Browning’s Bourbon Barrel Imperial Stout
It appears that Browning’s, a restaurant/brewpub located in Louisville, Kentucky, has closed. We found this bottle at a Louisville Liquor Barn if you want to see if you can still find a bottle on the shelves. Our thoughts:
SALLY: I bought this bottle on a summer ’08 trip through central Kentucky. Between then and now, the brewery closed. Too bad. Bourbon notes really come through strong in this brew, which is aged in white oak barrels. The description on the bottle describes notes of espresso and chocolate. Mmmm… definitely the espresso. If it’s chocolate its baker’s dark chocolate. There is very little sweet about the flavor. Rustic is more like it. Little light penetrates this dark beer, which boasts an extra thick, extra creamy malty head. If I have this again, which I guess is impossible, I’d definitely try pairing it with a bleu cheese steakburger with a side of cottage fries and Texas toast.
MICHAEL: I’ve enjoyed other bourbon barrel-aged beers from Kentucky before so I was anxious to give this one a shot. It’s pretty dark with some red highlights and a very aggressive tan head. A really thick froth that created a mountain landscape over the rim of my glass. The aroma really gives away the bourbon and oak but the flavor fell apart for me a bit. There’s a nice medium-bodied mouthfeel and the initial flavor is slightly sweet. Then a syrupy sweetness kicks in and a metallic tang (Funny — I just read what Sally said about there being very little sweetness. Maybe the bottle settled so we got different pours?). I don’t taste a lot of alcohol but I assume it’s a fairly high content. Maybe the tanginess masks it. I’m a little disappointed but my hopes were high given that I’ve enjoyed bourbon beers in the past. I think Kentucky Ale’s is maybe my favorite. This one isn’t bad, I just don’t care for the metal tang toward the end. It actually gets better further down the glass. Maybe the alcohol content is higher than I expected…
Sally’s rating: 6
Michael’s rating: 4.5
Ratings are 1 to 10 with 10 being the highest
