Deschutes Brewery Black Butte XXVIII – Imperial Porter at 11.6% ABV | 51 IBU (C$23.99 at Willow Park Wine & Spirits, 650 ml, packaged on 13-Jun-2016, acquired 18-Sep-2016, reviewed 21-Jun-2020)
Appearance: deep cola red with one finger of loose light beige head diminishing gradually to a thin ring, spotty lacing. (4/5) Aroma: cocoa nibs, peat & oak, brown sugar, orange peel, dark fruit, toasted bread, vanilla. (9/10) Taste: moderate-high sweet, moderate bitter. (9/10) Medium-full slightly sticky body, moderate carbonation, smooth warming finish. (4/5)
The Great Cellar Drink Down continues. What? I’m in quarantine in a (supposedly) sold house, so I can’t get anything fresh, and who knows how long my collection will go into a storage unit after we pack up here and find a new house – could be months, easily, subjected to wild temperature variations. No, better it end here, with dignity: cue the swelling orchestra.
The second in a four-vintage vertical, this is now four years in the bottle. I didn’t do a fresh one as a baseline here, and the first in this vertical (the XXIX, from 2017) was already pretty smooth at three years old, making me think it might already have been at or near the sweet spot for cellaring. This one has some significant, though perhaps not fundamental differences: specifically the absence of cinnamon and cayenne, and the presence of peaty scotch barrel notes. Like the newer, however, it’s simultaneously pleasantly complex, yet seamlessly integrated, with no single element dominating. I last did this one a couple of years ago, when it was just over two years old, and I’m not detecting a lot of changes – structural, aroma, or flavour – in the intervening time. I’m starting to think these things don’t change much on cellaring, but we’ll see what happens with the next one, a XXVII at five years old. (17/20)
8.5/10 #ryansbooze ryansbooze.com
