Oskar Blues: Bourbon Barrel-Aged Ten FIDY

This one is top notch. A little boozy and really well balanced flavor. Almost wish this wasn’t my first out of the box, but I’ve had Ten Fidy’s regular non-barrel aged stout (also great!) and I couldn’t resist. Great start to the box!!

 

Compared this with a 2019 can, and found the older can a bit more to my liking. The barrel in this version seemed to take some warmth to come out. The video's mention of "special" indicates to me that the mix of barrels from older and newer bourbons was different this year. So I was wondering what the makeup of the barrels in the past has been, if Oskar Blue is willing to give us that information.

 

Love this beer! We first tried it in 2018 and my quick rating was 4.4.

I still agree and this is the best beer so far in the box (4/12 so far for us). It's a lot easier to get ahold of in our market but that doesn't make it less exciting.

Just a classic gold standard BA imperial stout

 

I completely agree with this take. I ran through multiple cans in early 2019 because it was readily available and so good. This one was a bit less stellar bit it's still pretty good.

 

BBA Ten Fidy! Hello old friend! Not a cheap trick - it’s a real treat. Yeah.
Canned 11/12/22, it’s ready to drink right now. No need to put any age on this beauty. Aggressive bounce, nice heat. Full of flavor. The ‘22 version’s barrel choice is streamlined and not as 10W40 as I recall.
What a nice way to close a great beer day!

 

Extreme Beer Box #7 for me. I kind of saved this one because OB is one of my favorite breweries and Ten Fidy is one of my all-time favorite Stouts. It just doesn't get much better than this!

 

Boozy fo schizzle. Out G

 

Solid notes of espresso, molasses and caramel. A bit more carbonation than I expected. Smooth vanilla oak finish. A "monster of cranked up flavor" indeed!

 

I generally grab at least a couple 4-packs each year of this. Looks like they did a little extra with the barreling this time around. Frankly, it tastes the same as every other year. The base beer is fantastic, one of my favorites, so the aging adds to already really good beer. Of course, since they started canning this, the barrel presence is no where near what it once was when BA Ten FIDY was taproom-only specialties. But that's just reminiscing about the good ol' days.

 

#4/12 for me and the best one so far. Such a layered and complex treat! I get a touch of leather in addition to many of the other notes mentioned already (oak, creamy vanilla, molasses, hint of espresso, almond)…and a bit of dark dried fruit. The barrel character on this beast is exceptional! Nice choice, Todd!

 

A stout-soaked shot of bourbon. While it's undeniably delicious, the barrel aging left it too hot, overwhelming the expected Ten Fidy richness. Properly black as pitch, and not too thin, but not syrupy enough for my tastes. Aroma is overpowering of bourbon. While deserving of inclusion in this box o' extremity, it's the least appealing one for me (so far).

 

My 9th sample out of the EBB: Big Stouts. Straight brown with a fluffy light-brown head. Very chocolaty aroma right out of the can. Dark chocolate, bourbon, dark roast (without being bitter), and just a hint of stone fruit on the palate. A little sweeter and more complex than the base Ten FIDY. Impressive!

 

I was not aware until this thread that this beer was an annual one, neat. I absolutely loved this one, the bourbon hits hard right at the first sip and it's fantastic. We just toasted my spouse publishing a game with some Hibiki whiskey yesterday and this reminded me of it.

 

I dunno if I have an off can, or if my palate is just shot tonight, but I’m not digging this. I’ve only ever had regular ten fidy (which I love), but this BA version seems oddly thin and watery in comparison. Is that typical? I’m getting some decent barrel notes in the aroma but the taste is lacking and one-dimensional. There’s a faint bourbon flavor, but the beer overall is more like a strong brown ale or an old ale, rather than a stout. Getting some intense bitterness on the finish.

 

Coffee dark with a nice dark brown head Bourbon, coffee, and chocolate on the nose. Mouth feel is slightly creamy. Taste is bourbon up front, but not overpowering. Then there's some vanilla and a little caramel followed by slightly bitter coffee. A very well balanced stout. There is a dryness at the end that is essential; otherwise I think the bourbon would be too much. As it is, it's an amazingly good beer.

Honestly, I'd had Ten Fidy before and liked it, but wasn't super excited about this one. I was wrong. This is a great brew.

 

First out of the box, as I am familiar with TenFidy. Never disappoints. Smooth, cocoa and caramel without being too sweet.

 

One of my favorite parts of these fests is reading differing opinions. Even more interesting is when I'm in the minority. There's always one or two where I'm way off compared to everyone else and this is one of them. It's a shame for me in this case because a lot of the imperial stouts I drink taste like soy sauce. Could also be described as a salty cough syrup flavor. The silver lining for me is that usually the first half of the beer tastes like all the good stuff. In this case, it started with coffee, espresso, brown sugar, molasses but an acrid bitterness started creeping in halfway through. That stuck with me and finished like soy sauce.


L: Black with coffee colored head
A: Coffee, brown sugar, molasses, espresso, dark fruit
T: Starts with nice espresso and coffee flavors but slowly moved to some acrid bitterness. Final sips had notes of soy sauce/salty flavors. Interesting how it caught up with me. If I had, I dunno, 10oz or 8oz only, I might have thought it was simply a really nice hard hitting espresso/coffee taste.
B: Medium body with med-low carbonation.
O: Decent. Boozy and rich but the roasty bite at the end was sharp.

 

And this is the other brew out of the Big Stouts box that I've tried in the past, so I waited until later to drink this can. This one is still pretty tasty, I remember liking it a lot in the past and this can is no different.




Cheers!

 

A long time fave I haven't seen in a couple years, so far the best of the Extreme Beer Box.

 

BA Ten Fidy is a classic and it has been a while since I last tried it. Even so, I was hoping the Extreme Beer Box might contain one of the many variants. In any event, this is a no nonsense BA stout from back in the days when bigger and bolder were better and the concept of sweet pastry stouts had not yet been conceived. Nothing subtle here, from the bold chocolate flavors to the Bourbon to the boozy warmth. Certainly worth a try though, these days, I prefer the Bourbon to be a bit more of a complement than a dominant part of the flavor profile.

 

And we're back. Didn't die from the festival, but didn't sample even half of what needed to be sampled... ugh. This is #8, I think. It's very much what the brewer's description suggests. Quite warming, which caught me by surprise. Definitely forward on the bitterness, but also smooths out with the vanilla-caramel sweetness. Kind of lingers.

 

Such a good barrel aged stout. I've had this in past years, and this can affirms what I experienced before. Really a rich and complex blend of beer and barrel aromas and flavors. This is an affirmation that a world class barrel aged stout needs no other adjuncts or ingredients to be impressive. Thoroughly smooth and calmingly impressive. Just stop here and enjoy.