Oak
Humble Forager Brewery

Humble Forager/Fair State collab Oak 29mo BBA Imperial Stout, 14% ABV. Barrels are Buffalo Trace, Heaven Hill, and Willet Rye. Pours thick and black with a slight ring of bubbles. Aroma is bourbon and a hint of chocolate. Taste is bourbon and roast malt, not much burn. Excellent mouthfeel, overall world-class.

Update: Originally rated this 4.6, upon revisit changing that to 4.45 since the flavor isn't so wondrous after all.

 

Jet black with no head or carbonation. The feel is thick and syrupy, and the smell is of chocolate and booze. The taste is char and chocolate, and the alcohol is hitting as I near the bottom of the glass. Quite good.

Pours opaque, chestnut in color with minimal head. Taste is roasted malt,chicken and vanilla. Heavy bodied, low carbonation, slightly bitter. A big boy of a stout. Delicious sipper.

Oak pours black, with no head. The aroma is rich, with notes of barrel. The flavor is pretty sweet, with lots of oak and lots of bourbon and whiskey flavors. Good feel. Overall, a big, rich, whiskey-forward stout.

 

The last of the mixed four-pack poured into a snulip. It pours a deep brown, cola black color, spouting a slim reddish cap that fades out quickly. Smells like chocolate and roasted malts. The taste is very high up front. It has a noticeable chocolate quality, followed by the more bitter, woodsy aftertaste. Let's call it fudge, coffee, roasted malts, and syrup with a bourbon character. I think there is a touch of breadiness as well as raisin, caramel, and molasses. It is full-bodied with minimal carbonation. Very smooth and sweet. The fruitier elements come out more with repeated sips.

It's a luxurious stout. I was afraid it was going to be the weakest of the bunch after the first sip (not that it's possible to compare them without having them side by side). As it is, it might not be the most interesting in terms of description, but it still works as a straight-up BA stout.

Pours as dark as an onyx with a ti ny tan head. Nose is char, chocolate and coffee. Taste follows suit with the nose. Nose warmth down chest after a few minutes.

Sampling a cellar temp 12 oz can poured into my snifter. No date stamp on label or can. Beer was apparently barrel aged for 29 months in buffalo trace, heaven hill and willet rye barrels.
The beer pours almost solid black color with a deep tan fizzy head of 2.5 cm foaming up from the pour. This foam slowly fades to almost nothing about halfway through sampling the beer.
Aroma on this beer is rich and malty with dark chocolate, bourbon notes, some charred wood, a bit of pipe tobacco and some fusol booze. Never any hop character on the nose. Booziness is not a surprise at 14% ABV.
First sip reveals a medium to full body with smooth texture that is a bit coating on my palate and lips with each sip. Not really sticky as much as a covering. Carbonation is very mild to almost still.
Flavor starts with some dark fudge chocolate, moves to bourbon and charred wood then a good dose of molasses and finishes with some black peppery bite, but not a ton of warming on the swallow. Never any hops to speak of on this beer.
The beer is a very solid imperial stout that showcases the stout notes and the bourbon barrel aging.
Im glad to have tried this one and maybe even more glad it is only in a 12 oz can, as it is kicking in a bit as I empty my glass.

A collaboration between Humble Forager and Fair State, but brewed and canned at The Brewing Projekt in Eau Claire, WI.
Look is black body with almost no head. It's flat almost no carbonation bubbles.

Smell is chocolate, bourbon and molasses.

Taste is chocolate, bourbon, caramel and molasses. A hint of rye or raisin. A micro hint of red wine at the finish. No alcohol heat. Slightly sweet.

Feel is very smooth but flat. Slightly thick.

2025-06-06
12oz can served in a snulip. Don't see a date on it. @bbtkd sent it to me in Stout/Barleywine BIF #2.

Pours black, almost no head. Looks thick and oily from a distance. Smell is bourbon and toffee, coffee and roast bitterness, molasses. Boozy.

Taste is similar, on the sweet and boozy side, maybe more caramel than toffee, but also some burnt molasses. Chocolate, wood, some kind of syrup.

Mouthfeel is medium, smooth, still. Overall, very nice.

 

Aroma is dark fruit/raisins, whiskey, dark malts and smoky/kind of of strange hint of cigarettes. The flavor is dark malts, dark fruit/big hint of tobacco and a medium sweet/acidic/warming whiskey alcohol finish.

Appearance: Pours an inky black body with a dark brown, bubbly, rather brief head.

Smell: Heavy albeit not sharp, coarse notes smelling of roast, char, scorched sugar with a enveloping earthiness and a modest albeit sustained bourbon presence and touches of tart cherry with a few drip-drops of choice soy.

Taste: HFO has an assured burst of concentrated upfront sweetness of dark caramel, melted date sugar. Dark roasted malts, chocolate donut glaze, glazed barrel char, earthiness housing a bit of umami soy character. Finishes quite sweet, a bit port-like, with the heart palpitations beginning about 1/3 of the way through.

Mouthfeel: Medium-full bodied. Relatively light carbonation.

Overall: It's good. I mean, it's fine. I mean, these things often devolve into alot of sweetness and oftentimes a great deal of oxidative qualities. So, with this, there's a really big hit of syrup-like sweetness right from the get-go, some dark malt flavors flounder in the sweetness, a little booze, a little oxidative notes and then it's over.

 

Poured at fridge temp. Pours an insanely thick and black. Zero head. The nose is as smooth as the texture. Wonderful notes of bourbon, rye, molasses, and chocolate. Not picking up on the ABV on the nose.

The taste is fantastic. A bit smokey. Dark fruit (raspberry) comes through right away as well. Chocolate, vanilla, bourbon, bread, red wine, and cherry. Some oak comes through as well.

Overall, I'm a bit surprised by how much fruit comes through. Not really much bitterness. Quite good.