Rhinegeist Brewery Barrel-Aged Ink

**Aroma:** “Vanilla, brown sugar, caramel, moderate roast, light chocolate, fruit loops, tangerine, malt aromas. The expected imperial stout elements are there, but the overall aroma impression is of a dry stout.” **Flavor:** “Flavor has some of the complexity the nose lacked. Mocha with toffee and bready malt, some coconut. The flavor is very self contained—nice shot of mocha, swirls of malt. The nice caramel-sweetness roast needs a bump. This is more in the imperial porter or imperial brown ale range.” **Overall:** “Imperial stout on the rounder side. Maybe slightly thin, which makes it even easier to drink. Little bits of complexity fade in and out as you continue drinking it. Fun little variations in the sips—coconuts, whimsical. Taken on its own, each sip is nice, but imperial stout as a style is more typically made to be savored so there's a bit of a gap between expectation and flavor that requires recalibration.”

Sugary vanilla cake-batter aroma; coffee, roast malt, carrot-cake spice, caramel, dried cherries, figs. Very sweet, candy-like coffee liqueur. Alcohol helps cut sweetness but body is heavy.

**Aroma:** “Some sweet dark cherry and raisin character. Nice sweet chocolate. Slight vanilla and oak. A musty red wine barrel character. I imagine this is what an old French wine-barrel room smells like. Medium strong roast dominates with some bright cherry notes dancing on top. Relatively thin overall on the nose.” **Flavor:** “Nice blend of flavors. Some bold roasty notes, nice dark and sweet chocolate notes, and some sweet dark cherry notes. The oak character adds nice complexity to the beer, hitting in the middle and carrying through the finish. The warmth also adds to the taste and cuts some of the sweetness. Some tannins couple with the roast and alcohol to add to the dry finish.” **Overall:** “This is a really smooth and well blended barrel-aged imperial stout. Lots of good malt flavors came together well and worked together throughout the whole beer. An interesting beer that displays a heavy amount of wine barrel that will do well with some age on it.”