2022 Bourbon Barrel Aged Heavy Imperial Stout
Frost Beer Works

 

 

This is everything I want from a barrel aged imperial stout. I wanted to give it a 5 but who knows what one might come across in the future.

Poured from a can I bought at the brewery a while ago.

Look: Poured from a can into a snifter type glass. A mochaccino colored foam forms over a deep, dark, opaque liquid. My anticipations starts to build. After the first sip the foam dissipates leaving a thin ring clinging to the glass. As I drink it leaves a lacy residues behind on the glass.

Smell: You can definitely tell this was aged in a bourbon barrel. The bourbon mixes with the dark malt aroma which includes dark chocolate and coffee. Despite it being 10% ABV I can't really detect any ethanol.

Taste: More of the same, the malt background highlighting the chocolatey goodness with the bourbon teasing the edges of my tongues. This is a very rich beer. Again, I get no booziness despite the ABV.

Feel: Pure lusciousness, the velvety smoothness and body is striking. This is the beer that made me give up on Guinness, which by comparison feels thin and watery. It coats my tongue like sucking on a quality piece of chocolate, the carbonation just tickling the edges of my tongue.

Overall: As I said above, this is everything I hope for in the style and I am hard-pressed to find anything lacking. I have one can left and I may have to save that until their next offering comes out, I'd hate to never be able to enjoy this elixir again. I love this beer. I gave a can to a friend who normally would drink Corona and it opened his eyes to a whole new world.

 

Understanding that there's a taste for beer flavor that's missing gives Frost Beer Works an advantage. As the world shifts toward the pastry, the sweet, the cloying and the sugary, Frost gives true stout lovers the flavor that they want - roast!

Jet black and cast in an onyx-like sheen, a honeycomb froth billows toward the rim and delivers a host of roasted grain scents, seemingly of dark coffee, cocoa, burnt toast, campfire, roasting walnut and whisky char. With a deeply carbonized sweetness, the early malt profile favors dark chocolate, burnt sugars and excessively seared edges of pan-baked brownies.

As the sweetness fades away on the middle palate, the remnants of malt leaves deeper flavors of espresso, baker's chocolate, walnut and burnt toast on the tongue. With the spicier flavors of Kentucky's favorite beverage, the taste of toasted coconut, light vanilla, caramel and oak give a complex, savory and drying taste nearing the beer's finish.

With hints of grilled berries, vinous fruit and a hint of sherry, the imperial stout finishes roasty-dry, complex and warm, trailing into a long aftertaste of campfire and whisky. Its a fantastic beer flavor for those who miss the dry roast of traditional imperial stout.

Amount of bourbon taste is changing year to year.
Sampled at the brewery.
Pours a very dark brown-black with a nice brown foamy head.
Smells of cocoa, coffee, dark roast.
Tastes strongly of cocoa and coffee with a nice backdrop of bourbon.
Very nice.