Weyerbacher 21st Anniversary
Weyerbacher 21st Anniversary is an American Double/Imperial Stout brewed with cocoa and vanilla and aged in bourbon barrels, 11.9% ABV. Bottled on 06/22/16, opened on 08/22/16. Looks like Weyerbacher is finally of legal drinking age, time to crack open a beer to celebrate!
This stout pours with a typical dark color and a good looking tan head that is gone within a minute. Do you like marshmallows? If you picked up a bottle of this I sure hope your answer was a big ol’ YES! I can’t say I’m getting more than that on the nose, but it is such an impressive marshmallow smell that I’m not missing the missing stout or bourbon barrel aromas. More big vanilla on the taste to start, but there is a bit more complexity going on at this point. Some of the roasted malt and chocolate notes you look for in this kind of beer comes in after the vanilla. This is followed by a quick hit of sharp bourbon and dry oak. The oak and some alcohol heat lingers into the finish creating an odd mix with a moderate amount of hop bitterness. Odd seems like a harsh word, but it is accurate. It’s not a “bad odd” though, the combo is creating an excellent balance to all of the sweetness of the beer.
Drinking this beer is kind of like being on flavor slide: It starts from the sugary aroma and taste at the top of the ladder, and lands at the bottom with a dry/bitter/oaky finish.
