Breakfast Sauce - Barrel Aged Vol. 1
Transient Artisan Ales

Appearance - The beer poured a deep black color with a mocha colored head crowning the pour.

Smell - The tea notes were strong, though it was more like chai than black tea. It made me look forward to the first taste.

Taste - Oof! This was like saucy black licorice. Or maybe it was more like liquid black jellybeans. Either way, it was not pleasant. After a while, those tea notes were overpowering. It was hard to finish.

Mouthfeel - The field was smooth with small carbonation.

Overall - This was a rare miss in the stout department from Transient.

Breakfast Sauce #1 is the first of three variants from Transient. This brew is fortified with black tea and chai spices while being double barrel aged. I love chai spices but this one is just too heavy handed. All you taste is the chai and the rye barrel even enhances it further. It is sort of like making one cup of tea with 5 bags of chai. Potential was there but it went overboard.

IG: @firesidewithphil

Pours purely black, swallowing up any light that ventures it’s way, and there’s a thick, creamy dark tan head that lingers. Gorgeous beer.

There’s a lot going on with this beer (vanilla, Tugboat coffee, black tea, cinnamon, and Chai spices, aged in Parker Heritage rye whiskey and Blis bourbon maple syrup barrels), and the Chai spices dominate this beer like the ‘85 Bears dominated the Patriots in Super Bowl XX - the other aromas/flavors are literally scared to even enter the game for fear that the “46 Defense” (or the Chai spices) will literally annihilate them.

I’m kidding - a little. I go no hint of coffee or vanilla, but I did get a little cinnamon and black tea, a smidge of maple, and the barrel as a warming at the end of the taste. But the Chai is VERY demanding of your attention, cloyingly so at first, then a bit less as the beer warms.

The mouthfeel is full and creamy, and this is a fun flavor ride that I’m glad I tried, but this beer would’ve been better served with a little (LOT) less Chai.

Decent head production; very good retention for the style, ABV, barrel treatment, and number of added ingredients.

Almost everything is immediately noticeable on the nose, all blending together: bourbon, rye whiskey, cinnamon, Chai spices, vanilla, black tea. Coffee and maple aren't quite as noticeable; I wouldn't have guessed them if not for the description. There's so much going on, it takes several whiffs to verify. The Chai comes across a little odd, taking a soy sauce, licorice, and Thai spice kind of property. And no, that's not a typo; it reminds me of Thai food.

Any fears by those odd tones are quickly quelled on the palate. Yes, you definitely have to like Chai - or at least be OK with it - but I'm not the biggest fan, and the overall result is still quite lovely. It's also incredibly unique.

Spicy, savory, sweet; you can experience almost every flavor aspect except bitter (despite the coffee and imperial stout base, it's not very roasty or bitter). I don't know what inspired them to mix coffee, tee, Chai spices, and cinnamon together, and then age them in two different kinds of whiskey barrels (one rye whiskey, the other bourbon maple syrup), but the result is coherent and complex. As with the nose, you can kind of detect each component and how it contributes to the overall mosaic of flavors.

Interesting building heat; cinnamon is the closest thing to a "hot" spice, but perhaps between the cinnamon and Chai, and the influence of the barrels and high ABV, the resulting combination is what provides that warmth.

Thick, smooth, sticky, chewy. Not exactly boozy, but I'll refer you to my comments on the heat, above.

This beer is absolutely unique. I could see this as a love-it-or-hate-it proposition. That said, I'm neither; I don't love it, but neither do I hate it, and I certainly appreciate the creativity, effort, and result. I think this would be a one-and-done for me.

Very interesting beer. I didn’t quite detect much chai flavor but instead some spices resembling cinnamon, nutmeg and maybe licorice. No date printed on bottle. Pours a fairly nice looking dark black color with a little off-white head and some small slowly fading sheets of lingering lacing. Smells of medium roast coffee, milk chocolate, cinnamon, nutmeg, licorice, malt, raisin and a little caramel. Taste follows the nose, fairly good balance but not quite as much depth as I would’ve liked. A slow sipper which was expected considering the high ABV. Smooth, slightly sticky mouthfeel with decent carbonation. Quite enjoyable to sample.

Breakfast Sauce #1 with Chai tea

Awful, just awful. I like Chai tea and I though it out. Soooo Bad!

Black licorice, I can't stand Black licorice. It's really bad, I mean really bad. I heard the #2 and #3 are good, but haven't got to pop them yet.