Black Gold - Rye
Central Waters Brewing Co.

 

 

Doggamn you central waters, why can't you just pull of the body of a beer for once.

You can tell this beer is thin on the pour.
The smell is highly excitable. It smells so dusty, earthy, lightly peppery and a little volatile, yet so inviting.

The taste is not a sugar bomb. Thank you CW. Dusty bakers cocoa, and rye bread dominate.

Mouthfeel is HOT, and thin. Hot I'm cool with, but the viscosity or this beer is downright pathetic. Its feels like a bud platinum as you chew through the flavors. The finish is brief and one dimensional. There is little depth to pick apart after the sip.

I reapect and love simple straight forward beers. So much really. And I especially love a no adjunct stout aged in rye barrel so it's no.surprise I was quite excited for this one. Yet this beer is a little too boring to warrant the price, volume, and abv. The more I think about it, I can really relate this to Guinness foreign extra stout (a GREAT beer) with a rye barrel aging on it and some extra ethanol heat. Its just, the base is too basic and small to pull off what it's trying to be. I guess just imagine that 6% Guinness poured into an extremely wet rye barrel and thats what we have here.

2020 vintage; released on 8/30/2020, so presumably bottled within a few days of that date); consumed on 12/4/2021

Pours a mahogany-hued black body topped with two and a half fingers of fine, thick, and soapy dark khaki foam; good head retention leaves a half-finger of fluffy cap, lush, moderate collar, and minimal-no lacing encircling the walls of the glass.

Aroma opens to nutty barrel with a backdrop of welcoming rye spice, further showing dark cherries phasing delicately into milk chocolate over the middle while whiskey eases into the back end of the bouquet and spongy cacao nibs supplement a baked cocoa closing impression.

Taste first presents dark chocolate backed with dusty oak before rye spice comes forth with accents pumpernickel crusts as the mid-palate offers a burnt milk chocolate semi-sweetness; nutty oak barrel evolves steadily into soft toffee on the back end and lightly smoked caramels more prominent on the finish.

Mouthfeel shows a medium-light body with minimal carbonation making way for a taut slickness into the mid-palate as a mild grit scrapes over the back end; a twangy booze character pokes through in spots, though mostly to bring a mild warmth to a moderately dry finish.

Consistent in roasty cacao and supportive rye throughout, the barrel itself largely fails to bolster the wispier base stout like the bourbon barrel of the original Black Gold, leaving a lighter though still expressive profile less prepared to compensate for the general thinness of the stout.

 

 

 

Ruby-tinted black with an overly massive mocha-colored head. It settles fairly quickly into a frothy cap that clings to the side of the glass for a bit when tipped, but leaves almost no lacing.

Complex aroma with coffee; dry, overaged chocolate; a little vanilla; a little nougat; whiskey; and a hint of rye pepperiness

A strong nutty impression stands out first in the taste, with similar elements from the nose behind: chocolate, a little coffee, cola, some vanilla-forward whiskey. Some clear rye pepperiness on the back end. Almond nuttiness and stale coffee mix with the rye in the aftertaste.

Medium bodied at best by current standards. Slick and slightly creamy. Nice carbonation.

Lots of good qualities, but the almond and staleness/dryness aren’t my personal favorites.

 

 

This one pours a very dark black color, with a small head, and not much lacing.

This smells like spicy rye, dark chocolate, oak spice, vanilla, and espresso.

This is really, really solid stuff. The rye barrel works very well with the base stout. There's chocolate chips, rye spice, rye bread, spicy oak, creamy vanilla, caramel, and a some dark roast coffee on the back end.

This isn't quite as thin as what you'd expect with Central Waters generally, but it's definitely not a thicccccc boi. It's creamy, with no real booziness to it.

This is definitely a very cool update to the typical Black Gold recipe.

Pours like all of Central Waters' extended-ageing releases: thin compared to similar beers with a finger of head that quickly dissipates, leaving no lacing behind. Rich chocolate, tons of oak, rye spice, sugar wafers, and brown sugar on the nose. All that and maybe even some brandy notes on the palate. Very expressive on the initial sips, more chocolate and rye emerge on the palate as it warms. It doesn't really get more layered or complex, though, so I think I prefer it at a more chilled temp.

 

Big chocolate notes with rye spice on the back end. A bit thin. Very tasty overall

 

 

 

 

Considering my love for Black Gold & my love for rye, I’ve been tempted to drive 3.5 hours (one way) to buy another two bottles, but I haven’t hit that low yet. 22 oz. bottle split with the wife.

The pour is stout. The nose is Black Gold (deep malty sweetness, vanilla) with bourbon subbed out for rye. And a sprig of mint. Or maybe I just have the label on my fingers.

Rye Black Gold is distractingly overcarbonated. Just holding the beer in my mouth for a moment & it goes all Pop Rocks & Coke – I can actually hear it fizzing through my clenched teeth. That’s not very stouty! The rye is faint, there’s that weird mint, light malt, & it’s far thinner than the regular Black Gold.

This does not taste like the beer I had on tap at the brewery in October. At. All. I’m going to aggregate my two scores (excellent vs. not very good) into a pretty good rating. I hope this is an off bottle or my palate out of whack.

 

 

Tan head. Black in color.

Lots of rye whiskey flavors. The rye provides some nice spiciness. Chocolate and caramel with vanilla and oak. Dark fruits and molasses. Some warming heat shows.

Full bodied. Smooth and warming.

This is a great version of BG. Very similar to the original with a slight twist from the rye.

 

I am always hesitant to rate a beer too high because I don't ever want to be finished searching for the perfect beer. After having Rye Black Gold on Great Taste Eve in Madison though, I am thinking that it is going to be hard to find a better beer than this.

For me, Central Waters already has the best barrel aging program in the world. Rye Black Gold took it to another level. This beer was velvety and smooth with an extremely thick mouth feel. The taste was a mix of smooth bourbon and chocolate cake. Despite the 11% abv, there was no hint of alcohol burn. And as it warmed, the nose continued to get better and better. After being a mild bourbon scent to start, the smell followed the taste with huge notes of bourbon and fudge.

To make it even better, I was able to enjoy this with a great friend in downtown Madison as the rain started to come down on the eve of the best beer fest in the country!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Deep rich fudge. Jet black with minimal head. Nose is hints of bourbon, vanilla, coconut, and chocolate. All of those flavors are pronounced. The heat is minimal. Notes of the rye spice as well.