Five Year Aged Stout
Cycle Brewing

This one pours a very dark black color, with a small head, and not much lacing.

This smells very hot and boozy, but in a good way, with dark chocolate, heavy duty barrel chair, fig, licorice, tobacco, smoke, and caramel.

As this has been aged for five years, it’s just redolent with brash barrel character. It’s super charred and tobacco-like, with leather and tons of spicy oak. There’s so much dark chocolate here, like high quality chocolate truffles. There’s also vanilla and caramel, with just a touch of dark fruity sweetness.

This is medium bodied, slightly creamy, and definitely a slow sipper due to the intensity of booziness.

I’m really going to miss Cycle – I hope they continue in some form at some point.

Thick and sweet and flavorful. Chocolate and tobacco and dark fruit and barrel notes on the nose and taste. Slightly thick and syrupy. I’m going to miss these guys so much.

Poured from a 22oz bomber into a Perennial SdC tumbler. Pours a thick black with a thin mocha brown foam head. Lots of oak on the nose and taste. Caramel and chocolate notes as well. More bourbon sting as it warms but I get much more oak than bourbon as I usually do with these extended age Cycle stouts. Thick mouthfeel with a lower level of carbonation. Really good beer. Really mature tasting. Smooth as hell for a double barrel-aged imperial stout.

03/01/25 bottle @ home

Poured from a 22oz bottle into a Cycle snifter.

Body is inky black with no head or lacing. Swirling the glass leaves thick syrupy alcohol legs on the glass.

Aroma is heavy Bourbon barrel char, vanilla, & coconut.

Taste is a big punch of sour Bourbon flavor, leather, vanilla, and oak barrel. One of the better non-adjunct BA Stouts in my recent memory.

Mouthfeel is thick, low-carb, and sticky, without being too heavy. Slight boozy sting on the tongue.

Overall this is an amazing BA Stout. I was skeptical that 60 months might be too extreme to age a beer, but this drinks very well, and maybe 72 months barrel aging is in Cycle’s future.