Thurston County Imperial Stout
Matchless Brewing

Pours a dark brown color with almost no head. Aroma is dried fruit, vanilla, molasses & barreled alcohol. Very good taste and mouthfeel. Love barrel-aged beer. 2024 vintage, 13.5 ABV. Doesn't taste as strong as listed.

Poured from 16oz can into a tulip. This is the 2025 vintage.

Appearance: extremely dark brown, almost black, with a finger of compact dark-tan foam atop. The color is great, but the head dissipated faster than I'd like. Still, it looks beautiful and mysterious.

Smell: brown sugar, shoe leather, tobacco, figs, dates; all the classic big-malty-beer aromas I love. There's maybe a hint of oxidation, which is not necessarily bad in the style. Maybe not perfect, but still rich and quite lovely.

Taste: sweet (obviously) with a fruitiness that is almost like nail polish remover (but not, like, in a bad way). Perhaps boozier than the aroma, with more of an emphasis on the dates and figs and some dark cherries than on the dustier shoe leather flavors. Almost "bright", by the standards of an imperial stout. Good, complex, and flavorful.

Mouthfeel: rich body with a great carbonation and a super silky smooth mouthfeel. Very good indeed.

Overall: this is a very good beer. It's maybe not top-echelon of imperial stouts, but it's a damn enjoyable beverage.

Very balanced flavor profile. Vanilla and coffee. Not too bitter, not too sweet, very viscous.. a great stout. IDK if I'd pay 15 for it again.

2023 Vintage, 13.5% ABV

Pours pitch black with two fingers of mocha-colored, creamy head. Scant lacing. Smell is vanilla, brown sugar, bourbon, hints of yellow cake. Taste is barrel-forward with strong char, bourbon, and oak. Notes of caramel and bakers cocoa come toward the end. Mouthfeel is moderately carbonated, creamy. Dark chocolate, faint vanilla and some oak show up in the finish.

Pours a Chestnut hued mahogany with a pinky of mocha colored head. Traces of head retention & lacing; viscous

S: Loads of barrel, dark chocolate, leafy hops. Vanilla, caramel & ghost booze once warmed up

T: Sort of follows the nose, the barrel is a little more restrained, some caramel notes up front, some woody hops as well. Coconut, vanilla & Bourbon dominate as this beer warms up. Finishes a little oaky, a little boozy, with plums, dark chocolate, vanilla & some coconut & caramel

MF: Medium body, low carbonation, fairly warming

Very well put together beast of a beer, no real faults. Drinks great for the ABV

Review: 2225
Name: Thurston County
Brewery: Matchless Brewing
Location: Tumwater, WA
Style: Barrel-Aged Imperial Stout
A.B.V.: 11.8%
Canned: 2021
Date: 23 Oct 2024
Returning to my cellar, I start with a barrel-aged imperial stout from Washington. This is my first encounter with Matchless Brewing, and I'm excited about the introduction. I'm using a tulip glass and serving the beer at 48 degrees. The pour creates a dark brown, foamy, airy, three-fingered head with poor retention, a unique characteristic. The quick dissipation leaves no lacing on the glass, but the beer's dark brown, nearly black color charting at SRM 34, and its opacity, make it a visually intriguing choice. While the appearance may not be conventional, it certainly stands out.
Nosing the glass, I first notice dark bittersweet chocolate, caramel, coffee, bourbon, and wood. Smelling the beer again, I detect molasses, raisins, char, dark roasted malts, pumpernickel bread crust, alcohol, and yeast. Other aromas I pick up are floral esters, yeast, earthy dirt, and tobacco. The beer's malt profile is massive, with additional cereal grains, oats, and malty sweetness notes. Lastly, I get a faint toffee and dark cherries at the end.
The first sip was an explosion of chocolate, a decent bittersweet chocolate. As the flavor evolves, I taste toffee, molasses, raisins, yeast, pumpernickel bread crust, caramel, earthy dirt, floral, bourbon, wood, coffee, tobacco, and cereal grains. The beer's flavor profile is a complex symphony, with each note adding to the overall experience.
The mouthfeel is chewy, finishing warm. The body is medium-plus and has low carbonation.
The cellaring helps, but I still get an alcohol burn. The beer could be more balanced and presents a bit skewed. The chocolate flavor comes out strong, and the barrel aging intertwines slightly. Overall, this is an average beer.

2021 release
16oz can picked up at Cheap Charlie's in Gresham, OR
poured into a Sunriver Belgian-style tulip

P black w/ a small tan head
N soft-med aroma of dark fruit (predominantly plum), roast, and chocolate
T nice blend of roast, plums/prunes, chocolate, and nuttiness; light heat; I don't get much bourbon or barrel, but the profile is tasty nonetheless
Mf med-bodied w/ med carb
O not too shabby; was hoping for bolder/more memorable, but it's a solid imperial stout nonetheless; 4's across the board for this one

review date: 01.13.24
can date: not captured (sometime in 2021 though)

Received from @limazulu. Poured into pint glass at 63°. It pours nearly jet black with over a finger of fluffy, dark khaki-colored head and thick sheen of lacing. A very pretty pour. The smell features dark chocolate, caramel/toffee, lite nutty char, and just a whiff of whiskey. The whiskey barrel influence is stronger in the taste but it's not overpowering. The base of chocolate, freshly-brewed coffee, molasses, and earthy, slightly bitter, nutty char are mellow yet highly flavorful and complimentary. I like that the taste is basic without a hint of adjuncts. The mouth feel is terrific - creamy and viscous with low/moderate carbonation, and while the 11.8% ABV is warming it doesn't distract. Overall, Thurston County is a very fine Imperial Stout; I'm grateful for the chance to enjoy it.

16oz can from Tavour. Near black pour, beige collar and a few sparse bubbles. Aroma is a nice blend of chocolate and bourbon, so balanced. Taste is sweet with the boozy notes right up front. Chocolate, coffee, roast and a little burn at the finish. Smooth.

16oz can (2021) into a tulip. Pours a deep chocolate brown with a 1-finger mocha head.

Aroma is rich and malty: cocoa, vanilla, bourbon, caramel.

Taste follows nose. Chocolate, vanilla, toasted coconut, bourbon. Super smooth and nicely balanced.

Mouthfeel is also slick, medium bodied. Melts in the palate. Excellent.

Overall a really outstanding imperial stout. This one ticked all the right boxes for me.

 

 

 

Can received from @snsotheus poured into a pint

Black motor oil , one finger brown foam cap

Aroma is bourbon, cocoa

Taste is chocolate, cocoa , oak, vanilla

Velvety smooth, sweet

Delicious beer

Poured into a Fremont small snifter. Pours a very dark mahogany brown, appearing nearly opaque black in the glass with a half finger khaki head with great retention and nice lacing. Aroma of dark toasted and biscuit malt, bourbon and cocoa. Flavor is dark toasted malt with a little biscuit, cocoa, bourbon and a touch of dark stone fruit. Lingering bourbon and cocoa finish. Medium bodied with moderate creaminess. Another West Coast brewery tweeking the big gorilla county stout, and like the last one I had (Multnomah County Stout), a worthy competitor. The flavor isn't really similar, with more biscuit in the malt and a better cocoa component; also a bit mellower, although quite bourbon forward. Initial state is nicely integrated and the finish is excellent. Perhaps a little on the bourbon boozy side, but that's the way this style should be. Nicely done; flavorful and worthy.