CooperSmiths Bourbon Barrel Stout

Brewed by CooperSmiths Pub & Brewing
Style: Sweet Stout
Fort Collins, Colorado USA

On tap at the pub. Poured a black color with an ample tan head that left great lacing on the glass. Aroma of roasted malt and sweet bourbon. Initial taste of roasted malts with some hints of chocolate that lead into vanilla and light bourbon spice notes. Slightly woody aftertaste. Alcohol comes out a bit as it warms. Nice, but I agree with Crosling that it could have used a bit longer in the barrel.

On tap at the brewpub. Singular bold hazlenut and hershey’s syrup aroma, strong and crisp with some bourbon sweetness. Pours deep black, with sparse rocky tan head. Flavor fades away into a watered down, thin washed out almond and cashew concentrate with toasted bread, light coffees and where’s the barrel? Weak. Alcohol brightens, even at 7.4. Finishes oakenly dry and nutty, again. Unique in it’s singular vanilla-like nut flavors, but one-dimensional.

Hand drawn black color with a small head of white foam. Rich blend of oak and malt in the aroma, creating hints of vanilla, coconut, whiskey, chocolate and coffee. It’s hard for me to confess but i’m beginning to like bourbon barrel aging. Lightly vinous flavor, with hints of bourbon and powdered chocolate. This particular bourbon stout could have definately used a few more months in the barrel (I’m guessing it was 2-3 months aged), because the body was pretty lacking and the flavors hadn’t quite melded together. Nonetheless, I still enjoyed it.

The menu noted that this stuff inherited the pepperiness of its bourbon infulence - they weren’t kidding. Starts with caramel-sweet roasted coffee and quickly swithces over to a remarkably strong peppery liquor taste. It’s not like i’m drinking some sort of wierd peper drink, but the flavor is much more evident than in other bourbon-aged beers I’ve had. There’s actually not a whole lot to this beer. It’s a creamy stout with a peppery liquor influence. I don’t like it all htat much because the sweet and roasty flavors aren’t that strong and the pepper reminds me of drinking some brandy when I was a little kid.

The Bourbon Barrel Stout poured very beautifully. It was an opaque black with a big, tan, creamy, nitro-like head (though it says it is hand-drawn). The head lasted the entire pint and left some nice lacing.

The aroma was coffee, chocolate and some alcohol. Pretty subtle.

The flavor was roasted chocolate with some woody and alcohol notes. It was pretty sweet and sugary - a little too much so. It had a full and velvety mouthfeel.

Overall, I thought this was a good drinkable sweet stout. It’s more complex than the Horsetooth Stout, but a little too sweet for me. I remember their first batch of this (from a couple months ago) being much better.

Take a Guiness and a shot of JD and put them together. There you have this beer. Not much class to this.