Barrel Aged Black Knight
Willimantic Brewing Co.

This one was a sipper, it took me awhile to finish my 4oz so here we go:

The appearance is black, no doubt about that, and as mentioned by my fellow pub patrons below it is on cask so there is really no head on this beast. The aroma is almost as hard to grasp as the flavor. The sour notes are large and in charge, fading back to some more pleasant vanilla traits, a little fruity, and a bit of the booze. Given the appearance one might expect a heavier brew, but this porter is actually on the thin side even at 10%.

Having tried this almost a year ago I can say the funky bugs have had a Coup d'état all over the standard porter characteristics, which is a touch unfortunate. It is incredibly mouth puckering, and as I said earlier a sipper by all means. I would have like less sour and more body.

Black Knight is indeed one of the most complex beers to come out of WBC, maybe even CT as a whole. Try it while you can so I am not the only one perplexed as to if I like it or not, there may be no middle ground on this one.

13 months in the barrel.. that's a decent amount of time.

A - Very dark black, 12 oz served in a snifter. low carbonation, no head retention, but this is a cask.

S - Wow. What a nose on this. Vanilla, Caramel, Sour notes, dark fruits ... it was quite a complex nose actually..

T - I was expecting sour notes.. but the front really took me by surprise.. very puckering .. I taste a lot of whiskey and burnt sugar notes on the mid palate and some great oak and deep vanilla on the finish. Very interesting. But a tad too much lactic acid coming through.

M - This was more thin then I expected.

D - Like I said. pretty darn sour, but the sourness played well enough against the vanilla. Definitely hid the 10.2 % very well.

I hate rating the drinkability now.. I feel like I'm in a bud commercial and I'm rating on how fast I can slam one down. way to ruin that word jerks.

all in all.. definitely out of the ordinary.

This beer is dark as knight as described. Very still looking from being served on cask.

Smell was very boozy. I know this is 10% but it smelt like it was a liquor. There was some complexity here, maybe some vanilla notes, but I couldn't stick my nose into this long enough to find any of the aromas pleasant. Very rubbing alcohol like.

This was a very sweet beer, but the sourness really came through the strongest. I've had little experience with beers that are "sour" but the ones I have were very good and tasted candy like. This had sourness to it but it did not compliment the beer itself. I'm not sure why a porter would have any sour notes to it, but its not working here.

Mouthfeel is hard to describe as the unpleasant sourness is just attacking my mouth. Finish is long and not very pleasant.

I was looking forward to this beer but it disappointed. Afterward the visit was salvaged by the world class pushing the envelope extreme, but instead of having the pleasant hops lingering in my mouth from that beer, this one is lingering much stronger.