FRIYAY
Other Half Brewing - Center Street

 

Pours dark, dark brown. Aroma is intense & balaced combination of nuttiness, vanilla, malty, wood and hints of coffee. Taste follows nose -- hazelnuts, vanilla, coffee, maltiness & bourbon. Mouthfeel is medium to full bodied. Overall a great stout.

Poured Feb 2024. Bourbon has a lot of bite. Blanton’s maybe? Iron Smoke? The coffee comes across bitter, followed by a creamy vanilla. It might need more time to aerate, as the flavors work well but are a bit disharmonious a few minutes post pour. I enjoy the very long bourbon linger, as it’s crisp, cleansing, and flavorful.

Twenty minutes in: bitterness subsiding and overall taste is harmonizing much better.

 

Picked up a bottle at OHFLX late 2023. Poured out onto OH snifter tonight. Noticeable but quickly dissipating tan head with brief then absent lacing. Rich dark body with a few bright highlights to light. Classic high ABV rich imp stout.
Nose is super rich and fragrant with malts, wood, vanilla and perfectly balanced integration of hazelnuts.
Taste mirrors…a complex but not pushy BBA Imp Stout. All the flavors are deliciously there but as a tasty melange…not a fist in the face. But most notably…the hazelnuts are wonderful. They really take the lead but marry perfectly with the stout malts and the barreling.
Unfortunately I really don’t note any standout b coffee at all. If anything it’s well mixed in the mix of all the other flavors.
Body is super smooth without being syrupy or cloying. ABV is extremely well hidden. There is only a light amount of carbonation and maybe a bit of burn included.
Overall this is a wonderful BBA Imp Stout. So many pleasant characteristics but nothing pushy or distracting. What mostly comes to mind is two really great brewing teams who really know how to craft a big barreled stout and provide us with a really pleasant sipping experience…not yet another attempt to blast us with barrels and flavors to the point of numbing us.
Been awhile since I’ve enjoyed such a well made BBAIS. Kudos!