UPDATED: MAY 14, 2018 Bottle... This beer rocks!... Pours black with a fleeting, tanned head. The aroma is a lovely m?lange of vanilla, milk chocolate and premium bourbon accompanied by a note of pouch tobacco. Full-bodied with a creamy mouthfeel and kicked-back carbonation. The flavor is deeply roasted and bold - vanilla and chocolate bomb. Lengthy, carbonic, delightfully warming finish. Apparently, another year in the bottle really helped this beer. Unexpectedly excellent. World-class imperial stout!

Syrupy and sweet. Lacks balance. Vanilla note overrides the bourbon. The bottle says there are eight malts, which seems both excessive and totally reasonable, but none of them stand-out and thus none of them tell a story. Major flaw is the heat at the end - not medicinal, but more harsh than warming. I wouldn’t expect a beer this big to have this heat after being laid down for a year, and I doubt laying down another year in the bottle would help. Overall I think this one needs some work.