Saturday (2023)
Cycle Brewing

 

Cellared a year. Pitch black viscous pour with a brown ring. Semi sweet chocolate, slight almond and plenty of barrel in nose. Taste has more of a slimy raisin and tobacco to go with the chocolate and almond, barrels somehow not that complex just boozy. Feel has tannins and booze with thick malts, not very smooth. Good but wanted way more barrel complexity than we got

poured from a 22oz bomber into a TG DBA tumbler. pours thick, dark black with minimal dark brown foam head. big barrel as expected on the nose. upfront bourbon sting with some oak, chocolate and dark fruits. as it warms there are more evident aromas of tobacco and barrel char. taste mostly follows. as it warms more dark fruits, cherry, tobacco and char make more of a presence. by far the heaviest wood flavor i have gotten from a cycle barrel-aged stout. it almost masks the chocolate-forward flavors i typically associate with cycle and swaps them for huge bourbon, dry oak, cigar tobacco and dark fruits. still tasty and it is definitely an exercise or showcase in extended barre-aging but i was pretty excited for this one and did not end up liking it as well as i thought i would. thick, full mouthfeel on this one. pretty standard for cycle. again, enjoyable, intense but also fun, but not my favorite cycle stout and definitely towards the bottom of the 2023 weekday set for me.