Opening a 2009 Older Viscosity, my First

Going into this, I'd never had an Older Viscosity before. But I do have a pretty broad knowledge of beer in general, as well as brewing specifically, and I know some beers lend themselves better to aging than others. And this is a pretty OLD beer by most people's standards, even by Imperial Stout standards.

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Welp! As my research warned me, the pour is completely flat, but interestingly, the cork smelled like straight booze, and the beer mostly the same though with an almost equal portion of raisin...

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OKAY. Well, the first thing to touch your tastebuds is booze, though with no alcohol heat, which is strange. Like straight whiskey, though with a flavor profile that, to me, is generally more full and complex than your typical bourbon. I'm picking up a definite chocolate note, a large, ironically port-like figgy note. There's some coconut that I imagine comes from the vanillin in the oak, but surprisingly little in the way of roasted coffee notes. Definitely some oxidiation going on, but not what I'd expect from a beer of this character being seven years old.

It's almost like a dark old ale. I know there's very little logical distinction between an Imperial Stout and a "dark old ale," but that's more how this strikes me. Oxidation, port wine character, but with a creamy, chocolate character to it. If you like stouts and port wine, this is a treat, for sure.

It's thin, definitely, yet... if the carbonation were more robust I imagine this might be a pretty damn heavy bodied stout. It's not bad. It's just lacking... viscosity. The mouthfeel reminds me, again, of a port wine, though laden with chocolate malt character. With almost no carbonation, it's unable to fill your mouth with goodness, yet even though it feels thin, it does sit heavy upon the tongue for several moments after the swallow.

Overall, this seven-year old bottle is still really damn good. Not overly sweet, a little overly boozy, but it opens up after a couple sips, bringing more chocolate malt to the foreground. Coconut, bourbon, and figs, interestingly lead the way here, followed by a smoooooooth chocolate that rounds everything out, and grants it all depth. Not my favorite beer, and I wish I'd paid a bit less for access to this guy, but, still, very good.

As my only ever tasting of Older Viscosity, I've never had a two, one, or six-month aged offering of the beer. How do my tasting notes compare to those of you who have had fresher versions? From my research it looks like this beer is simply never all that carbonated, and that after a couple years, oxidation seems to set in, but fresh it seems to be just overwhelmingly booze-forward. After seven years mine still had a very significant bourbon aroma and flavor, so I can only imagine what it must taste like fresh... holy fuck...

How does my tasting compare to other BAs?