Old Mad Joy - Bourbon Barrel-Aged - Churros Y Chocolate
Great Raft Brewing

A-Pours a dark brown-black w a thin tan cap, little lacing
S-Smell is predominantly cinnamon toast and cocoa, notes of dark fruit and alcohol as it warms
T-A strong cinnamon flavor, bittersweet chocolate with vanilla notes follow, finish is almost all cinnamon, little to no barrell notes detected
F-Med-full mouthfeel with moderate carbonation, slick finish
O-Overall a really good brew, not enough barrell and too much spice is about the only con, it overpowered everything else, not a big fan of cinnamon to begin with so i may be biased however.

 

 

BOTTLE: $12.99 USD for a 22oz brown glass bottle - the first bomber I've bought in over a year I'd reckon. Pink wax covers the crown cap. Red label. Bottled 10/01/19.

60 IBUs. 10% ABV. "Baltic Porter." "Barrel aged." "Churros & Chocolate Inspired."

Served cold into a nonic pint glass.

APPEARANCE: ~1-2cm in height. Semithin. Tan colour. Fizzles out within 1.5 minutes, leaving scarce lacing.

Body is a predictable opaque black.

AROMA: Strong.

Distinctive evocative chocolate - not just generic chocolate malt, no, this is authentic expressive cocoa. Potent Cinnamon/Cassia. Barrel vanillin is evident. Rich oak and bourbon replete with barrel sugars. No toasted coconut or charred wood, unfortunately, but the bourbon presence is more than noticeable. Sugary sweet sure, but I wouldn't say it resembles churros (nor would anyone trying this in a blind taste test). Syrupy caramel and nougat, Hershey's chocolate without the butyric acid, pleasant malt sweetness.

Suggests a sweet Baltic Porter that apes from imperial stouts shamelessly and is more marketing bend with regard to its Baltic Porter designation than true to style - but nevertheless seems damned tasty.

Doesn't evoke dark fruit like many good Baltic Porters.

TASTE & TEXTURE: No dark fruit. Feels very syrupy, thick, chewy, even a bit gritty, failing to deliver its flavours effectively. Well carbonated but heavy/weighty on the palate...too damn thick.

Chocolate and cinnamon/cassia dominate the flavour profile, with heavy notes of borderline saccharine dark/shwarz malts running amok. I do get some barrel-derived vanillin, but aside from that this offers little in terms of bourbon barrel subtlety (e.g. toasted coconut, rich white oak, authentic vanilla, rich barrel sugars) and I can't help but notice the lack of age statement on the bottle, leading me to question just how long they aged this in bourbon barrels (could have been nary but more than a month drinking it).

Balanced? No - too sweet. Complex? Not really for a churros and chocolate bourbon barrel aged imperial porter.

Sinebrychoff is a better executed beer and it costs a hell of a lot less. This doesn't hit on notes of dark fruit or roast, and feels like a beer a brewery familiar with the popularity of imperial stouts brewed to capitalize on the popularity thereof while using lager yeast that let them market it differently to stand out to an overcrowded market on a mere technicality. To put it briefly, it's not all that good.

OVERALL: Not the quality I expected given it's a bourbon barrel aged additive-ridden variant of one of the top rated Louisiana beers. Frankly, it's a saccharine chore to drink with a nice chocolatey finish and subpar bourbon barrel character. In the last month alone, I've seen Founders' Underground Mountain Brown, KBS, and CBS sit on shelves at the same New Orleans beer store that sold me this, and all of those beers cost substantially less on a price per ml basis while offering vastly superior bourbon barrel flavour. I won't change my rating for its shit pricing alone, but it's just too thick and too sweet to be an effective Baltic Porter and it also fails to evoke the churro aspect of its gimmicky premise.

C (2.93) / AVERAGE