Sleigh Tipper
Brothers Cascadia Brewing

8/25/2020, had at brewery. At that point in time stouts seemed to have a coffee flavor which I did not like, and I remember this one had almost no coffee taste and the bourbon took center stage. I think this was one of the first few barrel-aged beers I had tried. And it was love at first taste. Just had this beer again yesterday 12-20-2023 and it was as good as I remembered it being, plus I purchased a can for later. I'm going to age it for a while. Just had a fresh can that I was given a couple of weeks ago by one of my friends at the brewery and just as good as always.

Trying the 2022 draft version today at Taps Beer Reserve.

The beer pours the expected blackish brown color, with pretty good head retention and lacing. On the nose, I'm getting some dark chocolate, burnt toast, and a hint of underlying coffee, licorice and vanilla. Not bad, but nothing extraordinary either. The flavor profile replicates the nose, but I'm picking up a lot more dark chocolate, coffee and vanilla. The beer is fairly sweet, but not overly so. On the palate, mouthfeel is actually a bit thin, especially for the abv. The finish is otherwise fairly long and sweet. Alcohol is pretty well integrated into the flavor profile, so drinkability isn't too bad.

This is a decent effort from the folks at BC, but it's no better than that. Not sure this beer has benefited from the extra time in keg, or that this is something I'd want to order again. There are a lot of well made impy stouts in this part of the country... not sure this qualifies as one more.

Poured into a Fremont small snifter. Pours a very dark mahogany brown, appearing nearly opaque in the glass with a half finger khaki head with great retention and nice lacing. Aroma of dark toasted malt, coffee, cocoa and vanilla. Flavor is dark toasted malt with light to moderate char, drip coffee, chocolate, cinnamon, vanilla and a touch of lactose. Medium bodied with moderate creaminess and nice mouth feel. A solid coffee stout with some holiday spicing with the cinnamon. Good coffee and chocolate flavors with the cinnamon at a modest level, but still giving this a bit of zest. Light vanilla and lactose modify an otherwise roasty and somewhat dry malt base that is more than substantial to support the chocolate and coffee. With just cinnamon spicing, this has understated spicing, but is still festive. Nicely done. I let this wait a bit longer than I should have, but the coffee has held up well.

 

16 FLUID OZ. can
Served in a snifter

This beer pours black and is topped with a couple inches of tan head that leaves decent lacing.

The smell is chocolate, vanilla, cinnamon with hints of coffee.

I get dark chocolate and coffee with ample amount of cinnamon. I do not particularly like cinnamon stouts, but this combination seems to work for my palate. Plus the cinnamon is not as huge a part of the flavor as it is in other beers.

Full bodied with a smooth mouthfeel

Merry Christmas in April! It kind of tastes like a chocolate, coffee horchata stout.