Moksa Six
Moksa Brewing Company

Double barrel aged, double mash imperial stout aged 17 months in Bernheim wheat barrels, then 19 months in Elijah Craig 14-year bourbon barrels.

As our sixth anniversary stout, we are proud to showcase this double barrel aged stout with no adjuncts or additions. This extra-heavy stout base first spent 17 months aging in a pair of wheated bourbon barrels, which provided some smooth vanilla and oakiness, but not quite enough, we felt, to balance out the intensity of the stout itself. So we transferred them to a fresh set of Elijah Craig barrels, which we know to be quite assertive, to finish the beer off. During a regular tasting earlier this year, we could tell these two barrels were developing into something very special, and by the time we emptied them the stout had mellowed a bit further, and the spirit character had definitely risen to the occasion.

The aroma is somewhere right in the middle between a pour of aged bourbon and a glass of stout. Chocolate and vanilla dominate the palate at first, with dark fruit and spice complexity following, and a slow transition to a long, smooth, warming finish with no shortage of spirit character. For us, it squarely hits the mark of intensity with just the right amount of balance.