Great Lakes Barrel Aged Blackout Stout

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

Pours coffee brown with a nice light tan head. Aroma delivers roast malt, woody, bourbon, caramel, and subtle coffee notes. Flavor features bourbon, woody, roasted malt and caramel tones. Viscous mouthfeel has decent fizz. Black is black, I want my brewer back!

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

Bottle into a snifter - midnight black with a small off white head. Dominant coffee aromas, intriguing since this isn't brewed with coffee. Strong bourbon notes - oak and vanilla - with a strange licorish finish. WAY too thin, borderline watery. I prefer barrel aged stouts to be richer and fuller, and it hurts this beer. I've had it a few times and noticed it each time. Not my favorite.

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

Yes! Thanks to Kinger for sharing this beauty at Louis's gathering of the vibes. Pitch black. Pours like motor oil. Not much head. Thick as hell. Aroma is rampant in dark chocolate, earth and coffee grounds. Taste is similar, creamy, not too filling, and a chewy tobacco-y finish.

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

Another gem from kinger for the Hootenanny - definitely a wish list item for me. Big bold black pour with a nice tan head, sustained, leaving droopy lacing. Bourbon upfront in the nose, but not overpowering, some toasted malts, molasses, earthy hops in the end along with more bourbon. Taste is very inviting and warming: roasted malts and mellow bourbon, slight oaken vanilla, rich and almost creamy, almost burning molasses, hint of java, hides the alcohol very well. Extremely worthy. Huge props to Cory for this big 'un.

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

damn - this was was THOROUGHLY enjoyed. Thanks Cory. Holy crap was it delicious. Just right on the bourbon with vanilla, chocolate, roast, coffee and wood on the palate. similar aroma, but a tad more subdued. velvety smooth feel, not hot at all. World Class! Lost a little in traslation to 12 oz bottles. Not as smooth, otherwise still epic!

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

Bottled. Pitch black colour, mediumsized beigeish brown creamy and lasting head. Aroma is smoothly roasted malts, some wooden notes, licorice as well as mild coffee, chocolate and licorice. Flavour is roasted malts, licorice, vanilla and wood along with some caramel, chocolate and coffee. Aftertaste is vanilla, wood, coffee and some mild notes of roasted malts. Hides the alcohol quite well, and is wellbalanced.

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

Tasted at Noogfest 4.0 (2008). This Imperial Stout pours a deep black color from a 22oz bottle. Small sized tan foamy head. The aroma is chocolate, coffee, bourbon and sweet. A medium to full bodied stout. The malts are chocolate, roasty malts, coffee. Lots of vanilla and bourbon flavors. Nice balance. Very smooth taste. Nice beer. Mouthfeel is full. Finish is clean and smooth. Aftertaste is slightly bitter.

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

Winter Warmer Festival: I was fortunate enough to be able to get a couple samples from the tap before the keg had emptied, no time like the present I suppose. I love the regular Blackout Stout, and with some recent samples of other beers aged in barrels I was curious to see how this already great imperial would be altered. Virtually black in color, it poured thick from the tap producing a diminishing dark brown head with minor spots of lacing around the glass. An aroma of blended dark malts and alcohol was produced, lightly smoked with a dark fruity port scent. Initially creamy, filling and velvety soft. Not much trace of the strong alcohol content, it's a mellow sipper. Burnt, overly toasted rich malts are followed by a subtle and quick hit of flowery hops. Plums and figs, peaty with a good smoke aftertaste. This is creamy and delicious, seems a touch more mellow than the original. ////////// Notes from the 2009 release: The bourbon flavor is much more pronounced in this fresh batch than I remember from earlier years. Smooth and silky with a sturdy woody and bourbon aroma/flavor.

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

Bottle # 142/900; Vintage 2006; Sampled December 2007
Minimally carbonated, a slightly vigorous pour produces only a scant, quarter-finger thick, light brown colored head that quickly dissipates to a thin ring. The beer is an opaque, deep, black, brownish tinged color. The aroma is fairly oak focused as this is the first thing that I notice; spicy oak, a bit of buttery oak and a touch of vanillin are noticeable in that order as far as magnitude as well. It is actually pretty hard to notice any of the other notes underneath the oak; perhaps a touch of burnt cherry aromatics and some toasted-burnt grain. After the beer has warmed a bit and I hae revisited the nose, I can now pick out flavors of molasses, but the aroma is still way more oak dominated that I would wish.

Starts out a bit thin, but picks up some heft pretty quickly and in fact coats the mouth enough to be noticed as this lingers on through to the finish. Still this is not really heavy for an Imperial Stout, but is by no means light either. The light carbonation probably adds a bit to the perceived thinness. The finish has an interesting, toasted / roasted flavor which brings out a distinct nuttiness akin to a super Nut-Brown Ale. The flavor is not nearly as oak driven as the nose is, in fact the flavors the oak adds contribute a nice supporting character to the brew. Flavors of burnt cherries, blackened raisin, strong black coffee or slightly watered-down espresso, chocolate extract and blackened whole grain toast round out the malt contributed notes. The oak adds / contributes to flavors of rum, vanillin, burnt toffee, a touch of butterscotch and some bourbon-like flavors (really a mix of the alcohol and the previous three mentioned flavors). As the beer warms a bit the alcohol and spicy oak notes add something similar to the flavors found in cola; something sort of akin to clove, cardamom and molasses.

Somehow this beer is strangely thin; I would like it to be a bit more full, textured and rich. This does have enough complexity though to keep it interesting. This really needs to be served on the warm side of cool (no where near the 45°F mentioned on the bottle); somewhere north of 60°F / 16°C should do it; at this temperature it picks up a bit more fullness and perhaps a touch more round, malt flavors to help balance things out. Compared to the regular version though, this beer is really missing a lot of malt character & complexity; seems some how heavily filtered (which can actually mechanically happen inside a barrel) and stripped down. Not bad, just not the beer it was originally.

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

Pour was jet black small head which didn't stick around long. aroma was strong burbon oak vanilla. Flavor was the same with some roastedness to it. Was good finished a nice bitter. thanks eagle.