Big Bad Baptist Imperial Stout

Outstanding beer from an average brewery..

 

My sister brought one up (batch #6) when she visited last week and we cracked it open and split it. Man... I really really liked it quite a bit.
She brought up a variety of stuff, and this was one of the ones for which I had built up the least personal hype, but I think it might have been my favourite of those that we drank while she was here.

While I agree with an above comment that drinking a whole bomber of it by myself might be a bit much, I wouldn't mind testing that hypothesis.....

 

had it on tap a few weeks ago and that inspired me to go hunt down a bottle. good stuff.

 

Considering most of the time I can just walk to the shelf and pick it up and it is as delicious as other beers I'd have to trade for, I'd say it is bloody fantastic. Problem is once more people here this I'll have to chase trucks to get it....

 

I couldn't agree more with this. These are the two beers I have had in the last year that surprised me the most.

I had BBB about a week after it was bottled, and I felt that it was really really good, however it was just an absolute bitter coffee bomb. I am a huge coffee fan, as well as a a huge BA stout fan, and yet I felt that some of the subtle complexities of the beer were overpowered by its immense roasty bitterness. However, I popped a bottle from the same release last week, and I felt like I opened a completely different beer. It was so complex and subtle, and the roastiness had faded into a beautiful compliment to a plethora of new flavors that had revealed themselves. I was blown away by the difference between the two times that I tried it.

Labyrinth as well was a beer I had not heard much about that absolutely blew me away. I had it for the first time last night, and am quite sad that it was my only bottle

 

BBB is a fantastic beer, but I do have an issue with it: the barrel part.

At no point in my consuming BBB ever, have I gotten any of the bourbon barrel-aging out of it. If they just left that part off (except where as required by the TTB) I'd have no issue with it. It's one of the best coffee/espresso stouts out there. I think I like it even more than Espresso Oak-Aged Yeti... it's just that bourbon part keeps coming back to me. I'd love to get some actual bourbon character in there. Perhaps someday.

 

Agree with this... and with that said, it was easily in my top 3 that I've tried this year. Not surprising considering how much I love coffee stouts, but BBB was fantastic!

 

Every batch is a little bit different;l there is is always variance in the type or types of barrels used and there can also be difference in abv.

 

Batch 3 >>> Others

 

yeah I want to say the first one I tried was batch 3 and it was amazing. The last couple I had were batch 8 I think.

 

This beer always tasted like liquid nestle crunch to me, and I mean that as a compliment. I also like the price point.

For the record, Big Bad Baptist is not bourbon barrel aged, it is whiskey barrel aged. So you won't get bourbon notes for that reason. I know in the bourbon belt there is the whole whiskey can be bourbon, but not all bourbons are whiskey stuff, but I typically go by the whole bourbon has a high content of corn mash, vs malted barely used in whiskey etc. Also, something like buffalo trace does not taste like Finnegan either, so making an imperial stout, and aging them in the barrels that hold those two different spirits will result in a different final barrel aged beer flavor profile.

 

Some were bourbon aged, some whiskey, some both.

 

Yup. Holding on to my last one.

 

I just had a bottle at The Bayou in SLC and was super impressed. I definitely like it better than Abyss and some other BBA stouts I have tried, and it certainly contends with some of the Eclipse variants/vintages. Two nights before I had tried the Epic Imperial Stout and quite liked it, but the BBB had way more going on. BBB may not have a lot of booze heat or obvious whiskey flavor, but I would guess that the richness and depth has a lot to do with the barrels. Big Bad Baptist is badass stuff. I will definitely seek it out more.

 

BBB was a recommend awhile back and I was also quite pleasantly surprised at how good it was. The coffee was VERY pronounced on my first one and less so on the second (sorry cant remember batch numbers but i think one was a 6). For me, BBB is the beer I seldom ever go to the store looking for, but always seem to leave with if they are there. And as a final note, every time I share my bottles, people are equally as surprised and anxious to get one for themselves.

 

Bumping an old one here as I can't seem to find it on the Epic website. I remember seeing a list of barrel treatments used from each batch.

I have some of the first batches but can't find which barrels were used.

 

It shows the release history on this page.
For the earlier releases, click on the arrow to the right.
http://www.epicbrewing.com/the-beers/exponential-series/item/635-big-bad-baptist-imperial-stout#

 

A solid stout, but I was truthfully a bit letdown. I've found many others to be a lot better. Maybe it's better on tap...?

 

it's a tremendous beer, and personal tastes aside, it's fair to point out that you gave Michelob's Winter Bourbon Cask Ale a 5/5, so...

 

I agree that it very good for a coffee forward stout that is easy drinking and ready available.

That doesn't show the actual barrels used. I remember seeing an actual list of barrel treatments at some time. Maybe they deleted it from their website. Or I saw it on another site.