Bourbon Barrel-Aged Imperial Stout
Westbound & Down Brewing Company / The Buffalo Restaurant & Bar

 

 

 

 

Baby can batch.

This one pours a fairly dark black color, with a small head, and not much lacing.

This smells like spicy oak, dark chocolate, anise, vanilla, coffee, and caramel.

This is absolutely wonderful. Westbound and Down manages to pack so much intense barrel character into their beers without adding booziness or astringency. There's oak spice, leather, caramel, vanilla, char, rye and a light licorice-like bitterness. There's both dark and milk chocolate, and some coffee-like character as well.

This is thick, with no real booziness to it, and a nice drinkability. The 8oz baby can serving size is basically perfect for this.

Like pretty much every stout they've ever done, this is very special.

 

 

Midnight black body with a finger of sudsy mocha foam head before settling into a thick collar. Robust barrel and dark chocolate, molasses, vanilla, and faint leather nose. Taste as it smells with additions of light licorice and anise, bourbon forward with the vanilla emerging more as it warms. Very warm and barrel forward, thick malts with earthy textures make up the mouthfeel. Just a really well made BBA stout that shows off the barrel

Hey look another 500ML bottle! And it’s Friday! And I don’t have to get up tomorrow! And the Twins are in first place! Let’s just stop the world here, please.

Oh, the beer. The pour is matte black ’79 Camaro ragtop. The nose is bourbon & sweet malt. Full stop.

Westbound & Down Barrel Aged Imperial Stout hits like 2011. Straight bourbon, straight malts imparting sweetness & soft roast, gentle vanilla. NE IPA mouthfeel on a stout is throwback like Jim Thome hitting bombs into the night at Target Field. I could drink this until H. Potter caught the snitch.

Very good beer. Straight down broadway.