Samuel Adams (Barrel Room Collection) Thirteenth Hour Stout

Brewed by Boston Beer Company
Style: Imperial Stout
Boston, Massachusetts USA

Serve in Snifter

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750 ml caged and corked bottle. Served in a chalice, the beer pours a dark ruby red/brown color (when held to the light) with about an inch tan head. Head retention and lacing are both good. The aroma is nice, it smells like dark fruit, chocolate, sweet spices, vanilla, and some coffee. It tastes like dark fruit (cherries, raisins, plums), chocolate, sweet spices, oak, tart fruit and a little bit of coffee. However, it is a mostly sweet tasting beer. Mouthfeel/body is medium, it’s a bit creamy and coating with good carbonation. I think this is a good overall brew, I’d buy it again. It was better than I was expecting it to be so it was a nice surprise! I’m pretty sure it was just $6.99 a bottle, I don’t think it was any more than that.

Bottle thanks to Cavie. Great looking beer! Nice and dark, coffee and chocolate. Love it!

Aroma: Coffee and chocolate with hints of earthiness and woodiness. Appearance: Black with a rocky tan head that dissipates quickly. Taste: Medium sweetness with hints of tart sourness at the edges. Palate: Full body; thick, slightly sticky, texture; average carbonation; long finish. Overall: It’s a really solid beer, and certainly well crafted, but I wasn’t blown away by it.

750ml bottle. Pours almost pitch black with a brown head. Complex aroma, roasted malt, wood, vanilla, chocolate, coffee, cinnamon, dark cherries, blackcurrant, tobacco. Off-dry, full bodied, medium bitterness, balanced CO2. Complex taste, packed with flavor, and a nice sour note from the wood ageing, chocolate, coffee, tobacco, vanilla, cherries, ashes. (2012-03-17)

Bottle pour from Bottle Cellar A&P in Washington Township, NJ. Pours a dark cherry brown. Sniffs of cherries and wine. Tastes of thick cherries off the tree soaked in molasses. Not too sugary and nice alcohol balance. Reminds me of a darker Innis & Gunn Rum Cask. Impressive and interesting.

This is a Belgium Strong dark Ale, the name has cahnged its Thirteenth Hour, Barrel room collection appearence, pours very dark, carmel colored foam head that sticks to glass, stays around smell, Ripe Bananas, toffee,chocolate and coffe notes taste, first you taste the fruity aromas from the belgium yeast banana mostly, then on the back end very nice chococate, coffee comes through overall, my rating really doesnt give this beer true credit Iam learning, this is the best way to express this beer, but I know its better than this!!!

Cool-ass 750mL bottle poured into a tulip. Not pouring in the sediment. A: Pours a very dark burgundy color with vibrant carbonation for where I can see through the body. The head is a two finger heavy cream color with very thick bubbles. Eventually, it settles down to one finger high, and the texture becomes a little creamier. S: There’s a nicely subtle sour note of tart cherries on the aroma that I find appetizing, playing shockingly well with the chocolate, darker malts, and lighter fruit esters. If it were stronger, it would be outright amazing, but it nonetheless smells great. T: To start, there’s a light sour component, which also pops back up right before the finish. The transition between this lactic sourness and the chocolate midtaste is pulled off well, not coming across as an infected stout, instead reminding the palate almost of milk chocolate at times. Every once in a while, a big strike of funk will explode on the aftertaste, bringing notes of wet hay and horse blanket. Rather than overwhelming the palate with 3,411 different notes, this beer picks just a handful of flavor profiles (tart cherries, chocolate, cinnamon, dark fruits, and funk), and cohesively shuffles them around in a three act manner. In layman’s terms, it’s complex enough to keep the palate guessing. Not a steamroller of flavor, but it doesn’t need to be. M: This is where the oak barrel comes through, providing a lot finishing tannic dryness. The body itself is rather coarse, prickly, and slightly syrupy; due to the heavier texture, drinkability isn’t particularly high. On the plus side, it’s not particularly flabby or bloated feeling in terms of carbonation. O: A classic "all 4’s" kind of beer. It’s great, but with a few tweaks here and there, it would become incredible. I couldn’t have a lot of this (I pretty much had about 10 oz and corked the rest up), but it’s a nice after dinner conversation piece. Great to see Sam Adams coming out of its comfort zone with a beer like this.

Pours a very dark brown with a moderate head. Interesting notes of sweetness and malts to the nose. In the taste, I get the sweetness from the Belgian style with some slight undertones of chocolate. The oak aging is pervasive throughout the smell and taste, without being overpowering.

Great flavour. When it hits your mouth you feel a tingling of spice.next is the oak and coffee,finishing with a nice sweet chocolate treat. Well balance and a tasty brew.

Poured from the bottle into a taster glass. Fruity aroma, dark brown in color with a small amount of beige head. Very good clairty. Has the fruity taste of a belgian-style beer with notes of chocolate and rum. Very smooth and easy to drink. Exactly what I would expect for a barrel-aged belgian stout. Overall a great beer, really enjoyed it.