Pours opaque with a half inch of brown foam that retreats rather quickly. Lacing is sporadic, leaving minimal traces that stick.
Aroma has chocolate, smoky bourbon, and alcohol. Dark fruits, slight oak, vanilla, toffee, and more.
Taste is sweet up front but not overly. Brown sugar, molasses, chocolate, bourbon, oak, and vanilla all play a roll in the mouth, creating a fantastic journey for the taste buds.
Big mouth feel with mild carbonation, more than expected from a 3 year old bottle. Dries the palate a bit.
Not one of those cloying big stouts making it drinkable but best shared. Definitely a sipper but one that doesn't limit to a single serving. Enoy!
Aroma: 1st impression: Alcohol. 2nd impression: Alcohol. 3rd impression: Raisins. Some dark sweet (vanilla?) elements. Does not smell roasted, toasty. But I don't want to speak in the negative. It smells complicated, like a very dark (chocolate?) beer, but that isn't helpful.
Look: Pretty damn black. If held up to the light, there is about a 1/8 of copper brown translucence. Syrup cling of a thin lace to edges of glass- this suggests to me- the high alcohol that is has.
Taste......
Incredibly complicated. Roast up front, toast up front. Coffee esqe. Brown sugar. Smooth-oak? Hint of anise in back ground?
What's interesting is as complicated as it is, it's also... subtle and easily drinkable.
I was comparing this to DL, and my comment was I would drink this over a few hours by myself, but DL is always shared- because it's just to rich to drink by yourself. So... I'm digging this beer.
"Sometimes when I reflect back on all the beer I drink I feel ashamed. Then look into the glass and think about the workers in the brewery and all of their hopes and dreams. If I didn't drink this beer, they might be out of work and their dreams would be shattered. Then I say to myself, 'It is better that I drink this beer and let their dreams come true than selfish and worry about my liver.'" - Jack Handy