Séance
Ravenna Brewing Co

Poured from a bottle at fridge temp. Pours jet black with little head. The nose is dark chocolate, toffee, bourbon, peat smoke, plums, raisins, some roasted malts, vanilla, and a bit of cherries. Very nice.

The taste is wonderful. The peated whisky comes through a lot more here. Lagavulin perhaps? Dark chocolate, burnt toffee, charred wood from a campfire, coffee grounds, tobacco, chalk, earthy note, dirt, vanilla, coconut, plums, and blackberries. Really nice mixture of sweet and bitter. The rye spice comes through nicely, especially on the back end.

Mouthfeel is thick and creamy. The alcohol is noticeable, but not burning. Overall, a great rye stout.

Poured into a Fremont small snifter. Pours a very dark mahogany brown, appearing opaque black in the glass with a half finger dark khaki head that dissipates to a thick cap with good retention and nice lacing. Aroma of dark toasted malt, bourbon, dark stone fruit and hint of cocoa; a bit boozy. Flavor is dark toasted malt with light char, bourbon, rye, mild bakers chocolate, peat developing into the bourbony finish with nice residual earthy peat. Medium bodied with light to moderate creaminess. My first barreled stout from Ravenna, after several nicely made porters. This has some great barrel character, dominated initially by the bourbon, but then quietly sneaking in some smoky, earthy peat, which then stands out in the finish, giving this a Scotch like attitude. The barrel is so forward that the malt seems a touch overwhelmed at first, but this really grows with further tasting and the lightly peaty aftertaste is great. The collaborators should be proud of this brew. I'll be picking up another bottle; it's boozy enough now that I'd like to have it again with a year of mellowing. Well done.