Barrel Aged Players
Equilibrium Brewery

 

This is my second bottle of BA Players I have opened. This beer continues to get better with time in my opinion. I think this beer need to sit a bit more to develop IMO.

Look- Pours jet black with no light coming through at any point. There is almost zero head. A very small amount of darker tan bubbles form around the outside of the glass. Which dissipates very quickly. This looks solid. A small amount of alcohol legs on the glass which drop down quickly.

Smell- Up front big barrel. I pick up on boozy chocolate. Many of Equilibrium's BA stouts have this dark bakers chocolate sent to them which I really like. I was really excited to see if I could get the adjuncts off the nose, but I barley got any. No coconut, and no vanilla. Only chocolate, and bourbon. Not a bad thing just really was hopping to pick that up in the nose. Slight bitter coffee thing coming off, but not overpowering.

Taste- The most important part of a beer IMO, and this hits everything for me. Dark chocolate whisky. This tastes like a boozy brownie that is covered in chocolate icing. This also has a nice sweetness to balance out the whisky, and barrel profile. I think this sweetness comes from the vanilla. I still get absolutely no coconut on the flavor at all. Really the only thing missing for me is those adjunct not coming through. The coffee comes in very very nicely as this beer warms as well. A nice hit of fresh espresso and roasty flavor.

Feel- IMO the body of this beer really missed for me. I think Players 1 and Players 2 have way better bodies in comparison to this beer. It looks like it should be nice and full bodied but it is anything but. I don't think it takes too much away, but it just isn't for me.

Overall- Not my favorite BA stout EQ has done. But it really is a nice chocolate, and coffee bomb. I wish the vanilla and coconut come through a bit more. Also the body still just misses for me. I have one bottle left I will eventually loop back around and try it. But I still really enjoy this beer. It's just a few things missed for me. I am a huge fan of Players 1, and 2 this just something's missed for me.

This one pours a fairly dark black color, with a small head, and not much lacing.

This smells like rich milk chocolate, coffee creamer, coconut cream, and bourbon.

This is my first BA stout from Equilibrium, and it's honestly pretty solid stuff. It's rich and sweet, but not too sweet, luckily. Coconut and coffee lead the way, and meld together in a sort of high quality latte way. It's one of those lattes that taste a little bit like coffee but mostly like dessert. There's some light bourbon and oak spice to cut the sweetness.

This is medium bodied, and very creamy, with no real booziness to it.

This is nothing earth shattering, but I'm happy to have tried it.