Barrel Aged Imperial Stout
Machine House Brewery

 

Poured from a bottle at cellar temp. Pours a fairly light black with minimal head. The nose is chocolate, coffee, roasted malts, whiskey, and black licorice. The taste is super smooth. Black licorice, sticky toffee, dark chocolate, roasted malts, burnt wood, coffee grinds, boozy bourbon, and molasses. Super intense and lovely. The mouthfeel is medium bodied, unlike many stouts these days. The aftertaste is boozy toffee and dark chocolate.

Poured from 500mL bottle into a dimpled mug. This is the 2023 version.

Appearance: rich super-dark brown hue with just the faintest highlights around the edges when held up to the light. Machine House specializes in light-to-no carbonation, so there’s no head here to speak of.

Smell: super rich, deep, dark fruit aromas of date, raisin, dark cherry, tobacco, and molasses. Sweet, of course, but what a lovely bouquet. This is just my sort of thing.

Taste: more of what the aroma has on offer, plus some of that barrel. Hints of vanilla and oak work their way into the mix. My one criticism here is that it is mega, super sweet. Of course I know that’s somewhat inevitable given the quantity of malt here, but I think it could be pared back a little bit to make this a truly excellent beer.

Mouthfeel: thick body, almost syrupy, but nearly no carbonation so it’s not as creamy as I like in the style.

Overall: a lovely-tasting and moreover lovely-smelling beer. I know it’s not their style, but just a bit more carbonation and a hint less sweetness and this would be truly magnificient.

Poured into a Fremont small snifter. Pours a very dark mahogany brown, appearing opaque black in the glass with a thin chocolate head that dissipates to patches with light lacing. Aroma of dark toasted malt, whiskey, cocoa, hints of dark fruit; a bit boozy. Flavor is dark toasted malt, whiskey, light cocoa, light dried plums and a hint of cherry. Medium bodied with light to moderate creaminess and moderate carbonation. A dark, well integrated barreled stout. Nice whiskey character supported by the base malt and intriguing hints of dark dried and lighter fruit. Not that complex, but well balanced in flavor. A bit of alcohol on the nose, but ABV well covered in the taste. Not as dry English stout in profile as their base imperial stout, with a mild sweetness to the whiskey flavor, but a fine example of a whiskey barreled stout. This brewery is always worth following.