“Pretty much everyone knows our infamous Ramjet STARWARD whisky barrel aged imperial stout. It’s a big luscious beast of a beer, with lovely whisky notes, and delicious aromas and flavours of dark chocolate, coffee, and malt. Inspired by some classic overseas versions of Bourbon BA coffee beers, we wanted to create a uniquely Australian version, using the wonderful whisky barrels of STARWARD. So we decided to up the natural coffee character that is present in Ramjet by infusing the beer with whole dark roast coffee beans.”
Glassware: Snifter.
Appearance: Pitch black with two fingers of brown foam emerging over the top. It holds together well and weaves a decent lace down the glass.
Aroma: Holy moly this bad boy packs a punch! It honestly smells as good as the KBS with a certain emphasis on the coffee. It has this bourbon-bbq sauce scent to it which makes us want to throw it all over our next meat lovers pizza. Then there’s the added molasses, toffee, tree sap, licorice, vanilla, marzipan, coconut and tobacco. Brilliant!
Flavour: It comes on quite slow but it definitely intensifies. Initially bourbon and charred malts, coffee, booze and toasted coconut moving to campfire, molasses and vanilla sweetness. It keeps creeping forward with smoke/peat, charred earth and coffee finishing on a deep roasty note with subtle vanilla sweetness cutting in late.
Mouthfeel: Dense and meaty. Full bodied with that 11.2% AbV quite direct. Pure indulgence!
Overall: Without a doubt this is Australia’s best barrel aged stout. Up there with the likes of KBS, Bourbon County etc. Sensational.