Pitch and Roll - Bourbon Barrel Aged
Outer Light Brewing Company

 

 

2022 vintage, tasty and a little bit different, on the dry side for what it is, not overly barrel forward, showing its age a bit, there is some thinning and some oxidation to this, but i like it anyway, just wish the coffee had done a little better over time. i like this not being crazy strong as a barrel aged stout, i think that makes this uncommon right away. basil hayden barrel is a nice touch too, and this does have an elegance about it. near black in the glass, not extremely viscous, frothy half inch of dark head on it with good retention, a little shine to it, looks nice, rather carbonated for what it is. i can smell some coffee fade, a touch of wet carboard there, but beyond that its all positive, a hint of vanilla from the barrel, oak and char together, a ton of dark roasted barley, light smoke, raisin and fig fruitiness, pipe tobacco, and just a hint of licorice type spiciness. not quite so complex in the flavor, whiskey and vanilla, light honey and brown sugar in the middle less of the dried fruitiness here, late spice, definitely bitter on the back end, plenty of roast and near burnt black coffee character, nice against the sweeter middle that hits a light coffee thing. flavorful, but not super rich or full feeling, perhaps time has broken it down a tad, but still, its cool this isnt super strong as the style goes and that could be part of it, its just a little bit lighter take. there is chocolate added to this too, which i smell more than i taste, it must be a dark or nib thing, as its pretty well wrapped up with the dark grain in the flavor, not a major factor for me. the coffee is much stronger and i wish i had caught this fresh, but the barrel aspect is solid and overall they have a cool beer here. hope to try this again closer to when it gets released. the base stout on its own seems promising as well...

Sampling a 2022 vintage of this beer in a cold 16 oz can. Aged in Basil Hayden Bourbon barrels.
Pouring the beer into my trusty snifter. I picked up the cans at the brewery about 6 weeks ago and they have been in my cellar since.
the beer pours a black coffee color and sits in my glass with no light passing through to give more hints of color. A very creamy tan head of about 1 cm foams up. The foams sits effortlessly on the surface of the glass and I get very dense lattice when I swirl the glass.
Aroma is big on whisky notes as that is dominant from the popping of the can. I also get some dark chocolate in the background too. Not really any hop character anywhere. not really boozy or fusol, overall the nose is on the mild side for a BBA stout.
First sip reveals a medium to thinner body with gentle carbonation. Texture is smooth and easy drinking, so the beer empties from my glass quickly.
Flavor is dark chocolate, some faint coffee and a big dose of bourbon. There is a bit of sweet vanilla here and definitely some charred wood, but bourbon booze carries the day. Not hot or any warming on the swallow, nor any hop competition on flavor notes.
This is a decent imperial stout that could use a little more umph! on the body. Im not sad to have another can in the cellar, but not overly excited either, if that makes sense.

Pours an effervescent ebony with a pinky of mocha colored head. Traces of head retention & lacing

S: Plenty of coffee, faint barrel notes, a touch of cola once warm

T: Plenty of barrel, coffee, leafy hops, Baker's Chocolate & a touch caramel up front. Boozy coffee notes with raw oakyness as this beer warms up, Finishes with raw barrel & watered down coffee with a little vanilla

MF: Medium body, moderate carbonation, warming, but the body starts thinning out once warm

Had potential, but the body just fell apart; flavors petered out as well. Just needed more barrel & body

7/15/23 update: Now drinking the 2022 vintage, same can size, but aged in Basil Hayden barrels this time.

Appearance virtually the same. The bourbon is lower in the nosemix this time, but again there's a strange milkiness to it, slightly sour, and an almost nougat-like scent. As it warms, the bourbon comes out to play a bit more in the flavor. Again, there's virtually no coffee flavor to this. That nougat-like thing in the nose very much comes through in the flavor, though, and it seems out of place. It's not a problem enough to stop me from drinking it, but it doesn't really meld with what else is going on. It's noticeably less fruity than the 2021 vintage seemed.
Now that I have had both cans, I think I'm just not simpatico with what Outer Light is doing here. I really enjoyed the other beer I had from them, also courtesy of Roguer, but these two are not something I think I'd want to go back to, unless I were at the brewery and they had it on tap, then I might give it another shot.

ORIGINAL REVIEW:
16oz can of the 2021 vintage, courtesy of Roguer. Apparently this version was aged in Wild Turkey barrels.

Poured into a snifter, this was an utterly opaque shade of stygian blackness, with a moderate sized head that had a color somewhere between tan and mocha. Said head receded to a thin ring.

Right out of the fridge, the primary aroma is of bourbon. As it warms, a milk chocolate-like scent comes into play as well. I'm not getting anything very coffee-ish, I must admit.

Flavor is... strongly reminiscent of Wild Turkey, a whiskey I must admit I'm not a fan of. It's very medicinal and boozy, and it's over the top. There's also no coffee in the taste, like in the nose. Unlike the nose, there's a kind of chocolate cherry thing going on that is not unpleasant, but seems out of place. Eventually, the chocolate cherry becomes the dominant flavor as it continues to warm.

Fairly thin body, lightly creamy mouth feel.

I had originally planned to do this one side by side with the other version that Rover also supplied me with, but I'm pretty sure I don't have it in me to hit two beers this size before I go to bed. This is one of the otter beer experiences I've had for a bit, because it's not at all what I expected going in, and at one point I thought it was pretty negative, but then, it went off and a weird direction I wasn't expecting and became decently drinkable!

Dark, murky brown body; thin, bubbly head, started out promisingly thick and frothy but quickly faded to thin, splotchy wisps atop the beer. Outstanding aroma; cocoa and coffee notes; grain char. Weak dark chocolate flavor; moderate bitterness between charred grains, coffee, and (perhaps) the hops; nice coffee flavor, espresso-like. Heavy body; silky; some boozy warmth and dryness; moderate residual sugar feel.

Not a bad coffee stout, just not that well balanced or eye-appealing. I seem to get a few chunky floaters in my mouth that melt right away, nothing gross per se. Nice coffee presence although a richer malt sweetness would offset it better.

Pouring temperature: 43 °F: canning info: n/a

Very good head production, but it's very fizzy, quickly fading away, leaving an odd film with fine sediment instead of proper lacing. Edit: after it's had time to sit in the glass, chunks and particulate arise, most likely the chocolate, but unattractive regardless.

Whiskey is prominent on the nose, along with a cola-like expression of the malt base. Coffee is prominent, but there is no sign of chocolate. Some toffee, light char, red grape, but it's a rather weak nose outside of the bourbon and coffee - little to complain about, but little to excite, either.

At first it comes across a touch thin on the palate, and while it certainly never achieves "chewiness," it's still a full-bodied beer. Very little sting; alcohol heat from the barrels more so than the ABV.

Bitter, roasty, charred; excellent delivery of a BBA imperial coffee stout a la KBS. To further the comparison, the coffee isn't quite as strong as in KBS, and the chocolate is relegated almost entirely to a complementary role - although it does deliver some moments of its own on the back third - while the whiskey is perhaps stronger (at least as compared to the modern year-round KBS, which seems to have less bourbon flavor than when it was an annual release). The body is certainly thinner.

Additional tasting notes include toffee, red grape, oak, leather, vanilla, and light char.

This is a very, very good beer for what it is. With coffee and chocolate, one might be tempted to think Outer Light was shooting for pastry stout territory, but that is certainly not the case. Intentional or not, it's a great local analog for KBS, and should be thought of in that vein.

2024 note: by far the best version of this beer they've ever had. Going with bourbon and rye barrels adds another layer to sweet and spicy complexity. It's smoother and richer. The chocolate isn't prominent, but it seems much more complementary and involved than in previous years, while the coffee and the bite are dialed back. In some ways, it's even more comparable to KBS than in previous years, but it's notably smoother and easier to drink. This version would rate significantly higher if I were to revisit my rating, easily clocking above a weighted 4.0.