Green Flash Bourbon Barrel Aged Double Stout

Brewed by Green Flash Brewing Co.
Style: Stout
Vista, California USA

Tap at Hamilton’s. Very dark black beer with a thick creamy tan/brown head. Aroma is really great. Loads of rich dark chocolate and malted milk character. Sweet vanilla and a light bourbony character. Some light caramel and a bit of spicy woody tannins. Very full-bodied and chewy. Sweet milk chocolate, malted milk, and a soft herbal bitterness. Very restrained with excellent integration between the sweet vanilla/caramel bourbony flavour and the deep dark chocolate. Very rich, silken, and unctuous mouthfeel. One of the better barrel-aged impys I’ve had in a long time.

Cask at the Blind Tiger for VSK 2008. Bourbon, tobacco aroma, dry smoke, caramel and rye whiskey, vanilla, cedar. Very complex. Poured with a nice head for a cask beer. Very thick body, mostly dry, very dark chocolate and a bourbony finish. Surprisingly easy drinking. Chalky cocoa flavor is perfect. This was wonderful.

Cask at Blind Tiger VSK 2008: Pours opaque black with a dense deep tan head. Big aroma of rich dark chocolate liqueur, smooth oak, roast and a burnt raisin aspect. Nice silky mouthfeel. Great integration of a rich Stout and smooth cask character. Has flavors of licorice, chocolate/mocha, burnt marshmallow-like richness, and a smooth rounded oak presence, without the assertive alcohol flavor or overwhelming vanilla booziness many barrel-aged stouts have. Long roasted finish. This is a nice barrel-aged Imperial Stout.

Tap @ Hamilton’s. Pours jet black with a short, thick, lasting brown head of tiny little bubbles. Whiskey and smoked malt hit you first, but give way to leather, tobacco, chocolate malt, and roasted coffee. Loved sipping this one. Chocolate, oak, and coffee up front that eases into the warmth of the bourbon. Roasy malt and a bit of smoke throughout. Only mistake was starting my night with this; all others paled.

Cask @ Blind Tiger. Pours jet black with a large brown head. Aroma is malt, chocolate, vanilla, and bourbon. Taste is roasted malt, chocolate, and a little coffee/vanilla, followed by an explosion of the bourbon/oak flavors at the end. It’s sublimely smooth and easily drinkable for what it is. Bravo.....bravo.

Cask @ BTAH VSK. Pours opaque black with a light, big bubbled tan head. Nose is huge on the bourbon, with an underlying sweet cocoa note, just a bit of roastiness gets through. Taste rich roasted malt up front, vanilla and oak, with the roastiness reigning in the richness with just a bit of roasty acidity. Dries up towards finish, with lingering bourbon on exhale. Smooth, full, silky mouthfeel, with carbonation just lively enough to really keep the beer alive on your tongue. Superb.

On tap @ Hamilton’s Tavern. Seriously, one of the top 10 beers I’ve ever had. Pours a deep brown almost black with a big tan head. Tons of bourbon, chocolate and toffee on the nose. Flavor held bourbon with some coffee and chocolate.

On cask at Fourth Avenue Pub. Black with typical big bubble cask brown head. Rich aroma of chocolate roasted coffee earth wood. Rich roasted chocolate coffee woodsy earthy licorice flavors with medium hop bitterness. Smooth excellent cask mouthfeel. Full body and low carbo. Rich, complex, and delicious. Excellent.