Odell Brewing Company- Bourbon Barrel Stout: Thank You Kevin!!
Tuesday, May 24, 2011 at 4:24PM | by Jason 
The other day Steve stopped by because I was holding hostage his four pack of Three Floyds Dark Lord. We sat down and started shootin’ the shit, lucky for me Steve brought me a bottle of Dogfish Head’s Namaste which happens to be one of my favorite DFH brews. I asked if he wanted to split a brew and without hesitation, he said yes. I’ve had this bottle of Odell Brewing Company’s Bourbon Barrel Stout in the fridge since December. I’ve been holding onto it because we can’t get Odell here in Illinois and I enjoy sharing hard to get brews with friends. Speaking of friends, thankfully my bro Kevin brought this for me all the way from Colorado while he and his GF Shannon were in town for the holidays. I’ve had a few Odell brews up to this point and I have to say that in my opinion, they are the Craft Beer Kings of Fort Collins, CO. Hopefully their Bourbon Barrel Stout will live up to my past experience with Odell Brewing Company.
Odell Brewing Company classifies this brew as an Imperial Stout and their website describes Bourbon Barrel Stout as, “This limited edition offering begins with a full-bodied imperial stout that has notes of sweet milk chocolate, smooth vanilla and roasted coffee beans. Then things get interesting. We transfer it to Kentucky bourbon barrels where it’s aged for four months to let traces of oak and caramel come forward. The bourbon barrels have a remarkable effect on the beer. In turn, the beer has a remarkable effect on the senses.”
Bourbon Barrel Stout pours a dark chestnut brown with ZERO head. The aroma was bourbon forward with flourishes of chocolate, coffee and roasted malts with very faint hints of vanilla and dark fruit.
This first thing that really stood out to me was the lack of head on this brew. Steve even commented that he was a little surprised as well because I poured rather aggressively. Not only was there a lack of head but little to no carbonation at all. The lack of carbonation is my only knock on Bourbon Barrel Stout, I think that a little of carbonation would have put this on another level of awesomeness. Now, on to what I loved about it. Bourbon Barrel Stout was extremely smooth with a very slight alcohol warming that was evident in the middle and lingers a bit in the finish. The flavor was an awesome mix of roasted malts and coffee with hints of chocolate. The barrel aging was done perfectly as the bourbon flavor is very complimentary and does not over power the stout flavor. Additionally, there were also faint hints of raisins and black licorice. Overall this is a really good brew, I’m glad I got to finally drink this one and share it with Steve. Hopefully next time we’ll get a little more carbonation and won’t spend 5 minutes trying to get the cork out of the bottle!
ABV: 10.5%
Consumed: Nonic Pint Glass
Verdict: Buy A Twelve Pack
