Boatrocker ‘2021 Fat Santa’ BA Imperial Stout

Rating:

“Fat Santa, a beer now synonomous with Boatrocker. Our famous Ramjet base beer has been aged in first use Buffalo Trace barrels. After disgorging, the beer is treated to whole coffee beans, Madagascan vanilla beans, and South American Tonka beans.”

Glassware: Snifter.

Appearance: Dense black with a thumb of finely beaded brown foam emerging on top. Retention is ok, eventually the head disappears but it leaves a beautiful cascading lace down the glass.

Aroma: Oh my word all we now want for Christmas is a whole case of this! Yes, it’s the Ramjet base with added tonka beans, coffee and vanilla (which makes up a big part of its beauty) but let’s be real this is all about the incredible Buffalo Trace Bourbon/barrels. For such a relatively cheap Bourbon it punches well above its weight when a Stout of this calibre is housed inside its barrels. So so good.

Flavour: Because we waffled on so much with the aroma we’ll actually cover the flavour profile here; absolutely delicious notes of treacle, vanilla, charred oak, chewy toffee, heavily roasted malts, coffee, mixed spice i.e star anise and clove, Carribbean Rum, muscovado sugar and a rich nutty quality. Excellent finish too- Bourbon oak, vanilla and charred malts. Perfect really.

Mouthfeel: Super slick and oily AF. Low Co2, full body. The 11% ABV comes through but it’s well behaved for its size.

Overall: For years we’ve considered the Ramjet/Roger Ramjet the pick of Boatrocker’s barrel program but we think our minds have officially changed. This vintage of Fat Santa could easily stack up against any high quality American BA Stout. World class stuff.