Palatable
Drafting Table Brewing Company

Finally!

Pours black with a near still look to it. Maybe a half finger, at most, head formation after an aggressive second half of the pour. Oil clings to the glass after a swirl. Aroma is dense roasty and toasty malts, bringing caramel, toffee, molasses, dark fruits (minor) and fudge alongside. It smells dense, dark, and full. Bourbon barrel and char add some extra depth and oomph. Flavor profile is thick roasty and toasty malts with fudge and brownie behind. Dark fruits really shine through here, switching up the foreshadowing by the aroma. Barrel and booze come through later, without too much alcohol shining through. It's clearly heavy and high in alcohol, but it doesn't display that in the aroma and taste. Mouth feel is thick, with a near still effervescence. Overall, a thick and boozy imperial stout that showcases splendid control and poise. For no extra flavor additives, and considering the alcohol percentage, this thing is smooth.

Served in a 15.5oz Spiegelau tulip from a 16oz can. Canned January 8th, 2021. Poured and reviewed September 24th, 2023. Been looking for this and forward to this for a long time.

Batch 5 can: to the eye, it's not unusual for the style. But the nose of maple fills the kitchen when I open the can. In the glass, the maple is subdued, married with the barrel and bourbon in the sort of three way you'd watch silently but happily. The flavor is barrel, sweet, stout, bourbon in perfect harmony. The flavors meld perfectly from beginning to end, cold to warm. There's no evidence that this is 15% until you wake up the next day out in the yard.

 

Bottled on 12/31/19 (Batch 4); consumed on 12/31/20

Pours a clean, oily black body capped with a finger of surprisingly resilient, almost creamy dark khaki foam, fading to a paper-thin constellation of lingering froth for a cap, a rich-looking, moderate collar, and temporary splotching of webby lacing isolated sparsely around the walls of the glass.

Aroma offers initial impressions of roasted malts and lightly smoked figs quickly giving way to fudgy chocolate and bourbon butterscotch dominating the bouquet, with a residual maple tone lingering through a burly barrel char as a stiff hit of bourbon and lighter toffee strikes the close.

Taste opens with dark chocolate teeming with barrel char and accented with undertones of caramel syrup; burnt marshmallow feeds into rich milk chocolate over the mid-palate as touches of cocoa brittle and caramel fudge mark the back end; lingering maple with hints of burnt butterscotch through the finish.

Mouthfeel brings a medium-full body leveled with a subtle, low-lying carbonation; slick, oily texture persists with a burgeoning grit over the mid-palate; a building heft into the back end of the palate leaves a robust, moderate char rounding through the finish.

Rife with bourbon intensity, ABV heat gives way to a calming warmth as the barrel washes over a bittersweet malt base, melding richness and char in a focused sipper dominated by chocolatey nuances.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There's big beers that have earned their seed as groundbreaking warriors but before all that occurred I'm sure they were a sleeper that was yet to be discovered. Here at Drafting Table they have taken Weller bourbon barrels and aged a phenomenal stout, and if that's not enough to burst your bubble, it is rumored that in the future they will use Pappy barrels and wow will that just kick it up a notch.

So let's begin with the critique:

And let's think about GI Bourbon County Stout for a moment. You like that beer? Well this beer knocks it out of the water. Maybe I need to have the 2 side by side but I'm pretty sure Palatable knocks it out of the water.

First of all this dark as night, thick beverage is 15% and is the most bourbon forward beer I have ever had. So damn delicious!
Smells of bourbon upfront with tastes of bourbon and chocolate with a touch of coconut.
Now to like this beer you must be a fan of bourbon as it almost is like drinking Weller itself, basically like licking the barrel itself. There's some vanilla, licorice, tobacco sweetness and maybe some candy sugar flavor. But all these flavorings are taken from the wood in the barrel. This is not an adjunct beer but that coconut flavor is there. Not only is this beer phenomenal but it just may be my all time favorite of all that I l've had. In a way it tastes exactly like a liquified fudge brownie that has been injected with a hefty dose of Weller Bourbon. It's a beer that belongs in the top 250. This is something just absolutely beautiful.