Full Sail Top Sail Imperial Porter Bourbon Barrel Aged

Formerly brewed at Full Sail Brewing Company
Style: Imperial/Strong Porter
Hood River, Oregon USA

Bottle... GIABMISGFAB... This beer rocks!... Pours pitch black with a small, fat bubbled, lightly tanned head. Much like barrel aged Speedway Stout, I’m picking up big notes of chocolate, vanilla and coconut. Full-bodied and milky with fizzy carbonation. Chocolaty, bourbony and bitter. Finishes fairly hot and chocolaty. Thanks go out to mcbackus or DragonStout... whoever brought this bad boy along to share!

Pours dark brown with a thin white head. Smells of bourbon, light malt, boozy. Tastessweet and boozy with an earthy finish and lots of dark fruity hints.

Bottle shared by dickensonbeer. Dark black beer with a thick brown head. Aroma is quite nice. Sweet and very rich. Loaded with a light salty sweetness, dark chocolate with a soft charry roastiness on the back. There is a bit of caramel sweetness in back and some subtle bourbony character. It’s good, but a bit understated really.

Dark brown body with some lighter brown hues at the edges, and a dark tan/brown head. Nose is ashy and buttery bourbon and chocolate, while the flavor is bright bourbon at first (when cold), before turning more towards the ashy, bitter baker’s chocolate and light bourbon with some fudge thrown in for kicks. Flavor is ashy chocolate (there’s a lot of that), light buttered bourbon, a bit chalky as well, and overall it’s really good but not stellar - rich, decadent, and savory, but maybe a bit too ashy and chalky overall. Not a bad beer by any means - really tasty.

Bottle: Black, nice head, tan lacing. Nose of vanilla, light roast, alcohol, almond, vanilla, rye, bourbon, oak; very complex. The flavor is strong, alcohol, tons of mallow and coffee, bitter with light soy/deet notes. Chocolate and barley wash over it all. Smooth and rich with bourbon. Plays well, no astringency. Very meaty, wow. Delicious stuff, subtle yet as deep as you dare to look.

Bottle. Head is initially small, frothy, brown, mostly diminishing. Body is black (non-opaque, flashlight tested). Aroma is moderately malty (roasted grain, dark chocolate, caramel), with notes of bourbon, alcohol, raw wood, vanilla, peanut butter. Flavor is heavily sweet, lightly acidic, lightly bitter. Finish is moderately sweet, lightly acidic, moderately bitter. Medium to full body, syrupy/creamy texture, lively carbonation, moderately to heavily alcoholic, lightly to moderately astringent. Very boozy/burning...seems stronger than it is, which is odd considering the viscosity and sweetness is pretty high. Usually that hides the alcohol, but not so much here. Astringency is rough too, another mark against the mouthfeel. A bit too much bourbon/alcohol and raw wood in the nose for my tastes, but it’s pleasant otherwise. Kind of simple and rough, but if you’ve got a bourbon fetish I could see you liking it well enough.

Noogfest ’08. The bodyw as perfectly black with a khaki head. I could hardly detect the barrel aging. The aroma was strong malt and chocolate. There was also some roasted coffee. The taste was coffee and chocolate. There was also some roast and green beans. Decent.

deep black,cheedy alcohol,smooth roast, little choc ,some bourbon bit too pronounced and a little rough.