Barrel-Aged Imperial Stout
Blindman Brewing

 

355ml can - their Ichorous imperial stout, aged in Woodford Reserve Bourbon barrels, though you wouldn't know that by simply reading the label.

This beer pours a solid black abyss, with the scantest of orange cola basal edges, and three fingers of puffy, finely foamy, and somewhat creamy brown head, which leaves some dissolving ice floe pattern lace around the glass as it slowly and lazily recedes.

It smells of grainy and bready caramel malt, bittersweet cocoa powder, indistinct dark stone fruit, vanilla-flecked Bourbon wood, a hint of anise spice, faint ashy notes, and some understated earthy, musty, and gently perfumed floral hop bitters. The taste is semi-sweet, bready and doughy caramel malt, a minor damp char, rich licorice-laced chocolate, vanilla cookies, wet and sort of besotted barrel staves, prunes, a further muddled berry fruitiness, and more weak earthy, floral, and spicy hoppiness.

The carbonation is fairly timid in its quotidian frothiness, the body a big-boy medium-heavy weight, and mostly smooth, with just a suggestion of alcohol and some wafting smokiness taking a minor tithe here. It finishes off-dry, the malt and barrel essences in a tug of war with my palate.

Overall, this appears to be another large and in charge, barrel-aged stout, with a deft hand applied to the wood side of the equation - this is not a Bourbon explosion in a dark beer factory, but rather a subtle addition to the underlying brew. And that ABV - you can tell it's there, but it's always minding its manners, seen but not heard, and all that. Great stuff.

Blindman's latest foray into barrel aged stout is tasty, with a pleasant nose and understated but evident alcohol. It seems a bit thin to me, though that is more a function of the base Ichorous stout, I believe. Overall, I'm glad I tried it in its current state, but I will definitely be tucking away a can to try next year.

A distinct entity from the bourbon-barrel-aged imperial stout already listed on BA--this one eschews the addition of coconut in favour of good-old-fashioned time spent in Woodford Reserve Double-Oaked barrels (orange labels instead of the blue of the previous edition). But boy do they need to work on distinct naming conventions for this series, or there's a lot of confusion coming.

Jet black. Little head, fading to a few mocha islands. Smell is sweet, plummy, boozy. And actually, there's some definite coconut character, even if there isn't any coconut added this go-round. Slightly smoky. Cotton candy, vanilla. Berries. Most of the same flavours on the taste, with a bit of oakiness. Fairly well-hidden ABV. Coconut-y finish.

Hard for me to judge this fairly, as I tend to be one of the few folks who isn't all-in on bourbon-barrel aging. But it's a nice, rich offering.