The_Beer_God (2797), Newport News, Virginia, USA Apr 26, 2008 Bottle courtesy of Immy. Thanks Tim! Corked and caged. Dark bronze. Nose is vanilla, bourbon, wood, caramel, and maple syrup. Taste is wood/oak, vanilla, sweet malts, bourbon, caramel and sweet syrupy notes. Very tasty! Body is creamy with soft carbonation. Medium overall feel. Ends with more caramel, bourbon, vanilla, sweet malts, toffee, and syrup. Yummy!
rallison (11), USA Jul 9, 2008 Truly a great beer. Have had this a number of times and figured I ought to actually put in a review.
Pours a thick, dark brown with a 2 finger tan head that is creamy and never fully dies (that, and the bottles really are over carbonated).
Smells of vanilla infused bourbon, sweet caramel/toffee and some funky dried fruits/dates. Nice.
The taste is quite similar to the smell. There is a healthy dose of vanilla bourbon that, while strong, lends itself nicely to this beer. The caramel/toffee sweetness is most definitely there in the form of a massive malt body to back up that bourbon (nice to see this after having had many bourbon beers where the malts just can’t stand up to the bourbon). The alcohol is present, no question, most likely from the bourbon aging. This, however, is not an impediment with this beer. Dates and other similar candied fruit sort of flavors also float around in the background. Some oak presence. This beer just hits all the right spots.
Mouthfeel is very rich, overly carbonated at first (give it some time to settle and it is much more divine) and satisfying.
While this is a sipper for sure, I am always sad once my glass hits empty with a beer like this. As such, I cannot rate the drinkability any less than excellent.
Highly recommended. This is still a favorite beer of mine. With that said, here is how I rank the current Angel’s Share editions:
06 Bourbon > 06 Brandy > 07 Bourbon > 07 Brandy.
06 Bourbon was on tap for the Toronado BW fest and blew most everything else away. The other 3 I’ve had side by side a couple of times, and the ranking seems to stay the same. golubj (936), Redwood City, California, USA Jul 5, 2008 Bottle from early 2008 release. Dark brown / black pour with light brown head. Aroma is woody, nice bourbon, vanilla, chocolate, and light roast. The flavor is the same, very intense; sweet malt and vanilla / bourbon dominate. Enjoyed it. grimreeser (602), Minnesota, USA Jul 4, 2008 Pours a dark dark brown wiith a large tan head. Aroma of dark fruit, vanilla, wood, and alcohol. Nice sweetness, good stuff. DragonStout (1102), Orlando, Florida, USA Jul 4, 2008 thanx to Gumby for sharing this.Poured a nice dark brown color with a small, lacing khaki head. The nose was sweet, with dark fruits,whiskey and some chocolate. Flavor was great. Vanilla, darkfruits, and some woodiness.The balnce was great.Nothing dominating, you can taste and feel it all.A slight warming going down.Thanx Mike. Hophead22 (51), Redlands, California, USA Jul 3, 2008 Ooops, had this rating under the regular Angels share, D’oh. Still good. 750Bottle. Huge beer. Had it right after I had 120min IPA and it had a much stronger flavor and aroma. Very heavy, dark and sweet. I enjoyed it thoroughly, although it was a bit much for my drinking companions. Super glad I able to get my hands on some, thanks Ben.
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