Tyranena Devil Over A Barrel

Formerly brewed at Tyranena Brewing
Style: Imperial/Strong Porter
Lake Mills, Wisconsin USA

[ 7.2.08] Pours a thinner near black with a thin creamy beige head. Smells like a cup of coffee made with fresh ground beans. Mmm thats one of the best coffee stouts I’ve ever had... ::ahem::: I mean porters. Medium body, on the lighter side, creamy and watery at the same time [just like coffee, neat trick] with simple light big-bubbled carbonation. The flavor is so perfectly balanced.... vanilla, perfect roasted coffee beans, touch of chocolate. Not overly sweet either. A little bit of sour cream (the oatmeal no doubt) and bourbon in the finish. I love it, so easy drinking...8.4.10.5.18 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [rerate 11.2.09] Bottle at least a year old. Pours a creamy opaque dark chocolate color with a fizzy tan head that fades into a fine dense froth. Aroma of oatmeal, coffee, sugar and cream, smells like a hearty breakfast, really delicious smelling, the bourbon is very light but well integrated. Flavor is quite different than I remember, also better than the severely oxidized bottle I brought with me to share in Belgium, creamy chocolate, light coffee with a oat and bourbon aftertaste, actually has turned the corner and aged nicely, the coffee is basically gone which was the most astringent part back in when I tasted this vintage in Feburary, light sour cream, watered down coffee, finishing with dark chocolate and a lasting boozy bourbon burn, but in general everything is much toned done and way smoother. Medium bodied, on the fuller side, creamy with faint sizzling carbonation, not sticky or syrupy in the least. Happy with this one because the bottle I opened 10 months ago had me very disappointed. 8.4.8.4.16

In short: A way superior session stout/porter. Rich roasted and fruity flavours with superb fresh tasty hopping. Splendid
How: Bottle 12oz, thanks to the simultaneous generosity of 4 or 5 traders, you know who you are.
The look: Black body topped by a large tan head with medium retention
In long: Nose of freshly baked chocolate cake. Body is full, as full as I’ve felt for a beer of that gravity. Taste has the usual elements of the stout/porter genre, roastiness, roasted coffee beans, cacao, dark fruits and everything. Simply describing the flavour spectrum doesn’t do this beer justice. It is really rich in flavour and each flavour element finds its own little spot. Rich cake mouthfeel. Rich malted body perfectly balanced by a strong bitter finish. But wait there’s more. A lot of hops and then some more. The hopping has this fresh green hops flavour. Surprising astringency in the finish. Drink it soon as I think its fresh hopping feeling is what makes it go from an excellent stout/porter to a fantastic stout/porter. Wow, what a kick-ass session stout/porter. Totally satisfying. This is an irresistible beer and that devil dude really knows the good spots to hang out, and god knows that in a few years we’ll be hanging around together a lot.

A coffee story. Bubbly white head on black. Coffee aroma. Lace. Sour element. Bourbon is contained, more oak notes and accentuated coffee flavour. Complex.

12oz bottle from Mrthirstyneck - thanks, Shane! I’ve really been looking forward to this one, as I love coffee, dark beers, and barrel aging (yes, for a "fad" I’m still on board). While I confess to being mildly disappointed, I’m pretty sure my expectations were way too high. So, the positives. This is a very well balanced beer in terms of the barrel presence, with very subtle notes of wood and bourbon that don’t at all interfere with the base beer. The same holds true for the coffee, which isn’t quite as sharp and roasty as I prefer but which is nicely integrated all the same. My basic sense is that this one doesn’t have quite enough personality at the base to sustain it - Dirty Old Man and Devil Made Me Do It come across better as porters, whereas this one is a bit too top-heavy as it were. Clearly I still think it’s very good, since I’m giving it a 3.8, but it’s not quite the home run I was hoping for.

12 oz bottle shared with sammy and hyde. hydes bottle. pours dark brown with a nice tan head. coffee and bourbon with some dark malts for the aroma. coffee, bourbon and chocolate flavours. some bitterness. a nice brew but it wasnt the best coffee beer of the day and wasnt the best bourbon beer of the day. still top notch stuff though. thanks for the share hyde.

Black with a tan head that recedes to a ring around the glass, but leaves some lacing. Smell of coffee with cream, some smoke, but I don’t know if I could distinguish bouron out of it if I didn’t know it was bourbon. Taste of coffee, bitter chocolate, some bourbon, a little oak and vanilla. Coffee is definitely the predominant taste, just like how it was in the fresh Devil Made Me Do It. Less than medium carbonation with a full body.

12oz Bottle. Noses in an acidic church coffee, backed with slightly stale espresso beans coated in cheap, grainy carob-chocolate. It’s not the worst coffee aroma ever, but it’s a harsh, acidic, slightly old and dusty and not entirely desirable. It’s fresh, but in a Dunkin’ Donuts way, not the just fresh-roasted around the corner from top grade Peruvian stock way. Meh. Pours rather deep black-brown, with a mahogany fringe and a nicely lacing tannish head. Flavor starts from that okay coffee flavor and builds some character. The harshness of the beans still carries through and mars what I think is a decent layer of chocolate cake, oatmeal cookies, and cream. Decent malt profile signed with a strong bit of oak. A good leaf of hop comes fast on the backend for immediate balance. I’m mildly perplexed by this beer. The relatively lighter bodied lets some of the fruitier coffee characters show. I don’t know. Coffee for coffee’s sake isn’t really worth it. It’s got to be great coffee flavor. I’m not a fan of coffee beers that use beans, there’s just the wrong kind of extraction. I also find the gummier, juicier hop flavors wax over the lingering malt and barrel character in the end. A little bit of mess really. You’ve got the sub-par coffee flavor starting first and riding over the top, a decent malt bill fighting for attention, barrel character searching for a home and rather out of place amount of hops muddling up the back end. This is pretty much Wisconsin’s tamer version of Founder Kentucky Bourbon Breakfast Stout. At least the alcohol stays tame in this one. I don’t think the blending really helped this beer much.

Bottle @ ORL throwdown, courtesy of dchmela. This pours black with a thin tan head. Huge coffee on the nose! This smell is just incredible, coffee, bourbon, oak, chocolate and a touch of sweetness. Flavor has the same elements, but they are all just balanced so nicely. The coffee doesn’t take over, nor does the bourbon and oakiness. A little sweet in flavor, but with a dry finish. A touch thin in the mouth. I get a kick of hops at the end, where a slight numbness/tingle from the hops sets in. This is just fantastic. For a beer that has a huge amount of "hotwords" going for it (oatmeal, coffee, bourbon barrel, imperial) the most amazing thing is the balancing act they pull off. Incredibly enjoyable.