Vlad The Second Order Of The Dragon Bourbon Barrel-Aged Stout With Coconut
Hailstorm Brewing Co.

 

 

 

 

2017 version

Integrated coconut, chocolate, alcohol, bourbon, light roast, not very complex

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

22 ounce bottle into a snifter. Bottled 12/15/17, had 1/27/18.

Pours a dark brown, opaque and oily looking, with a half inch quickly dissipating head and some loose, soapy lacing. Aromas of bourbon, malt, cocoa, chocolate, some coconut, caramel, light prunes, light molasses. Smells really good. The taste also starts with bourbon, then medium roast malt, cocoa, coconut- more as it warms, caramel, prunes, figs, some oak, light vanilla, a little alcohol. Tastes really good, too. Smooth, a solid full body, well carbonated.

This is just terrific, with or without the coconut. But, the coconut does have a solid and desirable presence. Another great BBA from Hailstorm.

Usually coconut stouts are either a malt bomb or a perfume like coconut bomb. Not the case here. Deep, dark and balanced beautifully. Smell should be offered in candle form, bourbony, dark notes of malt and stout deliciousness with coconut on the end. Taste is like a dark chocolate and boozy samoa cookie, but not overly sweet with plenty of deep flavors to balance. Even good thickness, very, very good beer!

 

 

Thanks to CRWalton for this 22 oz., white-waxed botte, handed to me amongst the beautiful chaos of the Central Waters Anniversary Party. Bottled 12/15/17. Split with my wife.

Black, with the typically minimal huge stout head. The nose proves that all the malt language on the cool label isn’t just babble: massive, dark, sweet malts are so prevalent they almost cover up the coconut. Almost.

Vlad the Conquistador – Coconut is such a fine beer that it cut straight through the other 632 I had at the Great Taste of the Midwest this summer, & the bottled version is no different. Coconut for miles, & none of that extract crap, this is something that could have starred beside Tom Hanks & Wilson. Booming coconut is tangled up with those sweet malts that are giving me a sugar high. The barrel is softer, background elevator music, adding a quick jab of booze & vanilla, with a finish that whispers a suggestion of bitter hops. Full. Rounded. If I had a tap coming out of the wall with this, I would be dead of liver failure within years. OK. Months.

In the upper echelon of barrel aged stouts, from a brewery I’d never heard of before August. I wonder if their non-Vlad beers are this good. I want to find out. Magnificent.