Mocha Noir
Prairie Artisan Ales

Not a huge surprise that it pours super jet black with light cinnamon color head. Smells of bourbon boozyness and dark black decadent chocolate. Taste is very similar to KBS founders. This one that I am drinking is 2020 edition so 3 years old. For 14.2% this has aged phenomenally well! I get all the flavor and no alcohol harshness. Drinks silky smooth. If you through some molasses and dry baking spices (pumpkin) you would have Saint Arnold Pumpkinator if you guys haven't had that one before. Only difference is the Mocha Noir has the mouthfeel that Pumpkinator is lacking. This review is getting out of hand now! If you see this bottle buy it. If you can age it for a year or three than it's top level.

 

 

A - Pours pitch black with a thin brown head. Light sticky lacing.

S - Aroma is dark chocolate, black coffee and huge bourbon barrel.

T - The taste is liquid dark chocolate, coffee, vanilla, caramel and huge bourbon barrel.

M - Medium body with medium/low carbonation. Creamy mouthfeel with a slick dry finish.

O - Really nice. Tons of barrel.

 

Silky smooth, sweet, and luxurious from nose to finish, the bourbon barrel aged mocha stout of Prairie Ales is a sweeter, candied and velvety ale on all fronts.

Prairie Mocha Noir pours jet black, bronzen and tawny brown with mahogany tinted margins. Its swirling creme of froth struggles to crown the ale while its rich aromas of dark chocolate paired with caramel, coffee, nuttiness, vanilla and unmistakable whisky which all tease and taunt the nose. Lavishly sweet and silky, the taste of chocolate, caramel, toffee and sweet cream create a fudgy flavor that emits from the malt impressions of latte and mocha.

The middle palate shows slow development as the upstart is so rich and satisfying. The same bittersweet chocolate, dark roast coffee and candied walnut flavors remain firm and intact. Caramel, vanilla and sweet cream reaffirm the dessert-like impressions of the stout while its finish simmers in those oak soaked whisky nuances and savory port-like oxidation

Full bodied and rounded by those creamy chocolate flavors and textures, the beer's velvety mouthfeel keeps the finish rewarded with coffee and kaluha. A warm whisky spice brings a fine pepperiness, oaken surplus and honey robustness even late in finish. A long afterglow of bourbon ball candies trails like those sultry central Kentucky delicacies.

 

 

12 oz bottle, vintage 2020, poured into a snifter at 55 degrees F:
L - dark and oily with no head
S - coffee, bourbon
T - bourbon, coffee, chocolate
F - thick mouthfeel with no carbonation
O - very nice, a bit sweet but flavors are great

 

Bottle pour- black and viscous used motor oil with no head and a ring of tiny khaki bubbles. Nose is dark and boozy barrel aged goodness. Taste follows more or less. Lingering booze and barrel wood on the finish. Slightly sweet and quite delicious .

I’d love to go to Prairie one day and just drink their stouts all day. Every sip I took of this had me saying “damn this is good”. Could have been thicker.

L: like used motor oil, no head or retention.
S: bourbon barrel is prominent, vanilla, coffee, dark chocolatey aroma with a fruity component
T: very intense! boozy, chocolatey, dark fruit, vanilla rich and so powerful
F: very dense & a bit sticky
Typical Prairie Stout, a slow, very intense sipper.

 

 

This one was gifted to me by a friend; it's been sitting in the beer fridge for quite some time - bottled on 11/16/2020, so it's about 13 months old at this point.

A: Poured into a Tree House tulip. Body is black - like the Spinal Tap album; I don't think it could get any more black. I mean, how black is black? Anyway - it's black. With zero head. None. Nada. Zip. Zilch.

S: Bourbon is the immediate impression. Eventually I get some wood - I mean, I can sense some oak on the nose. And some vanilla and molasses.

T: Sweeter stuff underneath: molasses, vanilla. Mid-sip I get ripe plums and stone fruit; some chocolate (milk chocolate, not dark). Finishes with roasted coffee beans and bourbon - which lingers on the aftertaste. Alcohol is noted, but then it's 14.2% and bourbon-finished, so what did you expect?

M: No carbonation. Slick in feel. Maybe a year ago it would've felt different.

O: Decent. May have been better fresher. But it will definitely get me drunk, so there's that.

 

Imperial (14.2% abv) stout from Prairie Artisan Ales; bourbon barrel-aged, featuring coffee and "natural flavors"... 11/16/20 bottling... Sweet and rich with coffee with cream, chocolate syrup, and molasses... Boozy undertones and bit of wood on the finish... Slightly syrupy, rather flat feel; a little sticky... If you dig on sweet, high abv BBA coffee/chocolate stouts, this fits the bill...