Braxton Brewing 2017 Dark Charge 3 Month Tasting Notes

From Braxton:

In December, we released our most special project. Dark Charge is our Bourbon Barrel Aged Imperial Stout. Every year, you help us pack the city of Covington for a bottle release and Block Party. We hope you were able to make it and take home a few bottles for yourself.

Like with any barrel-aged stout, aging is an accepted practice. Different flavors will rise and fall at different times in the aging process. In an effort to keep you up-to-date on what you may expect out of your bottles, our team will be tasting Dark Charge and its variants every three months to provide an update. It’s tough work but someone has to do it.

This Saturday, we’ll be moving some of our own cellared bottles to Braxton Labs to open up the cellar. You can purchase bottles of Dark Charge and Union Wine Barrel Aged Saison for on-premise consumption. You can join that event here.

See our 3 month tasting notes below:

Bourbon Barrel Aged

• Aroma: Sweet Bourbon, Oak, Dark Fruit
  

• Flavor: Bourbon comes through nicely, tastes very young, vanilla, umami
  

• Overall Impression: Delicious, is aging gracefully
  

• Drink Now or Cellar: Cellar

2-Year Aged Bourbon Maple 23

• Aroma: Increasing Notes of Vanilla, Oak, Maple
  

• Flavor: Lots of Vanilla in the finish, Roasted Malts, and Dark fruits
  

• Drink Now or Cellar: It aged for two years, let’s keep it going! Cellar

Labs Variant (Red Wine Barrel Aged and Refermented on Grape Must)

• Aroma: Grape, Wine, Oak
  

• Flavor: a little warmth, light roast and chocolate, “Chocolate covered raisin”, ripe grape
  

• Overall Impression:  Super delicious
  

• Drink Now or Cellar: Drink now if you are a fan of ripe grapes, cellar if you want the flavors to meld more

S’mores Variant

• Aroma: Vanilla, Heavy chocolate, graham cracker
  

• Flavor: “tastes like s’mores, but nobody will believe me” – Evan Rouse, Warmth, Smooth Vanilla,
  Chocolate,  base stout very present, chocolate
  

• Overall Impression:  Getting better with age
  

• Drink Now or Cellar: Cellar

Tiramisu

• Aroma: Slight Pepper, coffee, chocolate
  

• Flavor: Coffee, Vanilla, slight bourbon, Chocolate
  

• Overall Impression: Flavors melding with age
  

• Drink Now or Cellar:  Don’t Drink yet

Molé

• Aroma: Cinnamon, Vanilla, spicy, devil’s food cake
  

• Flavor: Rich chocolate, Bourbon, Medium heat from the peppers
  

• Overall Impression: Delicious symphony of balanced flavors
  

• Drink Now or Cellar: Can drink now, but flavors will continue to meld for the next 6 months

Cherry Vanilla

• Aroma: Sweet, chocolatey
  

• Flavor: Cherry flavor is very present now, we don’t expect it to bloom any more
  

• Overall Impression: Cherry will continue to fade/meld while other flavors pop up
  

• Drink Now or Cellar: Drink now