BrewDog Paradox Speyside (Batch 010)

Brewed by BrewDog
Style: Imperial Stout
Fraserburgh, Aberdeenshire, Scotland

Transparent dark mahogany with notes of charcoal and spotty-lacing light tan head. Aroma of dry, toasty caramel and earthy peaty character. Body starts with decent fullness and semi sweet dark maltiness with a smooth, dry, earthy Scotch balance toward a slightly warming finish. Pretty good brew, but not my favorite of the Paradox series.

Viscous-pouring dark brown beer with orange highlights to medium, dense & reasonably stable tan head. Chocolate very obvious in the nose, breadcrust, fresh coffeepowder, vanilla, but remarkably little alcohol. Strong coffee taste, quite bitter (both hops and burnt black coffeebeans) with expresso/mocha sweetness lurking behind. Very burnt/stout character. Rather spritzy MF, strange for such a heavy, oily, viscous beer with some alcoholwarming. Much more stout/coffee-like than any of the other Paradox casks; alcohol/whisky character however much more discreet. <i> Big thanks to Darren! </i>

Bottle (RBESG 08): Almost black with a small foamy beige layer; leather and liquorice in the nose, mixed with aromas of vanilla and wood; full bitter-sweet flavour; some smoke and vanilla, again, in the warming finish. O.K. .....

Bottle shared by puzzl. Dark brown beer with a fairly deep rich aroma. Chewy and sweet with a light kiss of barrel character. Lightly oaky with a light caramel character. Fairly dry and oaky finish. Quite nice. Pretty tasty.

Very dark brown with a lasting light brown head. Aroma has toffee and caramel maltiness, and a tiny hint of oak barrel. Dry and roasted flavour with some oak tannin and lingering malt sweetness.

Bottle at home ... Deep black ... slightlt sweet roast malts ... sweet fruity ... little toasted oats ... Although description (as i write) says whiskey cask i think this is as sherry cask, and if not getting the level of whiskey that i get from some of the others... In many ways this seems more balanced.

Poured a very deep brown color. Aged fruit and roasted malt aroma. Roasted sweet fruity malt flavor. Light Whisky. Warming. Dry bitter finish. Medium bodied.

Bottled, BB 1/1/2010. Poured thin medium brown with a dusting, a ring, and a pool of beige head. The aroma picked up candied toffee and whiskey sweetness first and foremost over an even sweeter caramel and chocolate base.. from what I recall (and I’m too lazy to look back at my ratings), this is significantly different from the other Paradoxes I’ve tried, which were all rather similar to me.. some heavy malt in there, but no real indicator of boozage. The flavor opened with syrupy dark malts including sweeter chocolate, molasses, and some soy.. caramel gave more support than flavor.. more vanilla than anything else from the barrel, but there was some soft, sweet whiskey on the back and some oak and warmth after the swallow.. very much candied and sweet overall. Medium-bodied with only a decent interplay between the slick fore and a tacky malt feel and residual bitterness on the finish.. overall the barrel treatment didn’t do a whole lot here, but it was a decent drinker.