Bourbon Barrel Aged Coffee Cake Imperial Stout
Moody Tongue Brewing Company

 

 

 

From the 12 oz bottle in a snifter. This solid little imperial pours a dark
blackish brown with dark cola highlights and a moderate head of khaki foam
that settles to a thin ring. Nose of bourbon, brown sugar, subtle cinnamon,
dark chocolate, subtle char, oak, and rich vanilla drenched in dark coffee.
Flavors hit the mark; oak, bourbon, dark chocolate, cinnamon, dark coffee,
char, brulee, subtle smoke, vanilla bean, and subtle tobacco. Mouth feel is
full, smooth, rich, coating, light carbonation, warming, and finishing sweet and
finishing nicely balanced between char, roast, and sweetness.

Overall, another great one from Moody Tongue!

Cheers

 

Always celebrating a high degree of culinary arts in their beer making, Moody Tongue turns to the flavors of coffee cake and bourbon for a stout meant for the dreariest of times.

Jet black and set in an onyx-like sheen, Bourbon Barrel Coffee Cake develops a light and billowing lather of light tan foam. With the high scent of coffee and whisky flowing across the nose, its roasty, toasty and aggressively spicy scent shows a deep and savory side. Once on the tongue, the sweetness of molasses, sorghum, brown sugar and chocolate all take a burnt tone to limit its sweetness but to also heighten its savory flavors to start.

With hints of cinnamon and other holiday spices rising slightly on the middle palate, the receding sweetness and the bolder roast flavors dwarf the nuanced spices until the bourbon barrel influences show in finish. Lightly cakey and with an arid nougat quality, the beer's development shines through espresso, burnt toast, the burnt edges of cake, and eventually into the smoldering ember flavor of campfire where the oak, light vanilla, caramel and coconut attributes come with a hot and spicy late taste.

Full bodied but also carrying a sense of dryness and heat because of the fleeting malt sweetness and the whisky spice, the beer extends with a slightly acrid flavor from its highly roasted grains. It's a nice stout, however the world where "pastry" additions being nuanced and in the background is simply not the way that these beers play out on the market anymore.

 

Appearance: Pours a slightly translucent espresso color with a thin beige head that quivers to a ringlet; minimal lacing

Smell: More Bourbon than coffee cake, with a slightly burnt smell; very roasty

Taste: A touch of chocolate forward with the charred barrel tones taking over quickly; bitter and boozy finish with the Bourbon lingering

Mouthfeel: Medium to full body with low to moderate carbonation; considerable warmth in the gullet

Overall: Rather disappointed with this; I am not getting much coffee, let along coffee cake; overly boozy with a surprisingly thin body for the ABV