Benthic - Double Barrel 2 x 4
Half Acre Beer Company

 

 

Look - black and thick with nice head and lacing
Smell and taste - lots of barrel, coconut, coffee, chocolate and booze.
Feel - full body with a slight crisp carbonation
Overall - not overly sweet or overly done, pretty tasty

 

12oz can, 2023 on the label, poured into a stemless wine glass. Enjoyed on 03.25.2025, reviewed from Tasting Journal.

The beer pours a deep jet black color, super thick and oily, viscous, sludgy, thick and firm khaki head, good retention with spotted lacing. The aroma is lovely, tons of coffee, roasty, rich and fruity, charred oak, tons of spirit, toasted coconut, caramel, vanilla, and lingering stone fruits. The flavors are excellent, rich chocolate, smooth and decadent, strong coffee, fruity with a nice roasted quality that plays well with the charred oak and barrel characteristics, hot bourbon spirit, toasted coconut, vanilla, spice, licorice, caramel, hearty grains, lingering stone fruits. The mouthfeel is great, thick, super thick and heavy body, sludgey feel, super creamy and luscious, with a boozy and warm finish.

Verdict: A stunning Benthic variant. Bursting with coffee and coconut, crazy barrel character, rich, decadent, with excellent balance.

Thanks to StephenBechler for this 12 oz. can & ballyhoo to the brewery. Find you can make a great beer & make an ass-ton of variants. I approve, I drink great beer, they make money. We all win.

Dead black. Surface looks like a smattering of tiny little islands. Smells sharp: bourbon, booze, chocolate, caramel.

Double Barrel Benthic 2X4 hits like a small locomotive. The bourbon jabs palate & liver hard, to the point of leaving a slight burn in the throat. Candied chocolate follows with sweet caramel, cleaning spirits (in a good way), slight cherry (very slight), surprisingly light coconut & I swear, a tinny echo of Grand Mariner. Yes, I have my head examined regularly. But ultimately & clearly, this is about the barrels having their way with me. And they can. Any time.

Other than the shy coconut, I have no complaints. Excellent beer nudging its way onto the top shelf.

 

Milk chocolate, dark roasty coffee, raw coconut, and a bourbon barrel boozy nose on this one! Taste follows with a mocha coffee forward, creamy coconut, and a balanced bourbon barrel finish. This feels soft on the palate rather than the preferred viscous. And, this leans more coffee dominant than coconut...which is fine, but it seems like one of those coffee stouts that might be teetering on the edge of green pepper with age. Outside of that, this is really good!

 

Yields a night black colored beer with a mohagony head atop, which vanishes directly after pouring.

The beer unfolds aromas of toasted coconut flakes, high octane alcohol soaked oak and flowery vanilla among notes of marzipan. In addition to that there is burned caramel, melting chocolate and earthy cinnamon, supporting the prominent barrels in an intriguing fashion.

This drinks oily and thick with a late carbonation spark, highlighting a truly heavy bodied beer with a fantastic intensity and balance to it.

Tastes of bitter chocolate, whipped cream and warming, sweet coconut with a well integrated Bourbon peak, which adds a plethora of spices, as well as a rock sugar forward sweetness. From the chocolate richness then arise licorice, toffee and utmost dry, throat warming high quality alcohol which develops a mind bending complexity. Finishes with creamy chocolate among roasted coffee beans, sweet chestnut honey and maintaining coconut adding a soothing bright sweetness among the hovering spice driven oak, which lends a long lasting dryness which finishes at the back of the throat.

This is a huge beer, with an intensity I have only experienced so far in actual Bourbon. In this though, the burn gets playfully toned down by the malty richness.

 

 

 

 

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

This smells like toasted coconut, caramel candies, spicy oak, leather, tobacco, roasted malt, dark chocolate, and rich, roasty coffee.

These Benthic stouts are just so bold, with a dense barrel character and hefty adjunctery. This takes that even to the next level. There’s this bold, like concentrated dark chocolate chip, bittersweet caramel, oak, and tobacco thing. It’s super roasty, but also incredibly pastry forward. It’s certainly a coconut bomb, creamy, toasted, and sweet, with a nice vibrantly roasty coffee note that helps balance things out.

This is pretty thick, but not syrupy, with basically no booziness, despite the hefty ABV here.

I just can’t get enough of this series, it’s just so turbo, high octane, and just so delicious.

 

 

poured from a 12oz can into a perennial snifter. pours dark, dark brown but gathers in the glass a shiny black with just a sliver of mocha brown foam head that fades to form a collar around the rim of the glass. barrel heat with sweet coconut and chocolaty coffee. taste mostly follows but there’s more coffee and coconut with light chocolate up front rounded out by smooth vanilla with a barrel-forward finish. thick, full mouthfeel. super smooth. hides the high abv quite well. this was super well done.