Imperial Stout Appreciation Thread (2023)

French Toast Devil Dog stout by Roak. Pleasant 8.3% with the advertised flavors with a welcome bitterness. Cheers!

 

Oh goodness…. Too many good breweries in the Carolinas…

 

Enjoying a base Yeti for my round 2 on this chilly and windy day here south of Asheville.
Cheers!
Tom

 

Other Half x J. Wakefield. Snowbirds 6, courtesy @micada

Pours a very still pitch black. A thin ring is all that is to be made of the carbonation. Nose is heavy bourbon notes and milk chocolate with a nearly baked bread note. Taste follows suit with big charred oak and vanilla character. Some chocolate there as well, finishes with a bit of heat. Feel is on the thin side but oily and slick. Overall, I enjoyed this a lot more than the additive mess the banana version proved to be.

However, for a flagship yearly release from some well regarded breweries, I expected a little more from these beers. They are well made BBA stouts but the flavors they tout on the label don’t seem to come through in the way that they should. For that reason, this and the other Snowbirds beer I reviewed from this year will receive a 3/5 average score from me. Glad Eric was gracious enough to give me a shot at these. Cheers.

 

I think last year’s batch of Snow Birds was better.

 

Two beers at Stone Pasadena. Yellow (or in this instance darker bronze (Stone Ruination) vs. Stone’s 2022 Imperial Stout, likely renamed due to corporate cowardice.

Stone 2022 Imperial Stout



Final Tally

Stone Imperial Stout defeats Stone Yellow beer.

Full review notes in WBAYDN. Thanks for the heads up of this taproom @Resistance88 !

Cheers!

 

Black Forest Only Void 2022. I’ve most likely posted this before, but oh well!

 

Hey BA,

I've been a long-time fan of Parabola which I regard as one of the best barrel-aged imperial stouts (or beers in general for that matter) I've ever had. The base variant is so good that it kind of blows my mind that it's so readily available.

I know there are many highly regarded variants, but the only one I've had the pleasure of trying was Autumn Parabola in 2021 which was pretty good but not quite as good as standard 2021 Parabola IMO (the Autumn variant was all bourbon barrels vs the 2021 standard being a blend of rye, bourbon, and whiskey).

Queue my excitement when I had the opportunity to purchase 2022's Paraboloid which utilizes a blend of "14 year Old Fitzergerald bourbon barrels and 18 year Sazerac rye whiskey barrels" and is then "aged...for a full two years prior to blending and bottling."

I was quite excited to crack this one open, and I'm happy to say it did not disappoint!



Regular Parabola: brilliant. Paraboloid: somehow more brilliant. I think the quality of the barrels used really does shine through in the end product. The flavors are incredibly smooth and meld together beautifully.

This truly is an amazing beer.

Cheers BA!

 

Tavour box is almost 2 weeks delayed. Have to go into my bcbs stash. I will say that after a week of no beer, this is tasting incredible. I think after a while, the constant consumption of big barrel aged stouts really muted my palette

 

Side Project Double Barrel Derivation (Brandy Port)

cheers!!

 

Side Project Double Barrel Derivation (Blanton’s Port)

cheers!!

 

Side Project Double Barrel Derivation (Willett Port)

that’s a hat trick - cheers!!

 

Living vicariously through you at the moment. Enjoy man!