BQE - Barrel Aged
Finback Brewery

On-tap at Barcade, Brooklyn, NY

A: The beer is jet black in color and poured with a narrow collar of tan bubbles around the edge of the glass.
S: Moderate to strong aromas of chocolate, molasses, and bourbon are present in the nose along with notes of vanilla.
T: Like the smell, the taste has lots of flavors of chocolate and bourbon along with notes of molasses and hints of raisins. No alcohol is perceptible.
M: It feels full-bodied and a touch dry on the palate with some warming from the alcohol.
O: I really liked the balance between the chocolate and the bourbon in this beer. It definitely did a good job in the blending of the flavors with the barrel aging.

Serving type: on-tap

 

 

 

2018 Vintage. 16oz. bottle into Night Shift stemware.

Pours pitch black and oily. Dense. Very little head. Nose is chocolate, espresso, molasses and vanilla. Moderately aromatic. Beer opens cocoa powder, roasted malt and semi-sweet chocolate. This one builds. Middle is sweet soy sauce, molasses and more chocolate, fudge and vanilla. Espresso towards the back. This gets sweeter and sweeter as it sits on the palate. Honey and some tobacco and wet wood at the finish. Very solid. Body is full with low carbonation. Dense, slick and oily on the palate and goes down viscous and rich. Messy, lingering finish.

A very good beer but there's a lot of competition in this style. Better than middle-of-the-road but pretty basic overall.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

16.9 oz. bottle - 2016

Pours black with a dense creamy tan foam head. Smells like big rich dark chocolate, some dark fruits, roasted coffee, bourbon, oak, vanilla, coconut, caramel, toffee, brown sugar, some dried fruits, mild spice, with floral earthy herbal grassy pine. Tastes like rich chocolate, dark fruits, dark roasted coffee, bourbon, oak, vanilla, coconut, caramel, toffee, charred brown sugar, dried fruit, some spice, with floral earthy herbal grassy pine. Feels medium bodied, creamy and smooth with moderate carbonation. Overall a really nice bourbon barrel aged imperial chocolate coffee stout.

 

 

 

 

up there with antead as one of the best

 

 

 

Traded for this beer a while ago and finally got around to having it on this snowy night. I loved their other BQE beers that I've been lucky enough to obtain and this was no exception to that, as it was strong, potent, and full of chocolate flavor that held it's own. Without a doubt, the BQE beers are the best ones that they brew!

Not a bad pour to this as the beer had a dark and relatively thin body for this style with a *very* small mousse-like head. The lacing left behind was thin and webbed but present enough along the top of my pint glass. A good amount of milk, bitter, and baker's chocolate was found in the nose with even more in the taste. Hints of raspberry juice, valencia, cocoa powder, and booze could be found in the taste but the chocolate was what dominated here. Mild hints of the bourbon barrel-aging could be detected here as this finished very clean with some rye and stickiness present to give this more depth. Not a lot of carbonation here and hints of cocoa power gave this a slight grittiness that literally gave me something to chew on!

It was good to have a Stout that didn't leave a trail of booze on my breath. Though I didn't get the pack that this came with for the holidays, this was more than enough to savor and enjoy by itself. Chocolate fans would be wise to seek this out as the raspberry juice and citrus juiciness made this extremely accessible. Nice job by Finback on this one - even after a few months of unintentional aging!

 

 

 

On-tap at Rail Trail in Hudson.

The bartender and menu said only 'BQE' but I'm going to assume this is barrel-aged because I get a lot of bourbon and some barrel. Definitely heavy on the espresso/dark roasted coffee beans. Charred malt. Cacao beans. All the good stuff in a big imperial stout. Well done.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sample at EBF Saturday
Deep dark black color tan head. Huge coffee and roast with bits of bourbon vanilla a light chocolate. Earthy with hints of dark fruits.