Gristle V1
Oude Northwest

Poured into a Fremont small snifter. Pours a very dark mahogany brown, appearing opaque black in the glass with a thin dark khaki head that dissipates to patches with light lacing. Aroma of dark toasted malt, bourbon, milk chocolate, light vanilla and molasses. Flavor is dark toasted malt, bourbon, dried plums, dark chocolate, raisins; bourbony finish. Medium bodied with moderate creaminess. This brewery is apparently a collaboration between Stillwater and Talking Cedar. Neither are known for barreled stouts, but this is a pretty good one for their first offerings in our area. Oddly, I just had a stout and barleywine blend that had a quite similar taste profile. Like Matchless 6th Anniversary, this leans towards the barleywine side of the coin, however, in this case it must be the bourbon barrel character that is providing the dark fruit notes as this is not a blend. I guess that strictly tasted as a stout, the deep stout malt character has been covered by the barrel, but this is a totally winning tasted combination that is similar to many blended strong ales. ABV well covered and flavor density is fine. Interestingly, there is not an overpowering boozy whiskey barrel flavor, it seems to be mostly dark fruit notes. I like this quite a bit and look forward to future offerings.