Deschutes Black Butte XX

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 9 | Flavor: 9 | Overall: 9

Black Butte XXI: Another great beer from the West courtesy of my buddy Brando: Pours a beautiful dark black colour. Clean pour, not lots of carbonation. Medium brown head. Aroma is suprisingly peppery! Like Bell pepper, dirt and earth on the nose. Taste is smooth, suprisingly delicate and chocolatey. Yet slightly smokey and bourbon-esque. A real treat. Thanks pal!

Aroma: 10 | Appearance: 9 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 8 | Overall: 9

Black Butte XXI:
Wow! Crazy aroma hits like a hammer. Black brew with a large, thick very dark brown cap with very good retention and maaasive lacing. The aroma is just excellent. Huge waves of chocolate and a colossal amount of malts almost put me into a coma. The roast here reminds me of a german bock, more chocolate, soy sauce, vanilla, powdered choc, coffee, ample sweetness, lots of nut early on, especially right after pulling the wax covered cap off. The taste is huge. How many times can I use the word huge in one review? Probably a huge amount of times. Chocolate, good bitterness that almost seems to hide the 11% but doesn’t quite allowing it to peer at me from around the corner. Light soy sauce, vanilla, coffee. Ouch... the alcohol from this night is finally catching up to me - an alcohol that seems more at place in a 26. Smooth, so smooth. Full bodied, light carbonation, huge heavy breath - a large roast fume that just won’t leave. Molasses and licorice spice is found on the finish when I forget about the other stuff. Just got hit by another chocolate bomb. Excellent f’n beer!

Aroma: 7 | Appearance: 9 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 9 | Overall: 8

Intense smoky chocolate and coffee coming from the bottle, this aroma is off the charts good. Just got a wif of pool water. Brew looks deep dark blackish brown, a cap was produced on the pour but it gone very quickly. Aroma has turned almost salty. Taste is thick and epically full, chocolate, smoke, coffee, salty, all good!!!!!!!!!! Awesome there is like 10 new York Rangers on the ice beating the crap out of one Canuck!!! Hockey violence rules!!!! So very good beer! Thanks Jeff you old man you.

Aroma: 9 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 6 | Overall: 7

22 oz bottle, best after 10/17/10 (oh well!). Pours a dark brown with a creamy tan head that retains well and laces the glass.

The aroma is sweet roasted chocolate, tar, black licorice, and coffee. A little too heavy on the black licorice and tar for me.

The flavor is sweet sugary lactic chocolate balanced by a big tarry roasted bitterness and black licorice with a little coffee. The finish has a good deal of bitterness. As it warms, the sweetness comes out and becomes a bit overwhelming. Also notes of bourbony dark fruits appear as well. It's very bold but not at all smooth - a bit too brash for me. The mouthfeel is fairly full with creamy carbonation.

Overall, it's a bit too harsh especially with the black licorice and tar and then the heavy sweetness. It would be interesting to try again after the best after date to see if it mellows out.

Aroma: 9 | Appearance: 9 | Mouthfeel: 9 | Flavor: 10 | Overall: 10

Many thanks to drgonzo a.k.a. Paul for cracking open this amazing brew. Thick, burnt brown/black body with a frothy brown head and streaky lacing. In your face aroma of bitter dark chocolate, creamy coffee and layers upon layers of burnt, roasted, toasted malts. Plenty of molasses along with some fig and raisin notes. Viscous with a mellow creaminess and just an ever so faint alcohol bite. Drinks slowly and sticks with you. A solid bitterness helped to even things out. Flavor mirrors the intense aroma but the hops are much more noticeable. Big, bold and wonderful. A bountiful, beautiful brew.

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 7 | Overall: 6

pours a dark black .. great coco head .. light roast in the nose ... pretty tasty stuff, needs a bit of time to make it great ... could be a session beer in its ease ...i will revisit in a yea or too..

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 7 | Flavor: 7 | Overall: 8

Bottle: Poured a pitch-black color stout with a good size light brown foamy head with good retention and some lacing. Aroma of bourbon and black chocolate is dominant with some light roasted malt notes also discernable. Taste is also a nice mix between some well balance bourbon with notes of black chocolate. Hops are well hidden as well as alcohol. Full body with great carbonation. Interesting and well done but I was expecting to be blown away as I had been with the Abyss so I was somewhat disappointed by that one.

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 7 | Flavor: 8 | Overall: 8

Pours black with lasting creamy. Rich chocolate notes abound. The flavor balances sweet and dry. medium bodied with subtle warming sidekick. I would just like to thank my pal kelly for hooking me up w/ his black butte :)

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 8 | Overall: 8

Bottle shared by sloth at the SSSSLT. Poured the usual deep dark black color with a choco colored head, solid retention. The aroma was chocolate and firm roasty notes. The flavor was chocolate, bitter cocoa, firm and bitter roasted notes too, faint wood in the background (not much else from "aging"). The flavor profile on this one was solid, things melding together quite well. Mouthfeel was slightly acidic, smooth, velvety, very nice. Thanks, Bert, a very nice selection.

Aroma: 9 | Appearance: 9 | Mouthfeel: 9 | Flavor: 9 | Overall: 9

a little harsh (maybe hops, maybe from the cocoa nibs?)...i'd prefer it be barrel aged/blended at 50% or more instead of 33%, but that is nit-picking. This is an imperial porter squared. great big chewy flavors, nose, and complexity throughout. Don't know if it's worth the price more than a couple times, but i'm glad i tried it. 8/09-i tried to get them to seperate BBXXI and XX as they are two different recipes, but oh well...the XXI, although it states on the bottle best after 10/2010, it is smoother than the XX was last year. most of the rough edges are gone (although it's only 20% aged in barrels instead of 33) and the coffee is amped up. the aroma is that of a young beer, but the feel and flavor are near a 10/10, and if this gets any better, it may rival Abyss as Deschutes best! The scores above are an average of the two releases...4.4 for XX, 4.6 for XXI