Joint Fest: J Henry
Eagle Park Brewing

monster imperial stout, seemingly without frills, aged over a year in some special bourbon barrels, this is really good stuff, titanic in size and sweet and alcoholic the whole way, but really complex and good, almost makes me wish for the dead of winter and a cozy fire, this beer takes me there anyway, but its a lot in high summer. syrupy thick, the darkest of browns, leggy and big looking and close to flat in my glass. the aroma on this is as much whiskey as beer, but its quality whiskey, and vanilla, honeycomb, cognac, amburana wood, and maple syrup, a lot of roast too, chocolate and coffee, the base stout is almost underdone, very sweet to me, but layered and appealing and not all just dark grain, tons of depth throughout this and it warms up nicely. the flavor is great too, woody, with bitter roast, charcoal, and baking cocoa, along with sweeter molasses, milk chocolate, and sweet whole leaf tobacco, even raisin and fig but this isnt fruity to me really, just that kind of sugar on the teeth. the alcohol definitely burns, but the bourbon flavor is great, and it keeps me sipping along on this. the finish is light smoke, vanilla bean, and old wet wood. no doubt this is tasty, but its almost too big to be all that well refined if i am being critical, and this seems intentionally pushed to the edge. the bourbon character is the best part. fun project, joint fest seems like a ton of fun! also, this has me wanting to try j henry bourbon on its own...