Anvil Chorus
Jackie O's Taproom & Brewery

Chocolate and barrel, boozy but not assertively so, are featured in taste and aroma. Mouthfeel is affected by the dearth of carbonation. A trifle more carbonation would go a long way here. Still this stout is easy drinking at 14.9%. A wolf in sheep’s clothing.

 

Looks like we had this one over at Adam's house for some fights a few years ago.

Pours black. Thinnish 1/6" brown head that dissipates and clings to the side of the glass. The aroma is massively deep chocolate and bourbon.

Taste brings a little bit of sweetness I didn't see coming in light of the sizeable roasted malt, dark chocolate and significant bourbon. But it was still smooth in the mouthfeel relative to its strength. As it warmed there was a light dark fruit like bitterness that crept in. So in a way, the mouthfeel displayed the sum of its parts without letting anything dominate the beer. Normally honey kind of dries the mouthfeel, an old school FiftyFifty Eclipse trick. This is much more viscous and stronger alcohol though than those beers.

Its definitely a rich beer that should be a sipper. I wonder about the name, what is an Anvil Chorus anyways?

Anvil Chorus from Jackie O’s. Received from their website. 12.7 fl oz capped bottle, price unrecorded. Reviewed 26/04/25 (Review 3515). Note that I use DD/MM/YY protocol.
Printed on label “Brewed and Bottled by Jackie O’s 2022.” Stored in at 39 degrees F at home; served at 56.8 degrees F in a hand washed and dried Jester King snifter. The final temperature is 63.6 degrees F.
Appearance – 4
First pour – Deep Brown (SRM 30), nearly opaque.
Body – Deep Brown (SRM 30), opaque. Under direct light, same, with heavy precipitate visible on the inside of the glass. When rear-lite, light penetrates only at the top edge, honey.
Head – None (Maximum zero cm, aggressive center pour). Carbonation produces a 0.05 cm broken bubble ring.
Lacing – None
Aroma – 4.25 – Blast of bourbon when opened – this quickly fades into just a generic sweetness. No yeast, no malt, no alcohol.
Flavor – 4.25 – Begins sweet with bourbon and barrels. Hints of dark fruit. No dimethylsulfide or diacetyl. No yeast, no hops. No alcohol (14.1 % ABV, according to the label). Mild gastric warming occurs.
Palate – 4 – Medium: creamy with a slight tendency to syrupiness: soft, barely noticeable, carbonation.
Style: Follows the style guidelines as condensed by BA.

Final impression and summation: 4.25 The label artist, Chris Monday, is given credit, for what, on closer inspection, is an accurate (if obvious) depiction of the yclept beer. Aroma is initially bourbon, which mellow as it ages – maybe some brownies (why not?) – just kind of generic chocolatey/darkish fruit. Overall, not bad, just not great.

 

Glossy black with a half finger of fuzzy mocha crema that roundly clings at the edges, almost like a sunken muffin top.

Firsts whiff is delectable Tootsie Roll and brownie crust backed by a balanced bourbon char.

Taste adds toasted walnuts with a little booze plus dark chocolate drizzled campfire roasted marshmallow tempered by bittering oak. After a few more sips, it exhales dark fruit.

The body is lighter than you'd imagine reading all of that, but also finishes impressively dry.

This was the best Jackie O's stout I've ever had. Having it next to a Bourbon County was a surprisingly effective contrast. Though this had slightly less body and carbonation, its excellence drew out some less pleasant licorice notes in Goose Island's 2022. Both of these incredible beers took it to the final bell, but Anvil definitely grew on me the most over the session.

 

 

12.7 ounce bottle, 2022 vintage, thanks to Brutaltruth for this! I really thought I've had this one before but maybe I have and just didn't review it. Or maybe I really haven't had it, I'm not complaining either way! Served in a snifter, the beer pours dark brown/black with not quite an inch tan head. Head retention and lacing are both good. I like the aroma, the brew smells like roasted malt, vanilla, honey, dark fruit, bourbon, dark chocolate and some oak. Taste is similar to the aroma, but with the addition of some brownies, dark bread, fig and a bit of licorice flavors. All the flavors mesh well with each other and no one flavor is stronger than the others. Mouthfeel/body is full, it's creamy and a bit rich with a moderate amount of carbonation. I thought this was a pretty good overall brew, would like to try a fresher version of this one at some point!

 

12.7oz bottle, 2023 bottling, 14.9% ABV, served in a snifter glass. Bottle label says this one was aged for 20 months which accounts for the higher ABV vs. the one listed on the website. I wonder if this beer's name is a hint I'm about to get hammered and start ringing.....

Appearance: Black letting no light through, very dark brown head that left a ring at the edge and some fine strands and islands of lacing. I'm surprised there is any lacing given the higher ABV.

Smell: Chocolate (and it does smell a bit like brownie batter....), vanilla/oak notes, and to my surprise, only the tiniest bit of bourbon.

Taste: Lots of chocolate and sweetness (that brownie batter again), and I am getting toasted/roasted malt along with some hints of honey, with dark chocolate bitterness and some bourbon at the end - with the dark chocolate lingering. Not really getting any fig flavor though. The oak and bourbon notes show up at the end, and they are muted, being more of a complement to the beer than the main flavor.

Mouthfeel: Nicely thick and a bit sticky on the teeth. Some warming from the higher ABV at the finish which is more slick than dry.

Overall / Drinkability: A very potent imperial stout. The alcohol is hidden, but it shows up rather quickly.....or I'm becoming a lightweight. It's nice to see the beer and malt dominate the flavor more than the bourbon, which is surprising after 20 months of aging. Well done. Time to let the hammering anvil chorus finish.....

04/20/23 bottle @ home

Pours a pitch-black coloration with a tiny, fizzy head that soon fades away. Smells of slightly roasted, caramel malt and strong notes of chocolate and dark fruit, with raisin and fig standing out, as well as a distinct bourbon presence and hints of vanilla, honey and oak. Taste is a good balance of slightly roasted, caramel malt, strong chocolate and dark fruit, with notes of raisin, fig, plum and dates, as well as some vanilla, brown sugar and honey, with hints of licorice and musty oak. Finishes sweet and boozy, with some bourbon, chocolate, dark fruit and honey lingering in the aftertaste, Full mouthfeel with a rich body and light carbonation.

While there certainly is quite a rich bourbon presence to this, it's perhaps a bit too rich, leaving a sharp, boozy aftertaste, while also feeling a bit too sweet for my personal taste, I would have wished for a bit more roast and bitterness here, to balance out those sweet brown sugar, vanilla and honey notes. While the slightly roasted malts and hints of licorice and oak prevent this from becoming quite too cloying. I think this makes for quite a rich BA Imperial Stout with a distinct Bourbon presence that is just not quite to my personal taste though. I enjoyed it well-enough, but would not certainly not purchase another, especially at the price point.

Poured at fridge temp. Pours black with almost no head. The nose is a bit more subtle than I would have expected from such a big beer. Chocolate, cinnamon, bourbon, vanilla, oak, honey, brown sugar. The taste is really nice. It's a very still beer - not a typical beer from Jackie O's. Black licorice, dark chocolate, brown sugar, maple, honey, burnt toffee, figs, plums, port, and raisins. Mouthfeel is very thick and, again, lacking carbonation. The ABV isn't completely hidden as there is a slight burn on the way down. Aftertaste is bourbon and chocolate truffle. Overall, a really nice stout.

Thanks to D4kapa for this 375ML bottle, another in a long line of Jackie O’s sugar water polluting my body going back a decade or more. Yeesh.

The pour is dark & flat as most JO stouts with a nose of sharp roast & a bit of bourbon.

Anvil Chorus is fine. Having a tough time nailing this one down – it’s about down-the-middle as a barrel aged stout gets. Some roast, some bourbon, some booze, some oak, a drying finish, perhaps touch of vanilla or cacao. Certainly easy to sip.

Solid barrel aged stout. Full stop.

Look - black and thick with great rimming
Smell - so much barrel and chocolate slight dark fruit
Taste - ton of barrel lots of fudge not overly sweet slight dark fruit
Feel - thick creamy light carb
Overall - just incredible

From an undated 12.7oz bottle into a pint glass.

Pours a thick black with maybe half a finger of tan head that dissipates quickly leaving an outer ring and just a touch of lacing.

Smelling some bourbon, coffee, dried dark fruit and light chocolate. Aroma is nice but nothing to really write home about.

The taste is...heavenly. Incredibly rich mix of creamy coffee, dark chocolate, mild dark fruits and bourbon.

Thick, smooth mouth feel. Boozy aftertaste. Low carbonation.

This is such a pleasure and privilege to drink. Great combo of taste and mouthfeel.

Description: Appearance is shiny and black, like glass, with zero bubbles or head. Zero. Smell has heavy notes of bourbon and oak with hits of leather and tobacco combining to produce a strong, bold aroma. Taste is roasty and chocolatey, with oak and bourbon similar to the smell, although not as prominent. It's sweeter than the smell would indicate but not in bad or cloying way. Feel is thick, smooth and velvety - everything a stout should feel like and more.

Overall: 4.5 (This beer is very good and I would definitely drink it again) No surprise, but JO's nailed it with this beer. All the textbook flavors you'd expect in a BBA stout with an outstanding feel. This is a sipper and one to splurge on.

 

Another day and another Jackie O's barrel aged brew. Anvil Chorus is a stout that doesn't have any additions and leans heavily on barley. The depth of all the blended ingredients creates a brownie like sweetness that naturally brings this one up to a higher level.