The Lunatic
Big Lake Brewing

A16 oz can purchased at the brewery's taproom in August 2022.

This nearly black and essentially opaque stout pours with a decent beige head. With loads of bourbon flavor and a high ABV, I suspect this was aged in bourbon barrels that hadn't been rinsed out. I'm not complaining, however, since the BBA and bourbon impact are not overdone and mix nicely with the base stout, creating an especially appealing aroma.

Overall. A expected, the flavor improved with warming. Worth seeking out, perhaps with a designated driver.

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This is one of the only beers in the first BIF box from BigIronH that isn’t from Odd Side. This one is just a straight up bourbon barrel aged Stout with no adjuncts or additional frills. Let’s crack it open and find out what it’s all about

Pours a very dark brown with a finger of creamy light tan head that quickly fades to a ring and leaves minimal lacing

The bourbon absolutely dominates the nose, but there’s a nice balance to it. I’m picking up on aromas of sweet bourbon, molasses, sticky caramel, milk chocolate, vanilla bean, light roast coffee, toasted oak, dark bread, and light maple syrup

Things are a bit less balanced in taste unfortunately, but it’s still fine for what it is. On the front end of the sip I’m tasting sweet bourbon, milk chocolate, dark bread, molasses, sweet caramel, vanilla bean, dry oak, and light raisin. The swallow brings notes of sweet bourbon, molasses, vanilla icing, chocolate fudge, brown sugar, burnt caramel, light oak, and maple syrup

A medium full body pairs with gentle carbonation, reel in a slick beer. Finishes a tad sticky and boozy

I’m not really in love with this one. It’s not bad, but it’s just a lot of sweet bourbon without much else to back it up

They have a non BA stout that I think is better balanced, but this is good.
Poured coffee black with a 1 cm brown head that dissipated quickly.
The aroma is lost on my Covid damaged nose.
The taste is bourbon forward stout, they have been doing an excellent imperial stout and a BA version of that stout should be amazing. But it’s “just” quite good.
The feel is quite appropriate for the style.
OA, very nice but I think I prefer the non BA version.

16oz can. Poured out an opaque, jet-black color with a small, light brown head of foam. It left sudsy sheets of lace on the glass. It smelled of bourbon, chocolate, vanilla, oak, and roasted coffee notes. Rich chocolate, toffee and caramel taste with bourbon, oak and vanilla