Barley Island Beastie Barrel Stout

Brewed by Barley Island Brewing
Style: Stout
Noblesville, Indiana USA

(7/15/09, 12oz bottle, thanks BBB63) Brown-black body topped by small brown head. Aroma is moderately sweet, vanilla/Bourbon, some chocolate. Taste is medium sweet, Bourbon/vanilla, cocoa, some roast. Light-medium body. (6/3/6/3/12)

(12/19/05 22oz bottle, thanks BBB63) Enormous brown head atop a black body. Aroma is moderately sweet, vanilla/bourbon, light wood. Taste is moderately sweet, vanilla/bourbon, beneath which is buried light milk chocolate. Over-carbonated light-medium body. The beer is not strong enough to stand up to the bourbon barrel. (6/3/5/2/10)

I had a nighmare about this stuff. I wanted to have no mention of it ever again, but I needed to just vent. Pours clear dark brown and foamy. Nose is all bourbon, maybe some vanilla, oak. Taste is bourbon, astringent. No malts, watery and thin. Cola like carbonation. Drain pour. Cant take a mediocre beer and make it better in a barrel.

2005 bottle shared with SuIIy on 11/23/05. The bottle says it is unfiltered and unpasteurized, but yet, the beer pours the most fizzy, clear thing I have seen lately. If this isn’t forced carbonation, than it’s the strangest natural carbonation I’ve ever experienced. Deep cola brown, somewhat dull, not much in the auburn-red tinged department, as some deeper colored stouts have. Tan-beige head is mountainous and very very slow to recede. Lacing present. Aroma of straight bourbon, dry and lightly alcoholic, with light vanilla and very dry wood. Hints of baker’s chocolate, some light yeast and very little else. No sweet malt, no creamy oat-like notes, no hops. Flavor is full bourbon. Hints of peanut skins, salt, seltzer water and alcohol. Pure bourbon, dry wood and light roast. It’s not that the bourbon is overdone here, it’s just that the beer is underdone. No malt sugars, little if any chocolate or roast. Body seems very filtered, though they say it is not. Carbonation is omnipresent, sharp, obtrusive and very high. Texture is watery, loose, prickly and thin on end. As it warms, the aroma takes on a note of glue or hot plastic.

22oz bottle from ATPayne. First off, I would love to try this side by side with a non BA version. Since I cant, I will simply give a description of this version. Pours a nice black color with a foamy brown head. Seems very fizzy and carbonated. Nose is mainly bourbon with a slight bit of chocolate seeping through. Flavor is all bourbon, a little bit woody and some more bourbon. Lacking here, nothing good happening and the bourbon has taken this beer hostage. No solid stout characteristics remain and its like drinking a carbonated glass of watered down bourbon. BA is not always successful.

Bottle. Medium dark brown opaque pour. Weak bourbon aroma, with some alcohol and maybe a woody/earthy hint. Medium roasty malt flavors, with bourbon and chocolate. Way too carbonated and not at all oatmeal-stout-creamy. A little thin too.

Poured black with a huge tan head. Aroma of roasted malt with the bourbon running underneath. As opposed to the porter which had the bourbon on top. Flavor of roasted malt with a touch of bourbon. Smooth mouth feel but not as creamy as I thought it would be for an oatmeal stout.

Totally opaque pour with a massive, long lasting tan head - aroma of bourbon, vanilla, oak, alcohol - a bit thin on the palate - not many oatmeal stout characteristics besides a hint of lactose - mostly, the wood and bourbon from the barrel overpower whatever other flavors the beer has - if you want a similar experience, soak a tongue depressor in whiskey and suck on it.

Something must have been wrong with this bottle!!! Large head that quickly fades to nothing over a black body. Thick and oily. Cocoa, caramel and malty nose, quite mild. Flavor is biting: bitter, like unsweetened cocoa and very difficult to enjoy. Sour finish and my mouth is left feeling dry. No complexities or unique flavors. It tastes very much like finished wood.