16oz Swingtop bottle, labeled "Michigan Brewing Company, Russian Imp. Bourbon barrel, aged since 2006." Aroma swings out with bourbon tightly nestled into caramel, coffee and sweet red sugars. Mature and alcoholic. Pours in a mahogany-black with a brown fringe and no head. Flavor develops brash metallic whiskey. Holy shit. Jim Beam galore. After a brazen alcoholic explosion, burns the palate with coarse barrel char and then inexplicable sweetness. Out of balance. Too much barrel. Not much beer left. Bourbon, barrel, alcohol and sugar sum up this beer. Faint dusty hop leafs feebly attempt to resurrect a semblance of beer. Flat. This base beer, which was good, is lost. Thanks Sean for yet another rare Michigan beer!

sampled at MBGWF....poured big and black with a thin tan head....aromas of roasted malt, chocolate, and very little in the way of bourbon....medium bodied with a strong chocolate component and high bitter roast quotient. can’t seem to find much of any barrel aging qualities in this. perhaps they were too subtle for me to notice at this point.

Nice big thick black body. Smelled roasty and boozy. This tasted just liked I expected it would. Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Sweet brown sugar, balancing hops, slightly boozy and oily. Pretty good.

Nice thick body thanks to the bourbon barrel aging. Malty and burned, with a good balance. Nice and warming, though didn’t think there was to much alcohol in it. Probably hidden under the complexity of the Impy stout. Good brew.

Bottle shared with tupalev, swoopjones & rudolf -- courtesy of swoopjones. Unlabeled bottle -- hand-bottled perhaps? Pours a totally flat dark brown with no head at all. Aroma of bourbon, roasted malt, brown sugar, dark fruit, maple syrup and more -- very nice! Flavour follows the aroma but is quite flat but not bad tasting, pretty boozy though. Oily, watery mouthfeel, medium bodied. A small sample to sip for a while is all you need. Thanks for sharing Mike!