Aging Assassin

I've only had Assasin one time and that was last year and it was a 16 assassin. So I cannot comment on how it was fresh. I will say 16 assassin had a very strong dark fruit flavor profile. Very pruney/raisony. It was fine just not my favorite. Not sure if a little bit of age did that, but I've heard from a few different people that 16 assassin did have that flavor profile.

 

The Assassins, in fact, SR-71, as well (from what I've heard), have been trending towards a dark fruit-heavy flavor profile over the last couple years. Don't believe the post-bottling aging process has anything to do with it.

 

I've only had Assassin twice, once fresh & once aged around two years. The fresh bottle was divine, the aged bottle, as noted above, was leaning heavily into dark fruit territory, which I do not enjoy in stouts.

If it was me, I would drink it as soon as possible.

 

This is an interesting take.. And I will add that I had Assassin fresh on the weekend of the release, and while there were dark fruit notes, there was plenty of chocolate and whiskey to balance. I thought it was fantastic. Drinking it now might be wise. I'll be drinking mine next month (since I can't land a Maman for it )

 

I think that's the key. There might be whispers of it fresh, but it's muted or masked by other, stronger flavors & only seemed to come out with age.

This is the same reason I quit aging Expedition Stout. Wonderful beer, but I found that the same dark fruit quality started to emerge in time, & I couldn't stand it.

 

Good to know that about expedition. I enjoy if fresh, wouldn't want to ruin it (for me) with dark fruit flavors...