Big Bad Baptist - Sextuple Barrel
Epic Brewing Company (UT/CO) in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States 🇺🇸
Stout - Pastry Regular Out of Production|
Score
7.44
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Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 7.5 | Texture - 7 | Overall - 7.5
Release 3. pours black, small tanned head. Scent is full, intense coconut, creamt, sweeter roast. Taste is fairly thick, coconut, almonds not to noticeable (lucky for me). Mild saltyness. Quite enjoyable, yet would have preferred more residual sweetness (and thus body).
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8
Jet black brown with a rich light brown head. Intense coffee and chocolate. Rich chocolate and coffee with a long nice coffee and toasted coconut finish. Coffee comes through as the king, barrels not so much.
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 9 | Flavor - 10 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 9
Epic’s most ambitious beer I presume, a series that has been in existence since 2016; apparently it is not just the beer as such which has aged on (whisky) barrels, but also its adjuncts, namely cocoa, coconut, almond, coffee and salt, making for six barrel ageings in total – hence the name ‘sextuple barrel’. Medium thick, mocha-beige, membrane-lacing, opening but edge-retaining head on a black beer with thin burgundy edge. Aroma of Chocotoff candy, almond, walnut oil, drambuie, lots and lots of toffee, kahlua, dry beef stock cubes, lots of oak wood and its associated vanilla, blood, black coffee, wet leather, salmiak, indeed a whiff of dried coconut flesh, fresh bayleaf, something minerally (which may well represent the salt). Dense, sweet onset with a thin umami edge, dried prunes, currants, marmite, soft carb with very full, oily, creamy mouthfeel; walnutty and bitter-chocolatey, toffeeish layers of malt fill the mouth completely, with quite a lot of vivid coffee bitterness towards the end, along with pronounced tannic woodiness and indeed a salted caramel hint from the salt. Almond is less discernible and blends in with the nutty-sweetish aspect of the malt composition; a dash of spicy hop bitterness and warming, whisky-like alcohol top it all off into a wonderful grand finale. Intense and boastful, very American ‘impy’; I wonder what the purpose is of barrel ageing all those added ingredients, but the end result is wildly complex – sipping one of these, peeling off layer after layer of flavour, is undeniably a great drinking experience. By far the best I ever had of this usually very solid and trustworthy brewery, big American craft the way I like it, still managing to maintain a balance between all those components – which is the reason I am scoring this high profile beer so high here. Exemplary in every single way.