Beasts of Bourbon
Liquid Mechanics Brewing Co.

2020 vintage. Russian Imperial Stout and American Barleywine aged in bourbon barrels.

Pours a very dark brown with a mahogany hue. Verging on black. Produced a finger's worth of a soapy, creamy khaki head. Decent retention to it for such a high abv.

Aroma leans more barleywine qualities than stout. The barleywine end of it is bringing caramel, toasted brown bread, raisin, prune, brown sugar, some burnt sugar, some earthy hop. The stout qualities are more in the background, bringing roasted malt, dark chocolate, and slight tobacco. The barrel qualities from both beers are there and add bourbon, some oak, and slight vanillin.

Taste is more harmonious between the stout and barleywine, with the barleywine still being a bit more forward. The aroma is sweeter, whereas the taste is much more bitter and dry from both the base beers and the barrel. There is a nice sweetness throughout though. Baker's chocolate, roasted malt, tobacco, some molasses, caramel, toffee, dark chocolate Raisinets, bourbon-soaked prune, some fig, toasted brown bread, plenty of charred oak, slight vanillin. The barleywine shows it's American roots, with a significant earthy, piney hop presence on the finish to accompany the barrel qualities and lead to a more bitter, dry, charred oak/spirit finish.

Medium body. Slightly creamy, sticky, chalky, slick. At about 1.5 years old, this has aged nicely and is quite smooth given the 13%+ abv. The dryness of the beer leads it to be more drinkable, which might be a bit dangerous.

I've always been a fan of Liquid Mechanics since I went there back in 2017. They seem to make quality stuff and this is no exception. Although I wish the barleywine part of the blend was English and not American, as I feel the qualities of the former would balance out the bitter qualities of the RIS a bit better, this is still a very good strong ale with wonderful barrel qualities.

this is a unique blend of two barrel aged beers, a russian imperial stout and a barleywine. its absolutely soaked in whiskey, and its impossibly enormous! near black in color and super shiny, looking more like the stout than the barleywine, a really short and fast receding mocha colored head on it. the aroma stings the nostrils if you get too close and inhale too deeply, really boozy, but its a good boozy, the bourbon saturated kind. while i think i might prefer either of these beers by themselves to the blend, i think they got the ratios right, with the roast of the stout coming through a lot with a deep earthy coffee character, but not so much that the beer is bitter. the barleywine has a little oxidation is seems, but still tastes and feels rich, and it likes the dark grain of the stout for balance, while the stout like the malt depth and body of the barleywine. both have a lot of wood and whiskey, and it almost tastes like the bourbon was actually blended into the beer, there must have been a lot left in the barrels when they were filled, its very intense, but it appears to be higher quality stuff, and it works with both beers, its just really intense! very smooth for its strength going down though, but a true fire breather after the swallow. a neat idea and pretty solid execution from these guys, but it could be toned down a little bit. i think blending in a fresh stout or even a coffee porter or something to take the edge off would help it a little, but its robust and unique as it is. well done form these guys, who we never hear anything about but always seem to turn out pretty solid beers...