Central Waters Brewers Reserve Bourbon Barrel Stout

Brewed by Central Waters Brewing Co.
Style: Imperial Stout
Amherst, Wisconsin USA

Serve in Snifter

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Pours a bright amber color with a small white head. Aromas are of ripe figs, sugars, cereal grains, and booze. Flavors are full and outstanding. Tastes like sweet cereal grains almost like grape nuts soaked in bourbon. Grainy with almost a rye bread like flavor as well as some dark fruit flavors. Finish is warm and boozy. Mouthfeel is decent,

12oz bottle, December 2011 vintage. Served at cellar temperature.

Pours dark brown with a small one finger beige head that dissipates quickly to a foamy ring. Leaves a few spots of lacing behind.

Aroma is primarily bourbon, vanilla, coffee and brown sugar, tagging along are notes of chocolate, caramel, molasses and dark fruits. Very good strength.

Flavor is rather sweet and features plenty of bourbon, vanilla, brown sugar, toffee, some coffee, chocolate, caramel, molasses and dark fruit, decent bit of alcohol. Finishes sweet.

Mouthfeel is medium-plus bodied, sticky, decent carbonation.

Best way to sum this one up is a liquid coffee cake drizzled with bourbon icing. Really unique in the world of barrel aged stouts. Very good, but it’s sweeter than I generally like my beers to be.

UPDATED: MAR 14, 2012 Vanille et bourbon dominent le profil sans laisser beaucoup de place aux autres éléments. Cependant c’est une domination assez cohérente et savoureuse. L’arrière-goût de fût de bourbon transporte la chaleur de l’alcool et son corps visqueux tapisse la bouche.

definate bourbon and roast smell. Intense and lasting flavor. Pretty boozy, but good.

Call me picky, but when it says ’bourbon barreI’ on the label, I want to taste the bourbon and in most cases (even the Founders KBS was a letwdown for me), I’m disappointed. This one though, really delivers and while bourbon is in the nose and is at the front of the palate, it isn’t overly or boozy. Lots of chocolate and malt in there as well, but it was the bourbon I was looking for and this one delivered.

UPDATED: FEB 21, 2012 I like this beer a lot. It has the look of molten caramel, and slides down the throat like a smooth cocktail of brown sugar and coffee. If this was the only beer I could ever drink again, I’d be cool with that.

This is a perfect example of a BA stout that is best served with some age, at cellar temp. I just grabbed a four pack, knowing that I’d cellar it, but I had to try out a fresh one of course. The booze, as noted by other reviewers, is a bit much. It doesn’t hit you like a Samael or a WWS but it’s there. Definitely nothing that a year of age couldn’t soften. The appearance is nice, looks like a glass of fresh brewed black coffee. Smells of toffee, bourbon, black licorice. Tastes too hot out of the fridge but after a good 20 minutes its quite pleasant, tastes like a good BA stout should. As I noted earlier, it’s good fresh, but gains a good deal of balance with time.

Bottle. Pours black without much head. Has a strong, enjoyable aroma of whiskey, coffee, and vanilla. It tastes very smooth and rich with little carbonation. The bourbon flavor is very noticeable in the aftertaste. It was quite tasty.

12oz. Bottle: Sweet aroma of Bourbon, vanilla, coconut, light chocolate, slight roasting, malt, and slight dark ripe fruit. Poured very dark brown/ruby in color with a small, creamy, dense, tan head that lasted throughout. Clear. Sparkling. A few large particles throughout. Good to very good lacing. Flavor is medium sweet and slightly bitter. Tastes of malt, Bourbon, light roasting, vanilla, light oak, slight chocolate, and some tar. Full body. Thick, viscous, then dry texture. Average carbonation. Malt, roast, light Bourbon, oak, chocolate, finish is dry. 9.5%ABV is completely hidden throughout.

Black w a small tan head limited lacing... Boozy vanilla aroma oak light bourbon... Lively boozy vanilla oak, very very very one note, the oak/wood/vanilla dominates... Medium full body, doesn’t really linger...