Vision Is Lost Without Eyes To See It Through
Jackie O's Taproom & Brewery

Had at the JO's 2025 scouting event, 8 years old.
Looks solid with a blackness. Barrel chocolate with a full body and a light carbonation. Overall pretty good for being old

4/21/19 bottle @ home

 

Tasted from bottle. Aroma of bourbon, caramel, molasses, and walnuts. Moderate to heavily sweet. Hides abv incredibly well. Sticky mouthfeel. Brown sugar, molasses, caramel, cocoa, vanilla, walnuts. Complex and very well done.

Dull black with thin clear brown edges and a thin fizzy uniform blanket dying to nothing.

Strong char aromas naturally meet with marshmallow decadence while splintery bourbon awakens the senses and fire roasted walnuts and pecans bring you back down to earth with milk chocolate.

The smooth viscous body somehow is not thick, and is cut by a sharp thin carbonation and a stinging heat that ushers in Baby Ruth and Rocky Road contrasted by a formidable bourbon oak that, while woody, is stunningly absent any overpowering booze. It brings a peppery presence and finishes lightly sticky semi-dry, exhaling mature stout features that at times exude a quality barleywine character but eschew the dark fruits,

Pours an oily midnight black with a small, dark brown head, which immediately dissipates to a small ring of lacing.

Smells of an utmost complex barrel treatment, with old, alcohol soaked oak upfront, toasted coconut flakes, matured rum, dried flowers and hot tar among wafting molasses. The spiciness of the oak goes hand in hand with a boozy hotness, making my nostrils tingle, enhanced by more molasses and bakers chocolate.

Inherits almost no carbonation at all, highlighting the decadent, heavy body of this in a perfect fashion. The alcohol adds a prominent warmth to the palate, without overpowering the balance in this at any given moment.

Tastes of an immediate wooden barrel presence, enhanced by a pungent alcohol warmth, which gets entangled into molasses, scorched malts, toffee and toasted coconut. Brings a lasting hot burn to the palate then, with a convincing rock sugar presence, complimented by even more spicy molasses and caramel. Finishes quite bitter, of old hops and a barrel dryness, which, at the same time, manages to produce an intriguing sweetness, which gets picked up by the spicy licorice.

This got an astonishing complexity to it, while it definitely is a sipper, you can spend a couple of hours with. Its licorice spiciness and the different barrels used in this create a powerful flavor profile, which demands your whole attention.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It’s beer that makes Austin, MN bearable – no offense to those who choose to live around here. I’m sure it’s lovely in the December when a 27 MPH wind is blowing. Thanks to Bpfahl for this 375ML bottle.

The pour is dark black, with about as much visible carbonation as the glass it came in. Smells like bourbon soaked chocolate. You listening, Nestle’? I’d buy bars of that.

Vision is Lost Without Eyes to See it Through is like being stuffed into a bourbon barrel. Wow. After the first sip bourbon suffuses my mouth, throat, stomach, fingernails, & anyplace else it can reach. Bourbon, strong chocolate, & nuts, nuts, nuts. The mouthfeel is reminiscent of good molasses, thick, succulent, like lying in a pool of plus sized supermodels. ABV is not noticeable. I could drink this until I woke up hung over in the middle of main street. Luckily, there are so few people here, I wouldn’t get run over.

Very good bourbon barrel beers are becoming pretty common. Excellent ones are harder to find, harder to describe, & harder to pigeonhole. This reaches the upper echelon because with every sip, the bourbon & malts & nuts pour directly into my soul. This is one amazing beer.