New England Imperial Stout Trooper Bourbon Barrel

Brewed by New England Brewing Co.
Style: Imperial Stout
Woodbridge, Connecticut USA

Serve in Snifter

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(500ml bottle, courtesy of Exiled) Pours an opaque black body with a thick brown head and excellent lacing. Aroma of roasted malt, vinous, vanilla, wood, chocolate, and retained mint. Flavor of roasted malt, wood, chocolate, nuts, and dark fruit with a dry finish.

500 ml bottle poured a clear dark reddish brown nearly black with a small lasting brown head. Aromas of bourbon, oak, dark chocolate, light roastiness and light dried fruit. Palate was medium bodied and smooth. Flavors of bourbon, oak, dark chocolate, light roastiness and a hint of dried fruit with a smooth lingering chocolate bourbon finish.

Bottle via a trade with vikinghammer. Pours with a black body and a huge tan head. Aroma of pear, vanilla, chocolate, alcohol and barrel. Taste is chocolate, nutty, and maybe the start of a light infection. Some tannins. Very lively carbonation.

Nearly black pour, very big tan head. Aroma has lots of milk chocolate, barrel goodness, roasted malt and maybe a slight coffee hint. Flavor has great bourbon, chocolate, toffee and a light bitter finish. Nice stuff!

A: After getting through way too much wax, the nearly black pour into a glass gives off far too much tan head, and it sticks around forever. We had to wait for about 10 minutes to be able to take a sip. Points off for the annoyance factor. S: Once the mountain of foam died down and I was able to sniff it, I picked up plenty of roast (not surprising given the nature of the base beer). A mild vanilla note, oak, and some alcohol. T: The roast is again the main flavor component here, with some definite alcohol flavor, maybe a bit of bourbon and rum, and some astringent oakiness. There is a lingering bitterness as well, from the high level of roast. M: The body on the beer itself is nice--medium in nature. The carbonation is surprisingly moderate, given the volume of head produced. D: This was a strange beer all around. Good, but not great, and the amount of foam still confuses me quite a bit. I would have liked more spirit character and a little less of the intense roast.

500mL gold waxed bottle that says 12oz on the label. Opened loudly, and poured deeper brown with a colossal cap of tan head.. seemed like there was something wrong. The aroma picked up more sour and metallic bourbon than anything else.. nutty notes and chocolate were deeper down, but it took effort to get there.. seemed like a nice malt bill, but the barrel (and potential infection) got in the way. The flavor opened with tangy (and metallic, but not quite as metallic as the nose indicated) oak and bourbon, and those carried all the way through the drink.. very tasty blended chocolates, a hit of molasses, and vanilla rode way-too-high carbonation onto the middle.. sweet, roasty chocolates, dry roast, vanilla, and more tangy barrel on the finish. Medium-bodied, but way too filling from the huge carbonation.. sharpness and carbo kept it from flowing well.. not by any means boozy.. not all that good.

Pours dark brown with a generous light brown head. Smells of rich chocolate, peppery, vanilla, oak, bourbon, toffee. Tastes of roasted malt, peppery, some bourbon, vanilla, raisins, boozy on the finish. Nice, but I like the regular Stout Trooper much better.

bottle, thanks to exiled, black brown color with an oaky vanilla chocolate aroma, flavors of milk chocolate, roasty rye grains, sesame oil, malty finish

Bottle courtesy of Joe at Andy and Max’s fantasy tasting. Pours a dark black with a thin beige head. Nice bourbon and vanilla, wood tones, light roast and cocoa, slight menthol and mint. Medium bodied, roast and a bit of cocoa. Smooth finish with a bit of bourbon and a good amount of roast.

In short: A straightforward moderately bourbonny imperial stout.
How: Bottle 500ml. Consumed when approximately 8 months of age (8 months after first rating) . Bottle sent to me by rgtravers, thanks a lot Ryan.
The look: Black body topped by an initially large tan head with low retention
In long: First of all the gold-wax was a bitch to remove. Now on to the beer. Nose is moderately bourbony, some chocolate cake and some vanilla extract. Taste has burnt malts, Nutella™, milk chocolate, some bourbon barrels. The beer tasted very roasted for a Bourbon Barrel aged impy stout. Usually the BA impy stouts lose their roastiness and dryness but not this one. This is nice but what this beer lacked was complexity Carbonation of my bottle was excessive and prevented any subtle flavors from reaching my taste buds. Very rare but worth hunting down in my opinion. Overall, this was a nice imperial stout but there was nothing special about it. The only thing really noteworthy about this beer is how hard it was to open with extra- thick gold waxed top. I pulled a muscle opening this beer. Ok, I’m probably out of shape but I haven’t found a gym with an bottle opening exercises machine.