All 9th Anniversary Everything
Other Half Brewing - Center Street

09/06/23 bottle @ home

Bottle. Tan head that fades. Thick, oily black color.

Typical OH thick, pastry stout. This one is tough to drink a lot of though. Fudge, cocoa, brownies. Bourbon and vanilla. It’s decent, but it’s just a bit tough to drink due to how big of a beer it is.

 

 

L- Black as the night.......slight burning red hue around the edges....no head, no lacing

S-Boozy charred barrel.....sharp anise aroma.....dark chocolate, caramel, vanilla, brown sugar, molasses

T-dark chocolate, bitter coffee, boozy bourbon char/burn.....anise, caramel, vanilla, the devils food cake is noticeable in the finish as there is a slight lingering of sweetness

F-Full bodied...thick and creamy.....no carb.....alcohol burn

O- Enjoyable, very good despite the lingering sweetness...the strong booze of front kind of balances the beer

 

Turbid black with red edges and a fluid surface revealing no head that I found.

Surprisingly splintery oak nearing alderwood or beechwood is contrasted by super viscous, sweet, sharp chocolate and vanilla frosting.

While it's almost painfully sweet, it doesn't have any of the disgustingly acrid components some Horus beers have, or as the Angry Chair bottle we also had during this share exhibited, (which admittedly surprised me, coming from them).

Look - Black and thick with a nice lacing. no real head or rimming
Smell and taste - chocolate cocoa nibs forward with a vanilla and barrel in that order, not overly sweet for a pastry
Feel - full body light carb and creamy
Overall - nice balanced stout even thought they has lots of chocolate and vanilla. Great body and feel.

From a 500ml bottle, undated as best I can tell, but… I mean, 9th anniversary, right? Served in a Spiegelau barrel-aged tulip glass.

Pours black as sin, unhighlighted and with zero head formation. There were a few chunky bubbles owing to a forceful pour but, otherwise, nada. Able to rouse only a little oily film, nothing you’d care to pass off as ‘lacing.’

Nose is rich, boozy and chocolatey. Aroma of Hostess cupcakes. Barrel-aged Hostess cupcakes?

Taste is not the utter sweetness I’d anticipated. Dark, bittersweet, acidic chocolate and smoky bourbon - a sort of molten Baker’s chocolate bar liqueur. The vanilla brings a nutty character with the creaminess from the lactose, and the bourbon lends an earthy, almost maple-like smokiness that gets right up into the sinuses. There are moments when I could convince myself that this was meant to be bourbon-maple-pecan. Except for the Hostess cupcakes.

Feel is creamy, dense and oily, unctuous and heavy bodied with minimal if any carbonation. More carbonation would have been welcome. OTOH more carbonation would have made it a very different beer. For one thing, I would have drunk it much more quickly and would probably be lying on the floor right now. Shrug.

Overall, a mixed bag for me - but mostly to the good. It was sweet, yes, but not disgustingly so and the flavours were totally right on and, I’ve got to think, exactly what the brewers intended. It was an utterly lifeless looking pour and disappointingly dead on the palate owing to the absence of any discernible carbonation. But, again, that may have been the intent and for sure it emphasized, or amplified, the bourbon and brought out a pronounced chocolate liqueur quality. Whatever. Nobody ever asks my opinion before they brew these things but, I must say, the 15.4% abv sure as hell gets the job done.