Full Sail Black Gold Imperial Stout Bourbon Barrel Aged

Brewed by Full Sail Brewing Company
Style: Imperial Stout
Hood River, Oregon USA

Serve in Snifter

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UPDATED: MAY 17, 2007 Eclipsed mahogany. Gorgeous dollop of fine-sized off-white bubbles. Perfumey alcohol and nutty tannins line the aroma with softer hints of vanilla, chocolate pudding, port, and toasted marshmallows. Sharp but dense carbonation. Opens with an understated but snug tannic squeeze laced with bright alcohol flavors. Deeply toasted oak enhances the immense wall of char while the alcohol warms the face and cleanses the palate. Thickset cakey malt center withstands the abundance of char with ease. Faintly slick dried plum flavors are highlighted by a roasty edge of acidity. Significant level of airiness soon exerts itself while being compounded by the pervasive char and alcohol, but it’s more than tolerable and doesn’t weaken the body at all. Instead, it squelches any soppiness that might arise. Attenuation is near perfect here and the squeaky-clean bourbon character deposits a dainty trail of butter toffee and vanilla softness. But the utilization of the oak is what truly defines this. Just stacks upon stacks of crisp char and a full array of oak-derived nuances. Finishes dryly roasty and lightly tannic with a vibrantly toasty oak aftershock. I could nitpick this by saying the carbonation could be softer and the alcohol less forceful, but that would be silly. Pretty solid brew.

UPDATED: MAY 8, 2006 Bomber from Liquidsolutions. Let me say first that overall I liked this one--basically. I like the bb style ales so I’m biased to be sure. Why does the label call this a "malt beverage aged in....". Malt beverage?...like Smirnoff...."aged in oak bourbon barrels". Call that what you will but I don’t like seeing that on a bottle of beer like this one. Bourbon and more bourbon is the thing with this brew--aroma and taste. The aftertaste reminded me of a bourbon and water that was sitting unattended for a few hours that you mistook for your own drink---oops, shoudn’t have drank that! I guess I couldn’t get past the thin body...and I mean thin, like a malt beverage. I’ll leave a few bottles in the cellar for a while and re-visit. Right now I’d say it’s over-rated by a long shot. Doesn’t even come close to matching Goose Island BB Stout....no contest. This stuff is too thin to win. Of course that’s just my opinion.

This is one serious beer. From the minute it hits the glass you can tell it means business. The first thing I noticed was the strong bourbon aroma. There is a rich carmel and bourbon flavor as it rolls over your toungue. As strong as this beer is, it finishes remarkably smooth. I did find it a bit easier to handle the colder it was. Not something I enjoy at room temperature, but one of my all time favorites when just above freezing.

Bottle: Dark brown with bourbon colored edges, light head and perfect level of carbonation. The nose is clean and fragrant with sweet cherry, vanilla, dutch chocolate, oak, sweet fragrant daiginjo type fruity qualities blend with a perfect balance of bourbon. Light tropical notes. The flavor is more tinged full of alcohol with a malty roast astringency with salt/vanilla notes and a dull mouthfeel. The finish is roasty and full, but it doesn’t have that deep umami fullness that I crave in a perfectly made beer. Drinks better after a good sample. Thanks to harlequinn for brining me a half case of this stuff.

[Bottle] This is by far one of the best beers I have tasted in a long long time. The araoma hits you this is not a ordinary brew. The dark black almost jet black color is awesome. Litle to no head but you need a fork to eat this beer. The flavors of chocolate, bourbon, coconut and more are just awesome. A good time sipping beer. Just a truly great bevergae to drink on a cold winters night. Hope to get a few more to store for the future.

Bottle courtesy of acertain. Wow! This is a really good, drinkable BA Imp. Stout. Much like GI Bourbon County, but a little less malt. Tons of bourbon, chocolate, coconut. Don’t know if I’ve ever tasted more coconut in a beer. EXCELLENT. Wouldn’t change a thing.

22oz from Larry Pitonka. Thick chocolate, mollasses smell from the bottle. Pours a dark black color with a light tan head. Thick and oily. little to no lacing. Nose of vanilla, bourbon, coconut, chocolate malt, molasses, and bourbon. Initial flavor is way too much bourbon, seems overdone and trying to jump on the barrel aged band wagon. Light flavors of vanilla, chocolate, coconut, malted milk balls come in. AS the glass is able to sit and air, the bourbon seems to settle and mix with the beer. More flavorful aromas and sips come. Lots more chocolate and coconut, vanilla beans, some dark fruits shine through and this beer becomes more of a solid brew then just a BA novelty. It leaves a heavy velvet coating on your tonogue and a sticky residue that is in no way bad. A light alcohol warmth in the throat and alight bourbon kick.

Tasted at tasting room. Pours thick, tan head on top of dark, black beer. Held up to light and could see slight shades of ruby gleaming through. Personally, I like to not see through my stouts. Aroma is unmistakably bourbon. I love it! Wow! Flavor is full bourbon also. Quickly shifts to wood, then chocolate, then quickly back to bourbon. Looking deeply into the glass, I was able to find almond/amaretto flavors, as well as what I could only identify as toasted coconut. Slight alcoholic burn at the end, that’s o.k. This is a nice beer. Taste’s a little young, could benifit from aging for a short while (three months or so). Well done!

Dark brown near black body with minimal creamy khaki head. Lots of aroma, cherry, coffee, vanilla, chocolate, some bourbon and oak. Flavour is strong and sweet with woody bourbon, cherries and some brown sugar. Very complex and tasty. Finish is a little sweet for me but other than that this beer is exceptional.

UPDATED: NOV 25, 2006 Bottle, Feb 2006.

Rating 200, and this is a marvellous way to celebrate it.

From the bottle, pours deep dark brown, almost black in my glass with burgandy highlights , of course, virtually no head.

This thing has a huge aroma, heavy bourbon, aged oak, french-roasted coffee, vanilla, dark cherry, hints of pipe smoke -- ah, what a marvellous aroma. I wanted to just inhale for the longest time, lest the flavor disappoint, and how with an aroma like that, how could the flavor possibly live up? It did, and then some. Again strong bourbon, drying woody tannins, dark-roasted coffee and bitter chocolate, sweet dark sugar, and hints of pear, cherry, vanilla, and myriad other fruits, adequately bitter into the finish with the bourbon making a decisive return as well. The mouthfeel is splendid - warmingly alcoholic but incredibly smooth and not the least bit harsh, a lovely after-dinner sipping beer.

I’m tremendously impressed; this is my new top-rated beer and I’m going to be hunting out a number of additional bottles first thing tomorrow. 10/4/9/5/18=4.6 November 2006: I’m worried about how this one is aging. I cracked open another bottle today, and while it was certainly very good, and while it impressed the heck out of the relatively-beer-saavy guests that I shared it with, it wasn’t quite what I remembered. The vanilla is coming forward, the booziness mellowing a bit, but the rich malts aren’t really picking up the slack and we’re left with a beer that is rather heavy on the "flavoring" without quite all the substance that it needs to back that flavoring up. This one would have pulled a 4.1 or so had I tasted it for the first time tonight. I’ve bumped the original rating down to 4.4, in an effort to balance a number of changes: some of in the evolution of my palate (which make a down-grading valid in my view), which has "aged" as well -- and some from changes in the beer (which should not merit downgrading, in my opinion). I’m not at all certain that time is treating this one well and I’m inclined to visit the remaining half-dozen bottles in my cellar sooner rather than later.