Aging and Reviewing Stouts

This past week I was given the opportunity to contribute to the BrewStuds blog (wearebrewstuds.com) to discuss the topic of aging and cellaring beers….with a heavy emphasis on Stouts! Mark from Digital Third Coast marketing developed an infographic about Aging and Cellaring beers and I wrote a blog post about aging Stouts that accompanied the Infographic. You can read the entire article here.  I hope to guest blog at times and hopefully have others guest blog here as well!   It was a great opportunity and I was happy to do it!   I’d love to hear about your experiences about aging Stouts with a nod towards those Stouts that seem to age well!   I have a few in the Stout House (aka my beer fridge) that are over a year old and ready to sample!  Since we’re moving into the Stout Drought, I’ll have time to pull some of the older ones out and give them a review! Looking forward to that!!

On to the weekly reviews:

Goose Island Brewing Co. – 2015 Bourbon County Brand Stout (BCBS)

April 16, 2016 – I hadn’t planned on reviewing BCBS this weekend; however, one of my Instagram friends (@barrelagedbarry) who always seems to be drinking the Stouts on my want list, reported that the BCBS that he just had was infected, as it had a metallic sour aroma and flavor. The label on his bottle was dated 04Nov15.  I checked my stock and they are all 11Nov15 so I thought it would be worthwhile to perform a “quality check” on at least one of them.

I took it out of the fridge and let it sit for an hour to warm a bit. I opened it and gave it a pour, nice and black, with a small head that almost immediately disappeared. It had a nice bourbon nose. The first sip was wonderful.  It was as if my tongue was painted with BCBS!  Nice and thick with a nice smooth bourbon layer.  The aftertaste was smooth and full of a bourbon taste.   This is a big boy Bourbon Barrel Aged Stout!  It is a 14.3%ABV Stout that doesn’t really hide it, as it is nice and warming and gets more complex as it warms. The Goose Island brewers, for all the unfortunate quality issues that have bedeviled them in 2015, got this one right!

Stout of this World rating: 4.5 bombers

Southern Tier Brewing – Chokolat Oranj

April 17, 2016 – I’ve had Southern Tier’s Choklat on tap and was impressed both with the amazing chocolate aroma and the good taste. When I saw Choklat Oranj go on sale, I made a beeline to the Stout shelf, picked one up and looked forward to another pleasant tasting experience.

After resting in the kitchen for an hour to warm it, I opened it and gave it a pour. A good jet black pour with a good solid head that remained. The aroma was all chocolate, with a hint of citrus. So far, so good. The first sip was thin and not what I expected.   Another sip, same thought. Every time I take a drink, my nose gets a great aroma and my mouth gets a thin, nondescript stout where I struggled to find either Chocolate or Orange.  I continued to drink hoping to find a point where the taste matched the nose, but unfortunately, I was never able to find that spot that brought me back to my Choklat experience. Certainly not bad, but I was hoping for a much better tasting experience than I had. The aroma was the winner here, but unfortunately, this review is much about taste, which was a solid average.
Stout of this World bomber: 3.75 bombers