Epic Big Bad Baptist

Brewed by Epic Brewing Co. (Utah)
Style: Imperial Stout
Salt Lake City, Utah USA

Serve in Snifter

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Bottle shared at the RBWG in Austin. Dark pour with a small brown head. Aroma is dirty coffee, dark chocolate, and earthy. Taste is lots of coffee, soil, more chocolate, and just dirty and earthy.

Bottle. Pours a dark brown with no head. The aroma is smoke and roasted malt. Thick mouthfeel with smoke and roast. Not much going on with this one.

Release #4; Sampled February 2012
A vigorous pour into my small De Glazen Toren tulip produces a three finger thick, densely bubbled, darkly brown stained head. The beer is a concentrated, almost perfectly black color that shows quiet opaque. As I pour this I get rich notes of dark chocolate and spicy / toasted oak. An actual stop to inspect the nose yields deep, roasted, coffee notes (bright coffee notes actually), a deeply toasted grain character, light vanilla notes, blackened chocolate, cold espresso, some malt ball like notes, and perhaps a hint of oak woodiness and spiciness. The vanilla and and coffee notes, along with the rich dark malt base, makes me think of some sort of vanilla scented, coffee liquor. The oak / whiskey Barrel character is weird here, the spicy, woody oak was definitely quite prominent at the front of my first smell of the aroma, but it is now a lot harder to find and blends in with the ample coffee and toasted malt notes. This really smells a lot more like a coffee dessert drink of some sort than like a beer; the coffee aromatics are just so prominent. I do like that the coffee notes don’t quite get into acrid or sharp territory as the nose is quite smooth.

Rich feeling and viscous as it first hits the palate. The beer has a burnt sweetness to it that balances huge roast and coffee flavors, which really come to dominate the long finish of this beer. The bitterness in the finish is huge; some of it is hop derived, but a lot of it is contributed by the roasted malt and coffee notes that just cling to the palate and really dry out the finish. Toasted and even burnt whole grain toast notes are evident, though in truth it is like toast that has been burnt to the point that the fact that it is whole grain almost doesn’t matter. Noticeable vanilla note help to soften the burnt character at the front and through the middle of each sip; other oak flavors of spicy wood actually help to accentuate the almost harsh roasted character and the added astringency in the finish makes the lingering bitterness all that much more piquant. Some Bourbon like flavors contribute to the finish and seem to dry things out a touch more. Some nice, dark chocolate notes are noticeable in the middle after the beer warms up a bit, but it remains dominated by the coffee flavors, followed closely by the roasted notes.

With so much roast character, the sweet malt character could actually be quite a bit bigger here; to be well balanced, either the roasted / burnt notes need to be dialed back or the sweet / residual malt character needs to be increased. Still this is actually quite a tasty brew and I really like how subtle the Whiskey Barrel character is here; it really only plays a supporting role and could almost be overlooked. I am on the verge of getting a cold & this is certainly a good beer to kick off the fact that I am going to be on a self-imposed beer drought for the next week to recover. Despite being aggressively burnt in focus, I am actually enjoying this a fair amount; it could be so much more acrid and harsh than it is & it somehow is escaping that. I really like that this isn’t overly heavy or rich, on the other hand it makes it easier to drink a beer that is 11.1% abv, which isn’t necessarily a good thing either.

Thanks to Connie for the bomber, Batch #2. Poured deep, but not super deep brown with a tall, well-retained, creamy beige head. The aroma picked up sweet and slightly smoky whiskey, coffee, and vanilla, with a layer of cocoa and some soapy hops not far behind.. this kept going back to the coffee, and I’m not one to complain about that. The flavor opened with tangy oak and peppery whiskey, then went straight to fresh, well-roasted and mighty tasty coffee.. cocoa and vanilla were complementary, and stayed in the background for the most part.. back to roasty coffee and whiskey plus a deep-rooted alcohol warmth on the long finish.. an odd malty character showed right at the end, and knocked the score down 0.1. Heavier-bodied with higher, rolling carbonation on the palate.. the carbo kept it moving well through the mouth.. delicious stuff!

Appearance: Pours dark brown with a tan pinstripe of head. Looks thick.

Aroma: Old cold coffee, sugar faint whiskey.

Taste: Coffee, dark chocolate, tannins and booze. Finishes burnt bitter with a little alcohol.

Mouthfeel: Full bodied with creamy carbonation.

Overall: Pretty solid, but the coffee dominated the barrel/booze character to the point that I worked hard to find it.

Dark brown/black pour with dark tan head. Aroma of coffee, notablt espresso, chocolate and a hint of bourbon. Taste is espresso, chocolate and sweet roasted malts. Bourbon is lightly present. Creamy mouthfeel and a sweeter finish with no bitterness that most beers in this style have. Excellent beer!

Pour out of 22 oz bottle, release #3, thanks for picking this up Aaron. Thick oily black pour with nice creamy tan, tight bubbles with some bigger ones, definite alcohol legs sitting on the glass at the top of the pour. Aroma is intense, big and strong bourbon notes mixing nicely into vanilla, some deep espresso and dark chocolate notes mix into a mocha type smell, some dark burnt caramel notes, but really nice and apparent coffee and chocolate with bourbon starts it off well. Taste up front has huge, big espresso and roasted coffee bean, really nice tasting mixing into chocolate giving a nice Turkish coffee type flavor, going into sweet bourbon and vanilla, some nice slight chocolate and coffee notes, espresso bean again goes into some burnt toffee and caramel, touch of roasted malt, finishing fairly sweet but a bit dry as well. This is a great breakfast-type stout, really tasty.

Bottle shared by a friend. Black pour with a thin tan head. Strong coffee aroma that drowns out pretty much everything else. Very roasty and a bit vegetal. Sweet coffee and chocolate flavor with a big roasty finish. Not getting any barrel out of this one at all.

650ml bottle. Release #3. Pours a blackish brown with a big tan head that leaves some nice lacing. Coffee dominates the smell. I am not getting the bourbon and only slight cocoa. Coffee also dominates the flavor. I feel like the flavors aren’t meshing in this one. It just tastes like a coffee stout to the nth degree.

Lots of chocolate and coffeeflavor and aroma up front. Followed by whiskey heat. A good beer that would be improved by some cellaring.