Smoked Imperial Rye Porter Aged in Bourbon Barrels, 14% ABV, 2014 Edition.
A rich porter layered with rye spiciness and earthy smoke, caramel-like flavors, toasty malt and oaky deliciousness.
Smoking Wood is brewed with a hefty amount of both rye and smoked malt, contributing to a full body and light spiciness, balanced by extended oak aging. This beer will cellar gracefully but is best enjoyed fresh. Best stored and cellared around 55F (13C) in a dark place. Ideal serving temperature is 50F (10C). Best served in a tulip or wine glass.
The beer is dark black brown, almost black. The foam is very thin, chestnut color, fine. This beer is 11 years old, because I’m drinking it at 2025. The beer smells like Bourbon whiskey, hot dark chocolate drink, soybean sauce, chocolate muffins, truffle chocolate, tequila, tiramisu cake. The smell is really nice, showing an Italian desert mixed with heavy liquor, in this case a smoky Bourbon Whiskey. It’s also showing some fermented vegetables characters, like soybean sauce, and fluffy dark chocolate noses. The beer is light sweet, showing a layer of sea salt, and follows by a slight bitter and tart balancing the flavor. It’s full bodied, medium-high viscosity, the alcohol flavor is obvious, but it’s well behind all the balanced flavors of sweet, salty, bitter and tart. The aromas are very complex, as good as you can expect from a BBA imperial stout or porter. It starts from truffle chocolate, dark bitter chocolate, smoky coffee (Italian roast) beans, and then the Bourbon Whiskey, Brandy aroma kicks in. Zoom in here, the Whiskey shows an original barrel strength, I mean the flavor, it’s very oaky, long barrel aging, smoked barrels, fully of liquor flavor and wood aged spices. Going back to the aromas, next series of aromas are pickled vegetables, soybean sauce, pub rags funky, vanilla extract with alcohol, city roast coffee beans, mezcal (smoky), drunk person edition of tiramisu, chocolate milk, cocoa bean and vanilla beans aromas. The aftertaste is vanilla, liquor, 90% dark chocolate, oak, coffee beans, cumin, dank diesel. It’s very interesting, a strong man’s version of dark beer. The aftertaste of aftertaste is tequila, tiramisu and tobacco. It’s not that sweet, but sticky and velvety, full of chocolate and smokiness. It’s a very nice beer reaching the experience of drinking a Long Island ice tea, strong but also full of characters of different liquors, I can definitely see Mezcal, Bourbon Whiskey, golden tequila, Brandy flavors, and a bit of dankness from earthy hops.