Bourbon Barrel-Aged Awesome Jenkins - Basil Hayden (Batch 1)
Thin Man Brewery

basil hayden edition with the black wax apparently, cool, pushing 15% abv too, wow. havent had a ton from these guys, especially in this realm, been in the cellar for some time now, courtesy of a homie back east i am due to send beer mail to again, neat bottle, fun one to share with my dark beer loving friend, this is a bruiser and its showing its age slightly, but its delicious and well made, the barrel treatment is lovely, and it has me curious about some of the other barrel editions of this that have existed. black, eggshell luster, short tan head, quite a lot of viscosity but not nasty syrup thick, leggy though in the glass. aroma on this one does indeed show some oxidation, lots of milk and dark chocolate too, actually not colossal on the roast to my nose, nutty and with some toffee and dark bread graininess in the center, a kiss of smoke, autumnal to wintery, light vanilla before the bourbon and wood, and in an era where every big stout is loaded confectionary crap, this is a nice change of pace. the flavor is similar to the aroma, blacktop sealant with some alcohol and almost chemical intensity, but it kind of blows off a bit and this settles into cocoa powder, chestnut, cardboard, heavy barrel char, strong whiskey, corn sweetness included, good vanilla extract, dark chocolate, pipe tobacco, and even some grain or oaky spiciness at the end, palate coating but not also kind of soothing as a result, happy to be sharing but i like the no frills nature of this, it warms up well, and i could have done the whole bottle solo for sure. a bit past its peak, but big enough to withstand some fade. maybe a hint of raisin very late, some roast of course but less of that than expected for what it is, aspects of like imperial brown ale at play to me. nicely done, will seek the others...