Phases of Darkness 2023
Ruse Brewing

adding the vintage here because this iteration appears to be quite a bit different from what came before it, no sign of maple casks, way stronger in terms of abv, and with some exciting extras this time, coconut, vanilla, almonds, cacao, and marshmallow, aged over a yar in heaven hill bourbon barrels. its a monster, its boozy the whole way, but its also delicious, and i continue to be impressed by pretty much everything i come across from ruse. this is viscous, black, looking close to still, leggy in the glass, heavy. it smells amazing, perhaps my favorite feature of this, dripping nice bourbon and high end vanilla beans, sexy and floral and intoxicating, strong as heck, with some brown sugar and corn sweetness from the whiskey, hearty oak and char, and the over the top vanilla aspect. i dont smell much almond, marshmallow is lost to other richness, and cacao marries in with the dark malt awfully effectively. the coconut has a toasted warmth and sweetness, loves the whiskey, and stands out as sort of creamy and desserty, lots going on with this. the flavor is also vanilla forward, well layered in, at times synergizing with the chocolate aspect, at other times with the coffee character of the roast. i dont really think this needs marshmallow, its already quite sweet to me, but the whole thing is together and pleasant, faint smoke, some late bitterness from the roast, lots of oily coconut in here, more subtle on the almond but i can pick it out, the whisky approaches dominant when this warms up a bit. super slick almost fatty body, desserty and filling, fancy to me with the vanilla at this level and the bourbon. a small doses sort of thing, its hotly alcoholic, but its delicious and powerfully flavored. whether you are on the pastry hype train or not, this one is fire, no denying.