Weyerbacher Heresy

Brewed by Weyerbacher Brewing Co.
Style: Imperial Stout
Easton, Pennsylvania USA

On tap at Zeno’s Pub - State College, PA. Nose opens with a dense chocolatey hazlenut cream, subdued and mashed up with some boozy char and rum. Sugary. Pours a black-brown, with a good finger of slow fading coffee and cream head. Flavor starts off with an awful lot of artificial flavors layered over a bubblegum back. Fruity and estery in that bad Weyerbacher way. Chocolate flavors give me harkenings of Hershey’s and a bland sugar and alcohol run. Booze filled in a coarse generic way. Warmer, the flavors actually find themselves blander, less interesting and unexciting. Too sweet, even for the style, with little balance from char, alcohol, oak, tannins or hops. Quite meh for a barrel aged beer.

On tap: Underrated bourbon barrel imperial! Pour was thick oily black with good light brown head. Aroma was all chocolate and bourbon, so glorious. Flavor blew me away with bourbon and vanilla and thick roasted stout malts. Put me in mind of Bailey’s and was wonderfully smooth and rich. Bottle: Much less interesting, lowers the overall score considerably. Everything was to a lesser degree.

Cellared for a couple of years...vigorous pour left a half finger dark tan head. Aroma is a little light, but very sugary and chocolatey...nice and inviting, if not overpowering like many others in its class. Flavor is very sweet with a strong bourbon note at the end. Milk and dark chocolate, a bit of roasted malt, and a pretty solid dose of vanilla in here as well. Think this one was served very well by a couple years in the dark...it has mellowed out into a great drink...slightly watery for an Impy would be my only negative. Look forward to trying this again in the future!

Nice thin chocolate head. Black opaque appearance. The head fades away rather quickly. Big alcohol/sweet aroma. I was wondering what that aroma was, and it is WHISKEY! Hell ya, I love the vanilla aroma with the sweet whiskey smell. The flavor is VERY good. If you love imperial stouts mixed with the bourbon/whiskey flavor(s), then you will love this beer. Very strong whiskey/roast taste that develops into a sweet whiskey/vanilla flavor. This beer is amazing, and I love the flavor. I think this could have a better palate and a stronger aroma, but the flavor is spot on.

Pours a dark brown color with thin mocha head. Aroma is light vanilla, mild coffee, light chocolate and light fusel alcohol. Taste is is alcohol, some vanilla, notes of dark fruit, light coffee, whiskey, light cherry and light oak. This beer is a bit brash for me and doesn’t give the richness I expect from an impy, but it isn’t bad, just not up to snuff for what I expect from the style.

Dark brown to black, medium mocha head. Aroma of milk and oak barrel, nothing fancy, and just a hint of vanilla. Incredibly smooth texture, and nicely carbonated. Very oaky flavor, dry, the wood just sucks the moisture out of your mouth. Low-medium levels of sweetness and roast; this seems to be all about the oak. To its credit, this is overall a pretty clean imperial stout, with some muscle imparted by the oak. The only disappointment if you can call it that is that there isn’t that much more going on besides.

Thanks to rustychiles for sharing at the bockyhorsey tasting. Jet black beer with no head. Aroma is predominantly alcohol, roasted grain, bourbon, and diacetyl. Taste is quite roasty with some minor oak and bourbon, as well as a hint of the butterscotch-like diacetyl. Just enough to compliment, but not overwhelm. However, on the palate the butteriness really accumulates to an annoying level, and the beer was a bit over carbonated for my taste. All around interesting and good beer.

Pours black with a short lived light tan head. Smell is chocolate. Taste is a mix of milk and dark chocolate that is semi sweet but finishes without a lingering maltiness. Some light oak flavor too. Body is oily, slightly sticky and with soft carbonation. Pretty enjoyable and not a very bourbony or overdone bourbon barrel beer.