this beer, I can’t help you, and likely no one can.

An absolutely delicious imperial porter, which when successful, does things stouts can’t. To me, more spice and candied fruit. Insanely technically successful beer. Very fun experience. One bottle best shared between 2-3 people. A four ounce pour will get you warmed right up lol. Go solo if you’re ready for a ride. This beer was absolutely spectacular. Yum.

poured from a gold-waxed 375mL bottle (vintage 2023) into a levante snifter. pours medium to light brown out of the bottle but settles in the glass dark brown to almost a shiny black with a thin layer of khaki colored head that fades to a collar around the rim of the glass. whiskey and chocolate on the nose and taste. also get some coffee roast as it warms up. full mouthfeel. most good imperial porters (for me anyways) end up drinking like imperial stouts and this is no exception. there’s always the slightest difference that i can never really seem to put my finger on. this was really stunning though. really good barrel presence, chocolate malts and roasted malts and a nice mouthfeel to it. doesn’t drink like 17.5% that’s for sure, although it is definitely a sipper. good stuff.