Bourbon Bullitt Train
Levante Brewing Company

 

 

 

Sampled the other day with some friends, right after a bottle of Rusty Nail (unfortunately).

The beer pours a fairly dark brown color with fair head retention and light lacing (once the foam calmed down). On the nose, I pick up some light bourbon, coffee and licorice, with some underlying vanilla as well. It's not bad, I just wish there was more of it. The flavor profile was more of the same in this lightweight BA stout, though I was surprised by the carbonation level (it was pretty high, and the beer gave off considerable foam) The excessive carbonation really hurt the mouth feel in what was a pretty thin flavor profile to begin with. Otherwise, mouth feel was thin and a bit lackluster, and the finish was a bit short. As the beer opened up a bit, there was even some surprising sourness in the finish. Alcohol was pretty unnoticeable otherwise (abv. was around 9% if memory serves), and frankly, I would have guessed it was much lower.

Mehhhh... while not awful, this was a pretty lack luster effort I thought. The beer lacks richness and the mouth feel was pretty thin. Not sure this is something I need to try again any time soon.

Derek (Rifugium) mentioned in his review that he thought the beer might be infected, and in fact, the same thought crossed my mind as well. Hence, I would tend to agree with his recommendation that this is a beer that needs to be drunk sooner rather than later.

Bottle from the release at the brewery. This is a bourbon barrel aged vanilla stout.

I had high expectations of this one, but they were quickly shot down. After about 30 minutes in the fridge, I Yopener'd the bottle, which let out a highly pressurized hiss. Even a very careful pour yielded almost a full glass of foam, and it took about 10 minutes for me to get a decently settled pour. Metallic aroma, notes of dry malts. The taste was bitter and somewhat metallic, with very little--let's just call it nothing--in the bourbon or vanilla department, although after breathing a bit, some sweet vanilla hints did come out, and there was some neutral booze in there. The body was thin, and the super high carbonation didn't help at all.

Based on my personal previous experiences, going by the subtle off-flavors and the reaction of the mega foam in the glass, I think this beer is infected. At this point, a few days after the release, it's still drinkable, but I wouldn't sit on it long if you have one, as it will probably start showing it's "true colors" in the near future. Hopefully I'm wrong.

This brewery is only 10 months old or so, and to do something like this relatively right out of the gate seems like a bit of an unfair money grab to me, and it's kind of already turned me off to them.