Americas Bourbon Barrel Imperial Stout

Formerly brewed at Americas Brewpub
Style: Imperial Stout
Aurora, Illinois USA

Serve in Snifter

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UPDATED: DEC 6, 2008 Bottle from strykzone, thanks Dave Black ass pour with a very small brown head. Aroma is full of bourbon and an odd roasted malt smell. Flavor hits you with bourbon and then you get an odd tart flavor followed by a pretty thin and poor stout. This one is not what it could be. Work on the underlying beer before any barrel aging.

Liquified tree roots and sap, Folgers coffee grounds, fermenting cherries, wet cigars, molten GoodYear tires, and the horribly sour flavor of bottom-shelf bourbon. Made me wince after every sip. Harsh on the palate. I love strong beers, but this was just difficult to drink.   I had to really push myself to finish the bottle.

I honestly wish I could rate this at less than .5. Quite possibly the worst craft beer I’ve ever tasted. Pours inky black with quickly disappating head and lots of floating yeasties, smells like sour glue and death. I couldn’t pay attention to the body of the beer because of its vinegary and unpleasantly funky flavor. Pass this one up if you see it! Drain pour after one sip.

Pours black with no head other than a thin ring at the edge of the glass. Rich aroma of roast malt, chocolate and bourbon. The flavor follows the aroma and is delivered on a smooth creamy palate. Pretty much typical for the style.

What a weird wild beer. Kept my attention no doubt. Pours a deep black with a very small head and some lace. The aroma is tequila, in fact we went and opened a bottle of tequila and smelled it side by side and the aroma was very similar, but this stuff was more pungent. Eventually the aroma becomes a little more nuanced with bits of smokiness and fruitiness and a good deal of sweet malt, but that tequila sticks around till the end. The flavor has some green apple right up front that fades as this warms there is a really nice bourbon note, I mean the flavor is nice, but it tastes like expensive bourbon. There is some earthiness and raisin with a good deal of sourness. There is some roasty and vanilla character balanced with a bright cherry fruitiness along with some oxidized port wine-ish notes. There are just a lot of things going on in this beer and most of them are fairly well balanced, but I simply refuse to believe that this is what the brewer was aiming for. For as thick as the pour looked the beer is strangely thin. I would love to pick up another bottle just to see if ours was some sort of bizarre happenstance.

Weird beer. At first aroma is straight tequila. In the flavor, it’s still there but not as much. Bourbon actually comes through there and is nice. It’s distinct from the tequila-two separate entities. Aroma is smokey, and a bit fruity as well. A bit sour flavor. Tequila is interesting, could be viewed as old, slightly oxidized RIS like a harvey’s. Lots going on here.

Draft @ the brewpub. Pours a black color with a small tan head. Has a roasted malty chocolate and bourbon aroma. Roasted malty chocolate and bourbon flavor with hints of vanilla. Has a roasted malty chocolate finish with hints of bourbon and vanilla in the aftertaste.

Dark, chocolatey pour from a bottle that looked like it might contain some budget chug-a-lug. A rich, herbal, caramel bourbon scent greeted my nose - great aroma. The flavor was good, but a little odd or off in some way. I noticed bourbon, grain, tobacco, and something like sour white wine. Thanks again to Adrian for passing along a bottle of this.

I have never tried the base beer this is made from but this is a great example of why bourbon barrel aging is not always a good thing. The black color is nice enough but w/ only a tiny head of dark tan foam, this really leaves to be a lot to be desired in the looks department. The nose is mildly tart but not really in a nice, fruity or cherry-like way, just a bit sour and lactic w/ some oxidized cardboard notes as well. A pronounced tartness greets the tong at first and wanes to an old coffee bitterness. This is sticky on the tongue but still manages to come across as a bit watery w/ its highly subdued carbonation and twinge of alcohol heat. At least on paper, this has all the elements that make bourbon barrel aged beer great--slightly oxidized complexity, a hint of sour funk, some booze and oak--but all of these elements manifest themselves in various unpleasant ways.

12 oz bottle a bonus from msante79. Black withg a very tiny cinnamon head, only a bare hint of a puff as the bottle was opened. Nose of light bourbon, chocolate, and a bit of an off note, not like an infection but maybe a hint of diacetyl. Flavor is chocolate and a medicinal note.

UPDATED: APR 7, 2010 Bottle from Binny’s. Pours fairly dark, but seems a little thin for the style. Lots and lots of unabashed bourbon in the aroma. Plenty of wood, vanilla, molasses, and chocolate. The palate is slick and medium. Bourbon is overly obvious which probably helps out the beer. Besides the creamy, wooden, vanilla complexity I get a little lactic sourness and light chocolate. The palate seems a little thin for what it is. This is another lighter, very overwhelmingly bourbon tasting stout.