Grape Brandy Belte
Two Tides Brewing Company

big ole stout aged over a year in grape brandy barrels. i love the base stout being huge but not loaded with adjuncts, like this really is about the barrel, and its well suited to the long maturation, really well done stuff, the only big dark one we had from these guys while in town, but impressive enough to really be memorable, clever and great. viscous and near black and huge, with a big alcohol nose and not much head, but not totally still either, some bubbles when i get to drinking it, but just smelling it is rewarding too, bigtime port wine, red grape, purple grape candy, brown sugar, vanilla, licorice, and roast, balanced with the bitterness of the grain and the overt sweetness of the brandy and vanilla oak notes. the flavor is really brandy forward, like not as maybe grapey in the way i was expecting it to be, more like, isnt all brandy made from grape, not that its grape flavored in any real sense, thats more or less the case here, less pure grape than i smell, but still with some red wine character, and i cant help but just call out the base stout for being awesome, espresso, burnt wood, vanilla, and warming alcohol, well layered grain too, and bitter enough that this stays somewhat even keeled, although definitely a small doses thing. barrel is strong, brandy is obvious, some late spiciness here which adds nuance, truly black grain character too, palate coating in a good way, slow to recede but in a way that i like, if the morning after a cigar was good and not gross, that would be this. impressive overall, these guys do a million beers across a ton of styles and i truly liked them all! elite.