Showstopper
Alesong Brewing & Blending

On tap at Belmont Station. Pours motor oil black - very thick. The nose is intense vanilla, bourbon, chocolate, and some dark fruit. The taste is boozy and silky smooth. A bit roasty, nutty, and full of vanilla, toffee, chocolate, bourbon, blackberries, and molasses. Mouthfeel is thick and creamy. Lovely barrel aged stout!

Looks like i'm the first to give this a proper review! Got this in a trade from someone in Oregon who's a member of Alesong's rare beer club. This one must be hard to find and obtain, there were only 310 cases produced. Looks like it was made to celebrate Eugene's Hult Center for the Performing Arts, home of the Eugene Symphony, Ballet, and other performance ensembles. As a musician myself, I fully support that. Pours out from a 500ml bottle a deep dark brown with practically no head, just some spiderwebby strands reaching across the surface of the beer. Takes a few swirls of the glass to unlock the scent of bourbon and chocolate. It's a very bourbon forward brew, I mean that's the prominent chord I taste resonating through my mouth upon first swallow. A little bit of bitterness of coffee and a tad of chocolate. The advertised vanilla is there, but subtly. But predominantly those Elijah Craig and Westward Whiskey barrels are the dominant flavoring of this beer. It's a little on the thin and slippery side, plenty of carbonation. Overall a good barrel aged stout. Maybe a little on the pricey side at $18, but hey it is over 14% ABV. Cheers to the arts!