Fat Dog - Barrel-Aged
Stoudts Brewing Co.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks to ClockworkOrange for sharing this brew on 1/22/11.

2007 offering poured into a snifter, this brew appears black in color with clarity and lighter brown around the edges. Dark tan to brown head composed of big bubbly foam hangs close to the edges of the glass. Lengthy strings of lace cling to the glass.

The aroma of this brew smells of whiskey and vanilla. I love that character that a barrel can impart when it's done correctly. Smooth scents of alcohol mix with a grainy scent which imparts chocolate and some oat sweetness to the nose.

Tastes of whiskey accented alcohol, citrus hops, roasty grain that imparts chocolate flavors through the body. A light bitterness from the hops is present beyond the bitterness imparted by the dark grain character. Overall pretty good. I enjoy normal fat dog and this barrel treatment is even better.

Medium bodied brew with a modest level of carbonation. Prickly on the tongue. Excessively drinkable and well rounded. The alcohol was readily noticeable but never hindered the experience, just accented it the way that barrel aging should. Hope to see this brew make anyone back one day.

Shared by Azurelimits at my tasting on August 7, 2010. Thanks Pete!

Vintage 2005

This beer appears a very dark brown color, but certainly not black. A smallish tan head camps out upon the beer for a few moments before leaving a small trace of lacing in its wake. Aromas include chocolate, roasted malt, alcohol. The taste is nice, with a nice flavor from the oatmeal. Oats + stout = I like. The beer was really smooth and mellow, having been cellared for five years. Whiskey flavors were definitely present, but the heat was tamed by time. A really nice, unexpected treat. If it wasn't retired, I'd acquire a few bottles.

Bottle shared by Azurelimits, thanks Pete. Beer poured into a snifter. I didn't even know this beer existed. Kind of cool. Beer is black and has a thin broken head of brown small bubbles that doesn't leave lacing on my glass. It appears that the carbonation is low. I don't know the vintage of this beer unfortunately as I did not write it down.

Aroma is an appropriate volume and its mostly whiskey and some sweetness from the malt. Minimal roast.

This is one of the smoothest beers I've ever had. Now I'm really curious how long this has been sitting. Beer finishes cleanly but isn't dry, no aftertaste. Some sweetness up front gives way to a nice, almost coconut, liquor flavor in the midpalate that carries you through to some minimal roasty bitterness in the back. Beer is quite mellow and very drinkable.

I have never seen a cork that was this hard to remove. We had to tie it to the bumper of my friends 4x4 to get it out. Well, not really, but it was almost that hard...

A - Stout. Some tan-mocha head, some lace.

S - Too oat-y, even with the barrel treatment. Just roasty, oat-y and boozy. It is possible that the barrel exacerbated lesser characteristics of this brew and negated the greater.

T - Perhaps it was because I had this side-by-side with BA Blackbeerd that I am so underwhelmed. It is just second-tier, at best. Basically, roasted malt, chalky oat, and booze, combine to form a brew that is a cut above decent.

M - Stout. Full-bodied and viscous, but not particularly outstanding.

D - This was a decent brew. Actually, a little better than that. But I suspect most would expect a very good or great beer, just as I did, given the speciality and barrel aging of this one.

Thanks to Sean for sharing this one at the 110k release.

A- pours balck in color with shades of brown when held to the light. A 1 finger tan head. The head disappears and leaves a thin ring. Some spotty lacing left.

A- roasted malts and dark chocolate. Not a lot going on.

T- Semi-sweet dark chocolate chips comes to mind. The malts are robust. There is a bit of char presence. Some wood. The bourbon is blended nicely and doesn't overpower the other flavors.

M- nice and smooth. On the fuller side of medium in body.

D- pretty tastey. I could have killed the bottle without hesitation. Thanks again Sean!

750ml bottle into a mini-nonic; shared at a tasting.

A: Solidly black body with an inch of creamy tan head. Good retention and strong lacing. Very nice.

S: Mild aromas of sweet malts (chocolate and caramel), with some alcohol as well. Meh.

T: Tons of caramel sweetness, and not much else. Not very roasty, no barrel influence to speak of, and simply nothing to praise. Not bad, but thoroughly boring.

M: Surprisingly thin with relatively low carbonation.

D: Easy enough to drink, but why would you want to?

Notes: Perhaps I would have liked this one more in isolation, but it was by far the worst of the BA stouts at the tasting. There's just nothing much going on, and it's a shame. I was surprised to see how high its average score was on here, but I guess some people just love anything that claims to have been in a barrel at some point. Compared to most other barrel aged stouts I've had, Fat Dog was bland and forgettable. Thanks, Tony, for the chance to find this out.

Cheers!

A cask of Barrel Aged Fat Dog was available at the Yards Real Ale Invitational on March 21, 2010...

Dark, near black in color, minimal head from the cask pour. Smell is of dark roasted grain with just hints of everything from chocolate, coffee, cream, cinnamon, vanilla, booze and dark dried fruit. Would love if the scent was more aggressive. Taste is a little bolder then scent dictates, once again, the dark roasted malts are the highlight with dark dried fruit notes fairly aggressive as well. Other flavors mentioned in scent are also present such as chocolate, coffee, cream, brown sugar, cinamon and vanilla. The burbony booze is there, but not too aggressive, but that can be a good thing. Full bodied, creamy, slightly dry finnish. ABVs hidden well. The barrel aging really didnt do a ton for this beer as i had hoped, but its still a great beer.