Sprecher Bourbon Barrel Imperial Stout

Brewed by Sprecher Brewing Company
Style: Imperial Stout
Glendale, Wisconsin USA

Name: Imperial Stout, BA
Date: 06/23/2007
Mode: Bottle
Source: Tasting, RBSG 2007

clear dark brown, wispy tan head, dark chocolate and sweet vanilla bourbon aroma, dark chocolate flavor balanced with sweet bourbon, lots of vanilla sweetness, oaky character adds some bitter like balance,

Aroma: 7/10; Appearance: 7/10; Flavor: 7/10; Palate: 8/10; Overall: 15/20
Rating: 3.7/5.0
Drinkability: 7/10
Score: **4

1 liter bottle. Poured a dark black color with an averaged sized off white head. Aromas of oaky wood, light vanilla, chocolate, roast, and bourbon. Tastes of wood, vanilla, bourbon, dark chocolate, and caramel. Alcohol content hidden. Easy to drink to this one.

(1L Bottle) Pours a dark brown body with a small creamy tan head. Aroma of toasted marshmallow , chocolate, caramel, and some dark fruit. Flavor of light roastiness, caramel, and some hints of bourbon. Thin in the body for an Impy.

Bottle at the RBSG grand tasting on 6/23/07: Pours an opaque black with dark brown edges and a thin tan ring of head. Aroma of sweet sugary caramel with some earthy esters and a touch of butterscotchy bourbon. Body starts fairly full and sugary caramel sweet with some earthy dark caramel and chocolate malt before an oaky, fairly viscous bittersweet finish. An interesting brew, but needs more full malty flavor and not sugary adjuncts.

Bottle… RBSG 07… Pours near black with a small, creamy, beige head. Notes of milk chocolate, cookie dough, tobacco, vanilla, sour mash and charcoal in the nose. The flavor is all sweet chocolate and vanilla with mild bourbon warmth and bitterness. Medium-bodied and lightly creamy with soft carbonation. Chocolaty, whiskey finish.

Murky, very dark brown color with a moderate tight bubbled creamy tan head. Roasted malt, malted milk, caramel, coffee and chocolate liqueurs and bourbon oak aromas. Aroma has a bit too much alcohol in it. Smooth and silky in feel, which seems to thicken and get more mouth-coating and syrupy as it warms. Lots of caramel in the flavors with burnt sugar and a pale malt sweetness in the background. Light oak, the bourbon seems to be present in the very beginning and in the linger along with the roasted malt. An after dinner sipper.

Bottle hinged top from River’s Bend. Poured a dark brown color with a moderate frothy brown head that mostly lasted and produced sticky legs and good lacing. Good dark chocolate malt and sweet woody bourbon aroma. Medium to full body with a creamy texture. Complex dark chocolate stout flavor with a smooth bourbon woody bittersweet finish of long duration. Very well balanced barrel stout.

Pours onyx with brown head. Nose is dark malt, chocoff, oaky, figgy fruit, nuts, ovaltine, mild vanilla and cookies and cream Hershey bars. Tastes dark malty, very cherry/blackberry, with oaky cognac, and a complex palate. Stays fruity, with heavy black/blue/cherry berry flavors, a rich oaky bourbon flavor, and dark malt, molasses, nuts, and merlot as it warms. The finish is very much like a nice merlot/port hybrid, with the blackberry and cherry coming out to play with the dark malt and cacao. This one is a doppleganger, and a very good one at that. I had my doubts that it would be worth the pricetag, but it was, either as a beer or as a wine. This one is rated way too low, and I give my PA guys props for recognizing that this one is very good. Those who think this is thin-bodied should go bang Rosie O’Donnell, and shame on those giving this less than 3.5 ratings. Get off your Sprecher lambasting binge high-horses, and rate your own beers, without having others who rated before you give you reach-arounds, both ratingly and otherwise. This beer proves to me that PA raters are the best and most educated in the entire world.