Big Bear Bourbon Barrel Stout

Brewed by Big Bear Brewing Company
Style: Stout
Coral Springs, Florida USA

Bourbon, vanilla, chocolate, mild oak. cocoa, hint of soy. Very dark black body with an oil slick of a mocha tinted head. Huge sweet creamy chocolate flavor. Low bitterness in both hops and roast. Bourbon, vanilla, milk chocolate sweetness are the most concentrated with the roast components beneath that. Finishes with more bourbon, chocolate, vanilla and hints of wood and treacle. Pretty tasty.

Sampler. Opaque. Dark black. Long lasting creamy brown head. Aroma of Easter candy. Like a chocolate covered marshmallow. Flavor of malts, grain, roast, coffee, and then follows the bourbon. Pleasant coffee bitterness in the finish. Big Whiskey flavors linger around in the flavor of rich heavy bodied stout. YUMMY!

pitch black with off white head...gfet a woody aroma with bourbon and a hint of chocolate... taste of roasted coffee and chocolate slight vanilla... slight alcohol finish with bourbon

Pours just pitch black with weak tan to mocha head. Big big aroma that lets you know you’re drinking something substantial. I get wood, bourbon, hints of rye whiskey that seems to give it an odd aroma. There is a faint backbone of dark roasty malts in there too hinting at the base beer. The taste does have an even and creamy sensation with almost blunted chocolate and roasty malts to go along with coffee and burnt malts. Certainly getting a lot of the base beer in the taste that wasn’t really there in the aroma. Following the malts I get a row of wood, almost fortified booze flavors, some booze dryness mixing with mild malt astringency. Seems to be a rye whiskey in there. Very nice tasting barrel aged stout.

On tap at the Brewer’s Ball. Best at the event in my opinion. Warm licorice, chocolate, obvious bourbon influences in both aroma and flavor. Sweet, but the alcohol was not noticable. Enjoyed this one.

Draft at Florida Brewers Guild Beer Fest 2008. Full rating updated as soon as I am more coherent.

on tap-pours a retaining rich brown head and dark brown color. Aroma is dark malt-cocoa powder, roasty, then some sweetness and Jack Daniels as it warms. Taste is alcohol, Jack Daniels, dark malt-coffee/cocoa powder, slight acidic in finish. Smooth, minimum carbonation. Occasional.

My Bottom Line:
Bourbon-laced coffee beans arch into raisiny sweet fruitiness right before alcohol heat catches up and leads the way to green hop bitterness. This nitrogenated Imperial Stout is not as cohesive and compelling as it could be, but it remains a competent pint of strong ale nonetheless.

Further Personal Perceptions:
-A nitroed sheet of foam covers the pitch black.
-Like all beers at Big Bear, this one was served way too cold.
-The nitrogen serving makes the body appear bloated, but does increase drinkability in such a big brew.
-Roastiness is present, but is somewhat powdery and overcome by the nitrogen.
-Compared to the style’s best examples, this one doesn’t hold its own, but that doesn’t mean it’s not an enjoyable glass of Imperial Stout.

On tap at the brewpub.