Caramel Puf’t
Prairie Artisan Ales

Prairie Artisan Caramel Puf't BBA Imperial Stout, 13.9% ABV. Pours black with the usual Prairie stout head, none. It did have decent sized caramel floaties. Aroma is caramel and vanilla/marshmallow. Taste is bourbon, caramel, and marshmallow, moderately sweet, slightly bitter. Decent mouthfeel, if a bit light on carbonation, leaves sticky lips. Overall outstanding.

 

Poured from a 12 oz bottle bought at the taproom in Oklahoma City.

The beer looks inky black in the glass, but holding it to the light shows a dark mahogany with a red tint. Dark brown head was attractive from the pour, but immediately dissipated. There was a serious amount of floating debris chunks on the surface of the beer and around the edges of the glass. I'm not sure what it was; definitely not yeast or hops. The chunks had a mild taste similar to hot chocolate mix powder. In all, the chunks were unattractive, but they did not affect the tasting experience.

Nice aromas of dark malts, caramel, Bourbon, and chocolate. Flavors emphasize the sweet elements over traditional stout character. I get chocolate milk, caramel and maybe some marshmallows, but don't really detect the roasted or burnt grains you'd expect from a big stout. There are some generically fruity notes from the fermentation character and low whiskey notes as well.

Thick body with low carbonation. Some sweetness coats the mouth, but the finish is fairly dry. Some indistinct hops bitterness holds the sweetness at bay. Strong alcohol presence matches the 10% ABV. This is an excellent beer, other than the unattractive chunks. The caramel and marshmallow are pretty subtle, but the chocolate and Bourbon notes that are stronger to me are delicious, so I don't mind.

 

 

 

 

Poured from fridge temp. As noted by others, there were definitely chunks flowing freely out of the bottle. Looks like vanilla to me. I decided to pour the beer into a different glass over a strainer - very satisfying and now the beer looks much better. Black as night with brown head that quickly fizzled away.

The nose is fantastic. Marshmallow, vanilla, chocolate, bourbon, caramel, a hint of cinnamon, and a slight hint of cherry.

The taste is really good, but somewhat diverges from the nose. More of the roasted malts come through here. Some tobacco an coffee as well. Some burnt caramel, marshmallow, vanilla, a hint of sherry, chocolate, and a solid amount of bourbon. Definitely not too sweet. This has a lot of really nice flavors coming out, and it's evolving a bit as it warms.

The mouthfeel is nice and thick. The aftertaste is caramel and a solid amount of fruity sweetness. Overall, a great beer.

Look - Poured a very dark blackish dark brown color with sediment floating at the top, no head, and a strange lacing stuck to the glass when swirled which contained foam and sediment.

Smell - Marshmallow, vanilla, chocolate, and light bourbon.

Taste - Marshmallow, caramel, bourbon.

Feel - Sounds sweet, but is actually somewhat dry, and has a very slight bitterness to it.

Overall - A very good beer. Underrated I think because of the sediment, which I believe is to be expected as part of this offering.

 

Infected

 

To my discredit, I lack some of the sophisticated beer reviewer vocabulary, however, I can attest that this is a magnificent and complex BA stout from one of the breweries I like best: Prairie. The appearance is unremarkable, with almost no head or carbonation, but that’s almost to be expected. As for the fragrance and the flavor — bourbon, vanilla, sweetness, with a nice sorta dry finish — makes me feel like I’m being rewarded for savoring it. If you’re worried that it might be too sweet or too thick (e.g. mentions of caramel and marshmallow), you can assuage those concerns now. It’s not a lawnmower beer, but rather a treat for sipping and making it last. Given the ABV, it’s a Big Kid Beer, too. What a treat.

Pours an effervescent & chill-hazed mahogany with a sliver of rapidly disappearing mocha colored head. Some head retention, sticky lacing that would look sexier if there weren't some flecks of debris

S: Plenty of bourbon, caramel, marshmallow & chocolate notes

T: Follows the nose, some booze & barrel bite, dryness & molasses up front. Barrel, dryness, vanilla & caramel & figs as this beer warms up. Finishes semi-dry with barrel, dark chocolate a little booze, treacle & caramel

MF: Medium/chewy body, warming with subtle carbonation

Very barrel forward, my preference a hefty sipper to be sure, just little too much sweetness to really please me