Stone Brewing 'w00tstout 2015' Imperial Stout. 13% abv. 45 IBU. Dark brown, almost black in color. Thin tan collar head. Nose of raisins, bourbon, chocolate, almond. Front taste of sweet milk chocolate, plum, molasses, black coffee. Aftertaste is rich chocolate, nutty notes, pecans, toffee, faint licorice, dark fruit, vanilla notes on the back. Full body. Mouthfeel is hot, thick, almost syrupy, creamy, clingy, with an alcoholic sustain.
This is an outstanding beer. The aroma and taste are complex, with lots of cocoa, dark fruit, and nutty flavors mingling about. The aftertaste is equally playful, giving you a varied flavor profile from nose to sustain. This is one of those exclusive big beers not to be missed, worthy of the hype. Strong recommended.
From the brewery:
"This righteously flavorful imperial stout has been a favorite among our fans—and us—since its inception in 2013. In celebration of its third brewing, we’ve upped the barrel-aging quotient for 2015, adding to the mix a version of last year’s vintage that we aged in bourbon barrels for a year. This whopping, complex stout will cellar beautifully—if you can wait that long. Eisner Award-winning comic-book cover artist Dave “The Reverend” Johnson created the fine art for the bottle in exchange for our donation to The Hero Initiative (heroinitiative.org), a charity organization that provides retirement funds for golden-age comic book artists."
[source: stonebrewing.com]
"Wil Wheaton first called us in 2004 to ask whether it’d be OK for him to put the Arrogant Bastard logo on his blog’s website (back when people still asked permission to do such things), and I just so happened to answer the phone (back when I still answered the main line sometimes). Since he was so damn enthusiastic about our beers, I said, “Sure, no problem,” all while thinking, “Hmmm…this guy’s name sounds familiar. • Months later, in a serendipitous turn of fate, I reached out to our 10,000th email newsletter subscriber…drumroll…Wil Wheaton. Turned out that since his gigs in the iconic “Stand By Me” and “Star Trek: The Next Generation,” Will had become quite the renaissance man, adding author, w00stock innovator and homebrewer to his resume. His enthusiasm for the fermentable arts and our beer was such that after many occasions of sharing grog over the years, we decided it was time to brew in collaboration. • It was a no-brainer for us to choose Drew Curtis – known by many as the twisted mind behind Fark.com – as our third cohort. Drew was an old friend of Wil’s whom I had serendipitously met (when he saw me and told me, “Dude, I love your beer!”) and enjoyed many beers with at the famous TED conference three years in a row. The beer you hold before you is an Imperial Stout made with wheat (Wil pretty much insisted), and we also paid tribute to Drew’s Kentucky roots by adding rye and pecans to the mix and partially aging the beer in bourbon barrels. The result? Nothing short of serendipitous. • In celebration of the third brewing of this annual offering, we added a mix of the version of last year’s vintage that we aged in bourbon barrels for a year. Consider it a superhero version of this sudsy staple of Hop-Con, our imaginatively titled annual July w00tstout release event! • Brought in to put a personalized stamp on this year’s edition of w00tstout was famed comic-book cover artist Dave “The Reverend” Johnson. The Elsner Award winner, known for his work for DC Comics and the Vertigo series “100 Bullets,” created the fine art for this bottle in exchange for our donation to The Hero Initiative (heroinitiative.org), a charity organization that provides retirement funds for golden-age comic book artists."
[source: bottle]
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