Steps of Knowledge
Wren House Brewing Co.
- From:
- Wren House Brewing Co.
- Arizona, United States
- Style:
- American Imperial Stout
- ABV:
- 11%
- Score:
- +6 ratings needed
- Avg:
- 4.13 | pDev: 12.59%
- Ratings:
- | reviews: 2
- Status:
- Retired
- Rated:
- Nov 23, 2021
- Added:
- May 14, 2020
- Wants:
- 0
- Gots:
- 0
NO SCORE
-
-
'Remember Ol**c? Well this is our new and improved version. Steps of Knowledge is an Double Barreled Imperial Mexican Mole Stout aged in whiskey barrels before being transferred to additional, fresh barrels for a further 18 month long rest. Specifically Dickel, Buffalo Trace, Brandy, and Woodford Reserve Double Oak barrels. We then conditioned these double barrel aged imperial stouts on a variety of dried gourmet chiles, cinnamon, chocolate, and vanilla. Adjuncts shine bright in this beer. Chile heat is present and up front in the flavor, a nice tingle of spice on the palate, followed by chocolate fudge, enticing cinnamon aroma, and nice vanilla backing to round it out. The barrel heat on this plays well with the chile heat resulting in a lusciously complex stout.'
Recent ratings and reviews.
Reviewed by Sabtos from Ohio
3.66/5 rDev -11.4%
look: 3.25 | smell: 4 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 3.75
3.66/5 rDev -11.4%
look: 3.25 | smell: 4 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 3.75
Dull black with burnt red edges and a fluid surface after the practically no show head completely dies out.
Smell is promising of mole, but taste is fairly spicy of peppers. Actually, it's to the point of such dominance that they are hard to dig through. It seems like it should have a moderately chocolately base with a light toasty roast in aroma, but its flavor just isn't surfacing.
Shame, too, because there is so much time and barrel work here that's also drowned out. It leaves me to believe they were just finishing off some barrels that were otherwise ready for the garbage heap.
Nov 23, 2021Smell is promising of mole, but taste is fairly spicy of peppers. Actually, it's to the point of such dominance that they are hard to dig through. It seems like it should have a moderately chocolately base with a light toasty roast in aroma, but its flavor just isn't surfacing.
Shame, too, because there is so much time and barrel work here that's also drowned out. It leaves me to believe they were just finishing off some barrels that were otherwise ready for the garbage heap.
Reviewed by jrc1093 from Connecticut
3.69/5 rDev -10.7%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 3.5
3.69/5 rDev -10.7%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 3.5
Canned on 4/7/20; consumed on 12/1/20
Pours a thick, oily, jet-black body capped with just under a finger of creamy, dark mocha foam; sub-par head retention yields spotty, paper-thin islands of cap, a rich, creamy, moderate collar, and minimal-no lacing holding to the walls of the glass.
Aroma brings sweet cinnamon trailed closely by decadent fudgy chocolate upfront, softening to waves of oaky vanilla laced with bourbon over the middle before assertive chillies bring hints of red berries with a quiet barrel char and touch of caramel to close the bouquet.
Taste opens with semi-sweet cinnamon, hints of vanilla, and dark chocolate in harmony upfront, slowly engaging with a building herbal chile quality against dry oak on mid-palate; chile continues to outweigh sweeter barrel tones into the back end, reasserting an herbaceousness against lingering oaky barrel, nougat, toasty vanilla, and milk chocolate through the finish.
Mouthfeel offers a semi-chewy, medium-full body alongside a low-lying carbonation; slick, though just shy of oily into the mid-palate, peppery spice begins to tingle in favor of any alcohol heat, making way for a sticky texture on the back end to fight through a dry, prickly heat into the finish.
Adjunct-laden sweetness meets a sort of natural foil in the chile pepper heat across this stout, ultimately achieving a unique coexistence, two disparate characteristics taming the more expressive edges of one another; similarly, the barrel presence is largely subdued by the peppery contrasts, which are, to their credit, effectively presented as a whole, even as the final product never fully coordinates.
Dec 02, 2020Pours a thick, oily, jet-black body capped with just under a finger of creamy, dark mocha foam; sub-par head retention yields spotty, paper-thin islands of cap, a rich, creamy, moderate collar, and minimal-no lacing holding to the walls of the glass.
Aroma brings sweet cinnamon trailed closely by decadent fudgy chocolate upfront, softening to waves of oaky vanilla laced with bourbon over the middle before assertive chillies bring hints of red berries with a quiet barrel char and touch of caramel to close the bouquet.
Taste opens with semi-sweet cinnamon, hints of vanilla, and dark chocolate in harmony upfront, slowly engaging with a building herbal chile quality against dry oak on mid-palate; chile continues to outweigh sweeter barrel tones into the back end, reasserting an herbaceousness against lingering oaky barrel, nougat, toasty vanilla, and milk chocolate through the finish.
Mouthfeel offers a semi-chewy, medium-full body alongside a low-lying carbonation; slick, though just shy of oily into the mid-palate, peppery spice begins to tingle in favor of any alcohol heat, making way for a sticky texture on the back end to fight through a dry, prickly heat into the finish.
Adjunct-laden sweetness meets a sort of natural foil in the chile pepper heat across this stout, ultimately achieving a unique coexistence, two disparate characteristics taming the more expressive edges of one another; similarly, the barrel presence is largely subdued by the peppery contrasts, which are, to their credit, effectively presented as a whole, even as the final product never fully coordinates.
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