Wooded Reserve: Bourbon Barrel Aged Oaxaca Choca
New Realm Brewing Company

2022 vintage. looks like there is a rum barrel aged edition of this too, which id now love to try, could see some of that raw cane sweetness really elevating this, but the buffalo trace barrels this version was in make this special too, a mexican chocolate stout with vanilla, cinnamon, cocoa, and chili pepper, and its just delicious with all this rich decadent whiskey character on it, maybe my favorite beer so far from these guys. near black, imperial looking but not nastily viscous or anything, and sports an impressively airy inch of burlap colored head which backs down slowly. the nose on this is killer, cinnamon and an almost smoke dried pepper aspect, vanilla more from bourbon than from actual vanilla to me, wrapped in some caramel sweetness and woody richness, chocolate comes later, dark and earthy, lightly bitter, and marrying up well with the roasted barley this is built on. there is some neat bitterness in the flavor, light smoke, barrel char, and good quality cocoa all leading up to that, cinnamon and alcohol make this warm and snuggly to me, vanilla is natural and not at all overdone, and the chili has just a little heat to it, dusty and earthy and in nice proportion, accentuates the nice chocolate aspect too. surprisingly well carbonated for the style, nice whiskey character without being a total barrel bomb, and less sweet overall than expected, less body too. complete and compelling, really nice beer, well aged to this point, a nice after dinner sipper!