Barley Johns The Dark Knight (Returns)

Just have to say WOW to start! Had it on tap at the pub in a small snifter. Poured almost jet black with a small dark tan head. Aroma is wonderful: bourbon, chocolate, coffee, vanilla. Taste was basically the same wonferul flavors as the aroma. I just loved the balance of all of it. The bourbon wanted to become to much at times but contained itself. Re-Rate: Time to give it that 5.0 that it deserves and I was too much of a wuss to give it the first time for fear of what I know not. It was even better the second time around. YES!!!!!!!!

Enjoyed a sample of this one at Tasting in the Woods, Part Deux. This beer was the surprise of the night for me, and a beer that I found to be so delicious and drinkable, I was ready to book a flight to Minnesota. Pours to a slightly murky, black color, with a slight tan head, and a soft carbonation. The nose on this beer is incredible, with complex layers of aroma. Sweet malt, dark chocolate, vanilla, oak, bourbon, pepper, toffee, and light roast flood the nose. The plate is like silk on the tongue. Complex flavors of what was in the nose grab hold, and just do not let go. Lots of good chocolate, toffee, vanilla, bourbon, and coffee flavors. Dark Knight Returns ends with more of those wonderful, complex flavors up front, then ends with some dark roasty and peppery alcohol that lingers. Phenomenal beer.

A Beer.... Wait that isn’t correct. A dancing delight on your taste buds while soothing the inner beast elixer is more like it. This beer is on a level on it’s own. There is nothing like it nor would I want there to be. I won’t break it down to the individual notes and what not - Just know that it is somthing to enjoy and to add to the 1000 things you must do before you die.

Aged in a bourbon barrel and double fermented - Yum! Color is a solid black with some brownish highlights around the bottom. Small tannish head fades super fast and leaves very thin sheets of lace. Smell is like a chocolate-chocolate chip cookie soaked in cough sryup. It has a good strong sense of alcohol, with a really nice woody/earthy deep dark chocolate, with complex notes of molasess, black licorice, dried smokey plums, raisin, vanilla, and fresh wild flowery notes. Its what I would imagine a chocolate factory in an open wet forest would smell like with one nostril while the other nostril is under a cup of Nyquil. I could smell this all day. Quite an intoxicating aroma, no pun intended. Taste is complex, rich, and invigorating with a ton of deep dark chocolate, some molasses, fruity-like alcohol with a dark earthy quick bite of woodyness finding some hold about midway finishing with more complexing woody earth features of sweet malty tang and bitterness with notes of flowery spice like that of dulled mustard or ginger. Wow! The bourbon barrel worked its wonders on this brew. Fantastic! Very port-like in its character. Packs a big punch in flavor and alcohol, you can tell the alcohol is there but is mildly mellow and lends the feel to be smoother then you would think. Very rich, nearly full overall in mouthfeel with a welcoming smoothness that makes this dark knight a deadly easy drinkin' Porter. Super Yum!

First thanks, again, to master trader footbalm for hand bottling this and shipping it to me. On to the review. It says something about a person, I am not sure what exactly, when they spend 5 times as much on the nightly beer as they did on their dinner. It is with no shame that I admit to eating Mac and Cheese from a box for dinner (or as they say in Canada, Kraft DInner) and now I am pondering this beer that costs about $1 per ounce. Pitch black body, oily pour, a very nice small tan head that diminshes into a small ring of soapy little bubbles that cling to the glass and fight to never expire. The aroma is loaded with the typical bourbon barrel characteristcs: oak, vanilla, alcohol (bourbon of course), caramel, cherry, some citrus rounds teh whole beautiful bouquet out. The flavor, ahh the flavor. The other two Barley John’s that I tried were quite good, but this one is heads above those others. There are three distinct and each wonderful stages. First is the sense of alcohol, coffee, and choclate coverd cherries, then an tingling bitterness and alcohol warmth develop, finally everything comes together to create a luscious chcoclate, cherry, oak, bourbon, vanilla, and all that. Sure it is sweet, but it is not cloying or too syrupy. The palate is fantastic, full, assertive, warming, light teeth coating. This is a case of a much hyped beer deserving the hype. Brilliant and many kudos to the brewer and again to footbalm for helping so many devoted ber geeks enjoy this magnificent brew.