Cincinnatus 2009
Listermann Brewing Company

 

 

This was a 2009 and it aged very nicely. I was honestly impressed. Lots of bourbon and vanilla both on the nose and on the palate. A slight bit thinner than I would like, but it did have a nice amount of carbonation.

 

 

Many thanks to RocPorterFanatic for this tasty treat! 12 oz bottle pours a dark brown color with a fine-bubbled head. Not much lace or retention.

Nose is big...full of bourbon and chocolate. Kinda like one of those liqueur-filled chocolates you find at Christmas time...if they came in Jim Beam flavor.

Nice and rich with a good balance of bourbon and malty chocolate with a hint of charred wood...maybe with some melted marshmallow that has dropped right off the stick and into the fire for a few seconds. This is the only sample of this beer I have ever had, but I get the impression the beer is drinking at its peak. Very good, Id love for someone to send me one of these again. Thanks Chad!

A - A little light colored for an Imperial Stout. The beer is a dark brown with an off-white head that doesn't leave a lot of stick on the glass.

S - Rich bourbon, there's actually quite a bit. There's some decent roasted malt, chocolate, dark fruits and barrel. Nice assortment of stout smells.

T - Pretty good, don't have any real complaints. It's got some chocolate and bourbon with some roast. Nothing exceptional, but the flavors are right and it has good balance.

M - Could stand to be a little thicker. Lower carbonation.

O - Drank a little bit hot, but this was a solid offering that does good but not great with all aspects. Enjoyed drinking it, but wouldn't go out of my way to find another one.

Average looking imperial stout,nothing special, but the smell is of strong bourbon...and it smells great.

I tried this beer a year ago, and found it to be hot and unpleasant. Totally different now. Blended very well. Still a touch of alchohol, but it works very well.

Nice and smooth mouthfeel, though nothing remarkable. All in all, a well done beer and one that's benefitted from the aging.

 

Bottle. Pours a dark brown/black color with a 1/4 inch mocha tan head that quickly settles to collar around the glass. Dark fruit (cherry and plum), with notes molasses, brown sugar, and bourbon. Oaky sweet flavor off the bat with the bourbon slowly coming into play in the middle. The alcohol is there but is decently incorporated. Pretty smooth. Well done IMO. Medium mouthfeel.

Rare barrel-aged stout from Cincinnati - thanks Dave (dschuster03). Served in a Russian River tulip.

A - A half-finger of off-white settles to a thin collar, a few wispy patches, and minimal lacing. Dark brown body that approaches black but is a few shades away.

S - Bourbon, oak, alcohol, raisins, chocolate, roasted malts. Seems significantly hotter than the listed 9.5%, but otherwise it's pretty solid.

T - Taste is a bit better than the aroma, as the booze mellows out quite a bit. Chocolate milk, vanilla, oak, bourbon - a nice collection of flavors, with nice balance between sweetness and roast.

M - Thin body, with medium carbonation, dry and tannic texture, and some definite warming alcohol.

D - The taste is quite enjoyable, but the feel is substandard, and there's excessive alcohol for something this low in ABV. I'd try subsequent batches of this one, but if this is really from 2009 I can't imagine the alcohol mellowing out much more.

This is one of the best bourbon beers I have had to date, I have had three of them and each one is a treat.

Look: It has a deep black color, even darker than Guinness. No real head, but that is likely due to the 9.5% ABV. The wax covered bottle is a great touch.

Smell: Once poured it releases a very strong bourbon smell with a hint of a chocolate, which is very inviting.

Taste: A very full bourbon flavor, which is why I drink this beer. It is a little harsh (I like that in bourbon beers) and goes great with a nice cigar. It is a good beer to drink slowly and enjoy, not a beer I would just drink quickly.

If you like bourbon you will love this beer, if you don't like bourbon don't drink this, save it for the rest of us ;)

Bottle sent by brew3crew. Poured into a large red wine glass.

A: Pours fairly dark and clear, with dark brown showing at the stem of the glass. This beer has some carbonation at least, and the fingers worth of brown head has tiny bubbles.

S: Very vinous and slightly boozy, with raisins and wine characteristics shining through instantly. Can't get much else on the nose as these flavors cover up anything else.

T: Again, bourbon and wine with chalky bitter chocolate at the end. Its a hot boozy beer but not quite a 'mess'. Two years in the cellar might have changed this but I wanted to try the bottle as fresh as I could.

MF: It's pretty good, fairly robust and thick but with the alcohol burn the feel is cut significantly.

O: I could see the dark fruits and wine characteristics shining on this beer if the bourbon flavors and alcohol weren't so preeminent. As it is, its a little too hot to thoroughly enjoy.

Purchased two bottles of this from the store itself. Both of them had the exact same problem.

Poured from a 12oz bottle into a snifter.

Absolutely no head or sign of carbonation. Looked a lot like a cup of coffee; pitch black. The bourbon was present, along with a bit of roastiness. Mostly bourbon, though.

The taste is very, very hot. Almost like bourbon was mixed with the beer instead of being aged in barrels.

Without carbonation, the mouthfeel is obviously terrible. Two bottles of drainpour; super disappointing.

I would say almost every single aspect of this beer would be improved with carbonation. Normally I wouldn't even consider reviewing a beer based on this, but two bottles with the same problem seems like more than a coincidence.

Bottle courtesy of brew3crew

A: Pours black with a thin tan head that quickly turns into a ring around the top.

S: Big bourbon aroma with some prune, vanilla and a touch of caramel.

T: Pretty similar to the smell. The bourbon is big, but I can tell that it's mellowed. Fresh, this would probably be way too hot. I don't get a lot besides the bourbon and a touch of vanilla. Maybe a hint of caramel on the finish and some peat. A bit of heat as it goes down makes it feel higher than 9.5%. Mouthfeel is sort of slick without being syrupy. It still feels a tad thin at times though. Not the best out there, but I'm really glad I got to try this one.

I was able to get a few bottles of this from a friend living in Cincinnati. I am very partial to Bourbon barrel aged beer and this is a doozy. The nose screams bourbon and there is a definitive alcohol burn.

There are vanilla and burnt notes on the tongue but the mouthfeel is a little thin. This could very well do better with some bottle age on it.

Served in a snifter

2009 Vintage

Thanks to boxcar01 for this obscure stout

The offering pours a deep dark cloudy brown that in the glass appears on the lighter side of pitch black, but brown towards the bottom of the glass. There is a tan creamy foam on the surface not more than a 1/2 finger though. There is an interesting aroma to this. There is dark chocolate, vanilla, sweet caramely bourbon, and hints of leather. It's rather nice to smell. The taste has many of the aromas mixed together, but that bourbon comes on really strong and followed by a creamy vanilla. It reminds of a lighter black russian perhaps. The mouthfeel is a touch boozier than I would have liked and it leads to this being an ultra-sipper, but overall I enjoy drinking this beer. But it may be a one and done for me.

Poured into a snifter. 2009 vintage.

3.0 A: Black color. I only got about a half finger of head, which fell almost instantly. I think it was tan in color.

3.0 S: The nose is dominated by bourbon, but is weak overall. Wood, leather, and vanilla and fortunately no astringency and minimal booze. The underlying stout is lacking. The roasted barley is barely detectable and there isn't much else aside from a bit of caramel.

2.5 T: The taste is a lot bolder than the nose, but again the stout fails to match up with the bourbon. Bourbon and barrel contribute a hefty booziness (which tastes closer to 12% than 10), aggressive oak, leather, and some peat. There's more roastiness than in the nose, but there aren't a lot of other "stout-like" flavors. There's no chocolate, no coffee, and no dark fruitiness. Rather, this is mainly bourbon, a bit of roastiness, and some caramel.

3.0 M: Medium to heavier medium body. Carbonation is a bit lower than I'd prefer. Could be both smoother and creamier. The bourbon makes this a bit rough around the edges.

2.5 D: My scores might be a bit harsh, but I didn't enjoy this much. The nose was weak, the stout taste was weak and the bourbon was harsh, and the carbonation was a bit low. A bourbon aficianado would probably like this more than I have.

Poured into my snifter, this beer is black with dark brown highlights. The brown head appears for a minute but quickly sinks to a ring around the glass. Upon first sniff I'm getting a lot of licorice. Woah, it's like opening a bag of Twizzlers! There's a bourbon undertone with some vanilla that's kind of fruity. A bit of a woody smell in there too. It's pretty different than I'm used to. Interesting!

First sip says bourbon to me. It glides silently across my palate then ninja vanishes, leaving only an alcohol-tinged wisp of figurative smoke in its wake. That's really all I taste at first is bourbon. Some vinous, dark fruit flavors make an appearance here and there but this is all about the bourbon; kinda one-dimensional.

The mouthfeel is thin for an imperial stout, not at all thick or chewy. Seems like the finishing gravity is low, but what do I know. When cool the beer glided effortlessly from the glass to my stomach, but as it warms some prickly alcohol impedes the journey, taking little stabs at my tongue on the way through. Once it reaches it's final destination in my belly things start to warm up from the alcohol which becomes more noticeable. I'm not going through this as quick as I thought and I'm not exactly chomping at the bit to drink another. There's some potential here; I have another bottle I'll set aside for a year or two and see how things develop, but as it is the bourbon is overpowering and the base beer doesn't exactly hold its own.

I love how fresh this brew is, because they make and bottle it right down the road. I also like the presentation (wax seal? awesome) - i know that doesnt go too far when it comes to whats IN the bottle. But it doesn't hurt the overall arrangement. As for the beer, i found it a rather drinkable Imperial Stout... it has a decent ABV... but it didn't have much of an 'alcohol' tang, and went down very smooth. The downside to this brew was that it was a little thin and not as robust as others in this genre. Which i suppose is the trade off - drinkability for body? Thats not always the case obviously... but I commend them for their effort and would drink this again. Nice job fellas.