Bourbon Barrel Aged Imperial Stout
Brewsters Brewing Company & Restaurant - Eleventh Avenue

Poured from fridge temp. Pours jet black with little head. Nose is chocolate, coffee, and caramel. Not a ton of barrel. Taste is chocolate, lactose, and toffee. Mouthfeel is creamy. Overall, a really nice stout but not much barrel.

Bottle from Ian

 

 

 

 

 

Oh my. In my search for Alberta's finest to send east, I stumbled upon this beauty. It has been sitting under my nose since November, and I'm damn glad I tried it. My only real critique is the appearance - it starts out with promise but fades to flat cola in the glass. The smell and taste are full on bourbon, dark fruit, Milk Duds and sweet yeast. The delightful boozy hit is almost immediate, and you wouldn't want to take on too much of this at one sitting. Overall, easily my favourite Brewster's offering to date. Well done!

 

 

 

650ml bomber poured into tulip 1/1/16

A black liquid with a deep cola edge, two fingers of foam fall quickly leaving no lace, wide legs and come color left behind on the glass

S smells heavy of sweet bourbon, JD/Beam sorta thing, chocolate, vanilla, cola, a little licorice and some dark nutty toffee, sweet cherries and bruised plum round things out

T some charred barrel, sightly more booze but well concealed for 12%, loads of barrel almost like its been spiked with some sweet bourbon

M leaning towards full, bubbles give it some life, some tannin like grit, heat going down but its well managed, bourbon lingers with bakers chocolate

O if you like them big and boozy with heaps of barrel this ones gonna work for ya, it goes down easy but you can feel the booze hitting your blood with each gulp

Well brewed big bad ass from my under rated local that seems to fly under the radar. I could see this one doing well with some age, booze pops up here and there and would score much higher if it had mellowed out

 

12oz tulip at Beer Revolution YEG, their latest attempt at barrel aging, well, anything.

This beer appears a very solid black abyss, with the slightest of dark cola basal highlights, and one healthy finger of loosely foamy, yet still creamy beige head, which leaves some streaky storm cloud lace around the glass as it lazily recedes.

It smells quite prominently of middle shelf Bourbon, blending fairly easily into a dusty medium baker's chocolate, sassy black fruit, earthy anise, subdued caramel/toffee malt, and a further wooden leafiness. The taste is a more integrated Kentucky whiskey booziness, with the cocoa-swathed caramel malt taking a further centralized stage position, the dark fruit getting muddled in addition to addled, the black licorice notes digging in, and the leafy, earthy hops stubborn in their refusal to be unheard.

The bubbles are expectedly understated and underwhelming in their wan frothiness, the body a dense medium-heavy weight, generally smooth, and a tad creamy in that particular Bailey's Irish Cream sense. It finishes on the sweet side, duh, as the corn liquor soaked oak, chocolate, caramel, and licorice all collude to codify the experience of this offering.

A well-made version of this typically south of the border endeavor - those spent barrels usually traveling far fewer miles to be drenched in Yankee strong stout. Overall - tasty, warming, and just, well, big. What's not to like, especially from a usually more reserved local brewpub standpoint?