Imperial Stout Appreciation Thread (2023)

Don't beat yourself up, I've found those to be inconsistent. I've had some sublime bottles and some downright bad ones. And everything in between.

I love Old Rasputin and North Coast, but they don't have a barrel program that I trust blindly. I'm always going in to a bottle of their BA stuff a little leery

 

Damn delicious. Char, dark fruit, tobacco, bitter chocolate, light coconut/vanilla notes from the barrel. Revolution continues to make a push as one of the best barrel programs in the country.

 

Finally working my way through the Extreme Stouts box, this one I should have gotten to sooner.

Pretty much all that was left was the RIS (which actually was darned good) and peanut butter. Fortunately the peanut butter faded about half way through and just stout remained. So it ended up being pretty good.
Cheers!

 

Jackie O’s Champion Ground. Always an excellent coffee stout. Cheers.

 

Like the way you roll!

 

Given this Cuvee' is 64% stout comprised i thought i would share my sampling here. Many thanks to Tomas @Resistance88 for this brew!
The FW Anniversary beer is my all-time favorite blended beer series. The ABV has trended down since peaking at 13.8% with Anniversary XIV, with XXVI coming in at 11.0%. This edition does not disappoint as the Barrel Team does a great job coaxing the bourbon and brandy barrel nuances. Thought it was interesting a small portion of this was a wheatwine ale co-fermented with white wine grape juice. In the end this is so balanced and nuanced with the usual bourbon barrel characteristics. Rating - 4.44. So glad i stumbled into a small allocation at my local high-end grocer, which totally surprised me, that i may need to crack this as well today!
Cheers!
Tom

 

Central Waters Brewing Twenty Three. It was worth the wait for June 23rd, 2023.

 

Last one. The batch variation was insane with this. Bottle #1 was one of the best stouts I’ve ever rated. #2 had almost 0 coffee presence. This is #3 and it’s right in the middle.

 

A glorious one here my friends! I’m looking in your direction @Resistance88 !

 

Weldwerks - Old Rip Medianoche

While it might seem blurry, the photo does accurately capture how long I allowed this beer to sit on the table when placed before me.

 

I’ll try to carry your burden until then!

 

Ah, a full action shot then. Nice!

 

Undated bottle. I got this two years ago I think it was. This had not been bottled for a while and it just showed up, think it was winter 2019 or 2020. Correct meif I’m wrong. Either way it very chocolate forward with a nice sweet bourbon. Quite a bit of green pepper bitterness in this one. It’s not that old and the first time I pulled this taste from this beer. Still a nice beer but not what it was many years ago.

Enjoy

 

How is this beer holding up? I have not seen it on a shelf since the winter.

Enjoy

 

I thought they stopped brewing this in 2018?

 

There was a 2022 version which I bought in February 2022.

 

Yes, I bought some last year too. We'll see if it comes back next Winter now that Weyerbacher seems to be brewing again coming out of their (2nd? 3rd?) Bankruptcy.

 

Yeah, this was my last can from the October 2022 release. Coffee part of the aroma was probably a little faded, but still pretty tasty.