Never Say Never (Wild Turkey Barrel)
Rouge River Brewing Company

Got this from Emma and Terry a while back. Cheers!

From a 500ml bottle into a snifter
Vintage: 2018
Wild Turkey BA

APPEARANCE: Pitch black pour yields a one finger, creamy looking, light tan head with good retention. Head slowly fades to a ring only. Black body with no carbonation. A light ring remains but leaves no lacing on the glass as it empties.

SMELL: Lots of bourbon, vanilla cream, milk chocolate, caramel and butterscotch aromas, and plenty of booze. Bold and enticing.

TASTE: Lots of pure chocolate, brownies, bourbon and oak, with vanilla flavors and sweet butterscotch up front. Flavorful and decadent. Some booze at the swallow, moving into a bold finish of bourbon barrel, chocolate brownies, pure chocolate, vanilla cream, butterscotch and caramel, with a touch of booze lingering on the palate. Lovely stuff for sure. Exactly how you want your bourbon BA stout.

PALATE: Medium body and medium carbonation. A little prickly on the palate, half creamy, goes down fine with a bit of a scratch and burn, finishing rather mouth-coating. Some heat lingers.

OVERALL: This is lovely, lovely, decadent happiness in a glass. The look and feel do the job as starter and desert, but the main course is basically as good as it gets. The aroma is full of lovely stout character and barrel aromas to satisfy any critic, and the flavor is world class, and I’ve had more than my fair share of bourbon barrel aged imperial stouts. Lots of lovely sweet flavor, roasted and chocolate base stout, and decadent barrel character, making it a contender in the heavyweight division, regardless of its low-key origins. Well worth drinking now if you have one, and even more worth tracking one down and drinking it if you don’t Very happy to have had the chance to try this one four years into its development. Best beer of the summer, and I even kept the empty bottle around for the whole five weeks hoping it would magically refill if I left it long enough. Thanks again guys. This one is world class.

This is a 2018 vintage but I am only purchased it now.
Pours black of course but not much head and even that dissipates. The nose is of strong bourbon whiskey and burnt caramel. Not very carbonated, as these aged bourbon barrel aged stouts start to go a wee bit flat after a year. But the flavours are still there. However, most of it is the bourbon and also something sweet I can't put my finger on. Perhaps toffee.
Powerful, but I do prefer more carbonation with this style.

very similar to Jim Bream. more velvety. some head.