Pipkin Bourbon Barrel Stout

Formerly brewed at Pipkin Brewing Co.
Style: Stout
La Grange, Kentucky USA

Very dark brown, no head. Vanilla, bourbon, and a little wood in the aroma, flowing into chewy, raisiny malt. Sweet raisin and plum notes in the palate. Slightly wet body, with a little background roast.

(RBSG2003): Flat cola body. Aroma is bourbon, vanilla, sweet. Taste is medium sweet, bourbon, vanilla, slight astringency. Nice burn at finish. Watery body, minimal carbonation.

Draft at Party Town in Florence, KY. They found three barrels and have on tap. Glad I stopped for this oppurtunity to get a growler full. Black color with medium creamy tan head. Aroma is very complex with roasted coffee, malt and of course bourbon. The flavor was very smooth and creamy with a solid bourbon finish. Full body and a pure but limited pleasure to enjoy.

RateBeer Summer 2003: Black without much head. Bourbon/vanilla aroma, fairly sweet. A bit thin, but that improves as it warms up. Seems a little weak for the style.

<P>Pours nicely, decent head does form after a bit of aggressive pouring, but fades almost completely, leaving a cluster of large bubbles. It’s as black and as opaque as other stout than an imperial should be. <P>The Aroma is mostly bourbon and chocolate malt with the bourbon being slightly dominate. The interplay between the malt and the bourbon gives the impression of vanilla, plums and hardwoods. <P>The flavor is less brash whiskey, but it’s still there. It still is a heavy influence in perceived tastes giving the chocolate maltiness woody, fruity and vanilla characters. It also seems to give the beer a slight hint of cola flavor. <P>Still, I would think upping the malt presence to balance out the whiskey aromas and make a fuller body to the flavor would be nice. Bringing in some of the other darker malt flavors to give the soft, mellow chocolate a little backbone would also be nice. Despite this shortcoming, this is an impressive stout with wonderful complexity and earthiness.

Rerate: Pours with an attractive creamy and sticky foam which has very tiny bubbles. Whiskey, dough, butter, very rich chocolate syrup, and rum notes in this most delicious aroma. Somewhat light bodied for a cask aged stout, but who cares. Flavors are so complex, they make up for it. Very creamy, coffee hint, followed by a Coca Cola like sweetness and carbonation with bitter chocolate. Palate is so well balanced between the creaminess and carbonation level. Finishes somewhat dry and bitter. An extremely delicious late-night or dessert beer. I could see this pairng well with a chocolate long-john for some reason....or how about in a cocoa sryrup, fresh off the stove, atop a chunk of vanilla ice cream? The culinary possibilites with this are endless. Italian soda-like topped with whiskey. More brewers need to attempt this style, which is becoming a favorite of mine. John Harvard’s does a nice one as well.

Pitch black, small head. My bottle had a slight flavor of bourbon. Not overpowering as some have said and not as much as I expected. Overall, a unique stout that I hope sticks around with the new brewers.

Funky aroma of lots of squah and carrots, vanilla, coffee, flavor is much better but I’m also getting a little pencil eraser. Bad bottle?