Jackie O's Bourbon Barrel Wood Burner

12.7 oz bottle

I love smoked (or in German, rauch) beers. They're one of my favorite styles, and probably one of the least popular, at least in the US, styles of beer on the market. Which means that very few breweries will make large batch smoke beers - they don't fly off shelves.

Bourbon barrel imperial stouts, on the other hand, fly off shelves - at least the good ones do. I also love the style and tend to buy primarily this style.

So when Jackie O's combined the 2 styles, I was more than intrigued.

Bourbon Barrel Wood Burner (BBWB) pours black, and dark enough so that very little light shines through it. It's thick, but not the thickest beer I've ever seen. The head is a light mocha (think like the brownish-white foam on top of a cappuccino).

It smells like burnt brown sugar. And I don't mean burnt in a bad way. Kind of like cookies that have been left in the oven slightly too long so they become crispier on the edge than they were meant to be, taken out just before they actually burn.

There's a bit of that burnt brown sugar in the taste as well, along with cocoa. The smoke reveals itself towards the end as a smokey, bitter afterthought that fades fairly quickly. I wish it was more balanced throughout. Nice thickness. Again, not the thickest, but it plays well with the flavors.

Overall, a really enjoyable bourbon barrel smoked stout. BBWB is a solid offering from Jackie O's but pales in comparison to the first beer I had from them: Dark Apparition with Nuts at Extreme Beerfest in Boston. I'm hoping Bourbon Barrel Brick Kiln with Nuts lives up to that level.

Rating; 8.6/10

Night Shift Santilli

This is an IPA I've really been looking forward to try.

I first heard of Night Shift while checking out a bottle shop near Trillium Brewing Co. in Boston, MA. I regret not picking up a couple of cans while I was there, but to be fair I had just spend about $80 on Trillium beer that day. Happy that when my friends Matt and Tim went up to Boston not too long ago for PAX East that they were able to bring me back a can of this and Night Shift Morph.

Santilli pours a mellow yellow with a white head. Carbonation is visible. It's a little hazy, but not the orange juice density of some other IPAs I've had.

On the nose, Santilli is floral and grassy, a bit of citrusy/peachy/slightly tropical back notes.

On first taste, there is, as in the nose, a lot of floral and grassy notes. Clean, dry, bitter, hoppy finish. Not a lot of fruit. A touch, maybe of orange-y sweetnesss, but not a ton - it's definitely in the background. Moderate carbonation. Smooth.

Overall a decent beer. Not my favorite, but still above average.

Rating: 7.3/10

Wicked Weed French Toast Stout

Traded for this with a guy in North Carolina. Have always wanted to try this, just happened to get lucky.

Pours from the can like dark maple syrup - amber hues with a very light brown head.

Strong cinnamon on the nose. This doesn't smell as sweet as I thought it would. Kind of like french toast, but not really.

Tastes very strongly of cinnamon - this, like the smell, tastes a lot less sweet than I thought it would. It does remind me a bit of french toast though. There's vanilla as well - a nice touch, but it doesn't at all add any sweetness. Like french toast straight out of the pan with nothing on it. I guess I was hoping for maple syrup (which apparently is an ingredient). But it just tastes like cinnamon dough, just you know, thinner, because it's a liquid.

This is not a bad beer, in fact it's very solid. Just not what I thought it would be based on the can. I think tweaking the adjunct ratios would help it greatly as I think it's a great idea.

Overall Rating: 7.5

Central Waters Cassian Sunset

One of my favorite styles of beer is the bourbon barrel aged stout. To be honest, it's really tough to find good quality bourbon barrel stouts, short of the yearly Bourbon County Brand Stout release.

This is an example of a good bourbon barrel stout, though not 100% for the reason of being bourbon barrel aged.

Cassian Sunset is a "Stout aged in used oak bourbon barrels with coffee, vanilla beans, and cinnamon added", brewed by Central Waters brewing company in Amherst, Wisconsin.

It pours a dark brown - not quite the black I was expecting. I put the flashlight to the back of the glass and could see a reddish light through the back of it.

On the nose I'm getting lots of caramel, raisin, and cinnamon - some of the caramel sweetness, I'm sure, is the malt playing with the vanilla bean. Not getting any particularly strong bourbon or coffee scents.

First sip: all of these flavors work well with each other. And it's not particularly overly sweet - in fact it's one of the less sweet bourbon barrel stouts I've had. Vanilla and raisin up front with drier cinnamon and black coffee in the back. Fairly smooth. A little thin for my likes, but the flavor is good.

To be honest, probably would have guessed this was a dark Belgian ale or American style barleywine based both on the taste (kind of getting some stout malt qualities, but they're not exceptionally prominent), thickness, and looks.

In the end, a solid offering. I think had this beer been thicker, all of the flavors would have been accentuated and it would have brought the beer together better. An imperial milk stout/oatmeal might have been a better choice for the base to age in those barrels with those adjuncts - again a lot of this is personal preference.

Overall Rating: 8.8/10

Omnipollo Noa Pecan Mud Cake Stout

11.2 oz bottle poured into a Mikkeller Bangkok mini-wine glass.

Omnipollo is one of the few true premier craft breweries in Europe that is well known by US craft enthusiasts, and probably the only Swedish brewery I could name. One of my favorite beers of all time is a collaboration between Omnipollo and Oklahoma's Prairie Brewing (see my #5 from this recent post)

Noa Pecan Mud Cake pours thick and viscous-y black with a dark cocoa slight head. I can tell this is going to be a thick one even before I taste it.

Smells like chocolate and pecan pie. Smell wise, it's tough to get more excited about a stout. I can tell this is going to be sweet. Happy I saved this for dessert.

The beer is as thick (think borderline motor oil, but in a good way) as I thought it would be based on taste, and spot on for the flavor profile. It tastes like a chocolate pecan pie, but it's not as sweet as I thought it would be, which is a good thing. The pecan "nuttiness" does a great job of balancing out the chocolate/sugary sweetness. For it's thickness, it's really smooth - the moderately low carbonation works well with the flavors.

A really spot on beer. Something I'd normally love to get my hands on more of if it weren't for the price - around $12 for a 11.2 oz bottle (normally I like to pay less than $1/oz for something unless it's really special). Figured I'd take a chance on this one though.

And it was a definite home run.

Overall Rating: 9.8/10