Devil Dog - French Toast - Bourbon Barrel-Aged
Roak Brewing Co.

12 ounce can, canned on 10/22/21. Served in a snifter, the beer pours dark brown/black with about an inch tan head. Head retention and lacing are both good. Aroma is nice, the brew smells like cinnamon, maple, vanilla and roasted malt. I think the taste is similar to the aroma, but with the addition of some dark bread, brown sugar and a bit of bourbon. It's a mostly sweet smelling and tasting brew, but not overpoweringly so. Sweetness lingers in the finish, but the overall sweetness does ease up somewhat as the beer warms. Mouthfeel/body is medium/full, it's coating with a moderate amount of carbonation. Only one minor complaint with this brew is that I wish the bourbon barrel character was stronger. Guess the french toast flavors overpowered the bourbon, or maybe this wasn't barrel aged for too long. Anyways I liked this brew a lot, worth trying if you get the chance to!

The pour is stout black with a very short beige head. Not much of the lacing.
The taste is good, I enjoyed it, but in this case the BBA Stout overcame the adjuncts and additives but generally speaking it’s not amazing. Perplexed by this a little.
The feel is right along the expected lines, maybe a little thinner.
OA, I can’t help but feel like they rushed through these trying to hit a deadline. I know Roak can brew excellent beer, just don’t think they are good at the additives. Which is not necessarily a bad thing at all.

Poured from 12-ounce can into a stemless wine glass. Two words: Nailed it! I love it when a brewer delivers on his promises, and this one delivers in spades. Huge aromas and flavors of French toast, maple syrup, cinnamon, bourbon barrel, and dark roasted malt, with notes of char, coffee, licorice, and molasses in there as well. Silky mouthfeel, alcohol incredibly well hidden. Approach this Devil Dog with caution!

 

10.5% ABV per the can.

Delightful

Matte black with a thin, short-lived dark-khaki head, which quickly settles into a wisp and thin, soupy crown. Some minimal lacing.

Clear maple, cinnamon and vanilla in the nose. Just about the perfect balance to evoke French toast.

The taste isn’t as clear-cut. Flat cocoa and leather malt are added to the mix with the cinnamon, vanilla and maple. Not much bourbon or any real alcohol heat.

Medium bodied, retrained carbonation.

Smells fantastic; tastes only pretty good in comparison. Definitely left me wanting more maple with coffee added for a fuller breakfast experience.

Look: Dense, black, with a 2 finger cream head. Good lacing despite head diminishing somewhat
quickly.
Smell: Cinnamon, bread, bourbon, chocolate, maple. Absolutely enticing.
Taste: Chocolate, bourbon, cinnamon, vanilla, powdered sugar, maple. Excellent, but lacking something, not as compelling as the nose.
Feel: Satisfying. Nicely balanced between watery and sticky... just a touch light on the carbonation.
Overall: A fine brew, one I will keep in the rotation with some backup in the beer room. Nicely done! A good value for a 4 pack of 11.4 ABV, at 11 bucks.

Slightly less than a fingers worth of medium khaki colored froth... Limited retention.... Inky black color that lets a smidge of light leak in around the edges... Nose of fudge and maple syrup... Some coffee and dark chocolate notes as well... Flavor profile is a bit muddled... Its also more subdued... Maple syrup and baker's chocolate compete for prominence... Feel is medium... Some sharp carbonation... Some of the bourbon notes surface on the deep finish... Decent beer but a bit rough around the edges...

This edition was super dialed in, French toast literally might be stretch but there's this bready maple flavor that does get it in the ballpark. Aside from that the base stout is great and has a great feel for the style.

**
03/11/22

LOOK: dark black, small light beige head.
AROMA: Cinnamon, vanilla, almost maple? bourbon sneaks in and out in hints, but seems almost more like a cognac than bourbon.
TASTE: roasted malt, cocoa, late oak and some acetyl flavors.
FEEL: a little dry, medium to full body, a little sharp.

**

 

12oz can poured into a tulip. Pours almost black; khaki head that fades leaving nice retention and sticky lacing. The aromas have a nice French toast vibe. Hints of cinnamon and maple syrup. Hints of chocolate. Subtle bourbon. Nice overall breakfast aroma. The flavors are interesting. More cinnamon along with some sausage links. Hints of anise. Mild hints of powdered sugar. More maple syrup. More hints of chocolate in the mix. The bourbon is subtle and balanced. Malts do their thing. Alcohol is ultimately well hidden considering the ABV. Mouthfeel is nice. It's full-bodied with moderate to low carbonation. It's fluffy, velvety, creamy and smooth.

This is an interesting brew. I absolutely love their regular French Toast Devil Dog, so I was super excited to try a barrel-aged version. Sadly and surprisingly the bourbon barrels don't take this one to another level, in my opinion. It's still nice, but I guess maybe my expectations were too high considering my love for the original. The flavors might be a little rough around the edges, but it's still fun to drink at the end of the day.

 

 

 

 

Thanks to FlintB for this 16 oz. can…my trading has become as infrequent as a comprehensible Trump tweet, so that thank you is notable.

Black as the soul of a Yankees fan, & smells a lot better, mostly sweet malt & cinnamon. No objections.

French Toast Devil Dog – Bourbon Barrel Aged brings a lot to the (breakfast) table. The barrel is subtle, no cleavage, followed by too much cinnamon, maple sweetness, brown sugar that grows in strength as the beer warms. Smooth, easy, with no apparent alcohol, a dangerous sipper. Love to have this on the right side of my Belgian waffles I craft every Sunday morning.

Why re-invent the French Toast when regular French Toast is so good? Roak clearly knows that. Very good beer that borders on excellent.

16 oz can
sent over from superspak
Peace Tree mini snifter
10/19/18
During Good Will Hunting

Deep, inky black pour with a relatively large beige head of 1 finger in my micro snifter.

In the nose I get slight maple and almond, perhaps a little cake batter/vanilla frosting, coffee, dark fruit, and hints of antiseptic whiskey.

The flavor is not nearly the flavor bomb I'd hoped for, but I do get complexity. Coffee and roasted barley, a slight twang of dried banana chips, watery whiskey heat, and tart blackberry syrup. There's a tiny hint of grass and vanilla somewhere in there too. Very faint maple, if a little tart. Blackberry syrup persists.

Feel is hot and dry, gives ya cotton mouth. Nice carbonation level. Heat continues. Dryness continues. Mild residual oils.

Overall, I prefer the original FT DD over this, and this might be one of the shabbier BBA beers I've had. I found it hard to finish. Still,the alcohol buzz creeps up quickly and stealthily which is cool.

Ink black body with a thick, creamy light tan head. Huge aroma of maple and cinnamon all wrapped within a blanket of roasted grain and coffee; smells very much like french toast. Heavy flavor of maple syrup with a noticeable yet not flagrant presence of bourbon; some cinnamon and vanilla; maple syrup linger long into the finish. Heavy body; thick, oily, viscous; plenty of residual sugar body with a dull, dense sweetness throughout.

This is an extremely fine smelling beer. The brewery nailed the french toast description perfectly. In the other categories, this beer shines as a barrel aged stout. Sweet, heavy, and alluring.

Very pretty can. Also one of the few times I've seen a BA'd version of a beer with a lower score than the regular vesion.

Usually I remark upon the pour first, because I am heavily induced to do so by the design of this website, but man this really is a French Toast Stout. The pour is a good 2.5 feet from my face and it smells like that old French Toast Crunch cereal. The maple nodes are intense but there's also something else about it, some sort of graininess, that just smells like French toast in particular (cinnamon). Bringing the glass closer to my nose, the aroma is smoother, but still very sweet and very syrupy.

The aroma is lovely but borders on cloying and I was worried the flavor would be too intense. It's not. It's rough bourbon at the very tip top, moving into nicely harsh cinnamon, and then very sweet syrup throughout, but the end and finish are both a nice mix of all the other flavors.

Overall this isn't the most delicately brewed beer you're going to come across, but it does a pretty darn good job of setting out what its makers wanted it to do.