“Vanilla barrel aged imperial stout treated with vanilla beans, cinnamon, chili peppers, and cocoa nibs.”
Glassware: Tulip.
Appearance: Black as midnight with a short and fizzy brown head. It steadily reduced and manages a healthy lace down the glass.
Aroma: Big and meaty. Super rich molasses and soy sauce yet it still offers a lovely toasted coconut and treacle character. Picking up a unique scent of after dinner mints mixing in amongst lavish notes of dark chocolate, bourbon oak, raw coffee bean, earthy raw almond, vanilla and charred malts building late. A bit of a mild warming booze here too.
Flavour: Getting quite a lot of coconut upfront. Less natural flavor, more toasted and bourbon-infused with a hint of spicy vanilla. Underneath is a hedonistic fusion of marzipan, chocolate cake, old bourbon oak, toasted nutty malts, toffee fudge and burnt brown sugar sweetness which goes on for days on the back palate.
Mouthfeel: Pretty slick with a bit of dense stickiness. Medium-full body. Quite a lively Co2 for such a big BA stout. Typical of the Yanks…no ABV! Our guess is over 10%.
Overall: A very impressive stout. It may not have the finesse of say, 50/50 or 3 Floyd’s but it certainly has depth and complexity. Cracking drop.