Eagle Bay/Mane Liquor/Whippersnapper – Black Vanilla Whiskey Barrel Aged Vanilla Coconut Imperial Porter, 2017, 9.5%ABV, 640ml bottle
A colab between Eagle Bay Brewing, Mane Liquor Store and Whippersnapper Distillery. Bottled on 15/7/17
Drank on 18/12/17 from Copper & Oak
Appearance: 2.5 – Black, viscous, a nice big thick brown head that gives nice lacing.
Smell/Aroma: 3 – Coffee, vanilla, rich but sweet, syrupy alcohols, port wine, some cocoa.
Taste: 4 – Coffee, very big on the coffee, dark maltyness, rich malt, dark malt and coffee bitterness,. There is a transition from the richness, the dark malts into is a nice balanced hoppy bitterness that then blends very nicely into the slight Whiskey after-notes and a dry oak red wine character. No coconut I could detect. Possibly vanilla.
Mouthfeel/Palate: 3 – This is rounded, big, and finishes quite dry. Big rich, not viscous but the combined bitterness characters and the oaky dryness definitely sticks around.
Overall: 3.5 – This is good, a nice big slow sipper. There is no coconut, not really any vanilla, but thats probably the 5 months its sat in unknown condition. This is very nice, regardless.
UPDATE 21/12/17 – I recapped this bottle (with a proper bottle capper, and then fridged) after drinking slightly less than half. Going back to it now, I’m smelling dry fruits, port wine, fig, rich fruit cake, red wine barrel. On tasting its less carbonated obviously, but theres a big oak dryness initially, some hop bitterness, then a rich dry fruit, a dry red wine, slightly tart, some almost port character and then into an big oak bitterness and some alcohol. Not as much hop bitterness. Not too bad but obviously not in the best state.
