Saturn Ascends
Alexandria Brewing Company

Served on tap at the brewery in a snifter.

Look: Very dark brown, with a half inch tan head that lingered nicely, leaving abundant very finely bubbled lacing.

Nose: Sweet chocolate, cooked brown sugar, a little alcohol. The chocolate intensifies as the beer warms.

Mouthfeel: Thick, smooth, and creamy; darn near perfect carbonation.

Attack: Follows the nose, but even more intensely, plus a bit of coffee; very flavorful.

Finish: Bitterness to balance — mostly the dark roast.

Overall: This is a great sipper, quite on the level of much larger and more famous breweries — nice work, Alexandria!

Dark like midnight with a tan head. Nice lacing. Nose is slightly bourbon and soft milk chocolate. Taste was only slightly chocolate, not much char (unfortunately) and the bourbon flavors do not come through as much as I like. Smooth drinking beer.

750 ml red wax capped bottle, no dating that I noticed on it. Thanks to Brutaltruth and Darlene for this! Served in a snifter, the beer pours dark brown/black with not quite an inch tan head that stuck around for a while. There was a decent amount of lacing. Aroma is nice, the brew smells like bourbon, vanilla, roasted malt, bittersweet/dark chocolate, and some woodiness. Taste is similar to the aroma, with bourbon, vanilla, burnt/charred malt, bittersweet/dark chocolate, coffee, caramel, oak and boozy flavors. I found this to be more of a roasty, bourbony RIS than a sweet tasting one. Mouthfeel/body is medium/full, it's slick and smooth with a moderate amount of carbonation. I thought this was a good overall barrel aged RIS, barrel character is noticeable for sure but not close to being overpowering at all. Definitely worth trying, and hopefully I'll make it down to the brewery sometime!

From the growler via the brewery in a snifter. This beefy beast
pours a dark pitch black with thin cola highlights and a nice head
of light tan foam that settles to a thick ring and thin layer with
nice lacing. Nose of bourbon, dark coffee, dark chocolate, light
vanilla, dark brown sugars, and subtle oak. Flavors follow the
nose nicely with bourbon and dark chocolate (Scharffen Berger
70% Semi-sweet dark chocolate by description and flavor since the
Little Lady uses it all the time!) and dark roasted coffee (7 Hills Coffee
just up the street from where I work!) mingling nicely with
bourbon showing brown sugars, light vanilla, spicy rye
notes, and oak elements. Nice mouth feel; full body, smooth,
warming, lightly slick, coating, light carbonation, and a
lightly dry booze laden finish.

Overall, a FANTASTIC brew from a great brewery!

Cheers!

Russian Imperial Stout aged in Bourbon barrels. Poured from a bottle into a MadTree tulip. The pour is black, not too viscous, and sports an impressive head for a barrel-aged beer. It is dark tan and very fine with good retention. The nose ... well, let's just say I could already smell it as I was pouring it and you needn't tell me this is a RIS. The characteristic blend of char, dark chocolate, and roasty notes are front and center. There is also a subtle creamy vanilla-sweetness from the barrel (no strong bourbon notes though). ​
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Full body with a creamy feel and a complex flavor. Up front it tastes like a RIS should with a bit of faint bready sweetness as well as strong flavors of black coffee, unsweetened cocoa, and what can best be described as the crunchy part of a slightly overdone chocolate cake. At mid-palate the sweetness subsides and the roasty flavors come forward more, intensifying the flavor. Towards the back of the palate some faint barrel character arrives in the form of some toasted oak. The finish is all char and roast with some vanilla-like notes lingering as well.​
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(sigh) Another barrel-aged stout. It seems like everyone has them these days, but I think anyone with some beer mileage under their belt would agree that a lot of those brewers should NOT have them. While this one doesn't really stand out to me as an outstanding example of a barrel-aged RIS, it does not taste the least bit oxidized and is not overloaded with tart, dark fruit flavors. It drinks like a really good example of a RIS that has had a bit of barrel treatment, but not so much that it tastes like a liqueur. I seem to remember this beer having more of a barrel character when I had it on tap at the release several months ago, so perhaps it was lost with the aging. Still a terrific beer and one that I would buy again.​

Bottle shared by RussianDragon. Thanks Dave!