Central Waters Brewers Reserve Bourbon Barrel Stout

Brewed By: Central Waters Brewing Co. in Amherst, Wisconsin

Purchased: 12oz bottle bought at Capone's Liquor & Food in Chicago, IL; 2014 (2013 bottle)

Style/ABV: American Stout/Imperial Stout, 9.5%???

Reported IBUs: ?

And...for part two of tonight's twofer....something something I hope it isn't infected Central Waters. I'm just busting balls, I love most of what Central Waters does. Just not infected batches of Peruvian Morning. About Central Waters: 

Central Waters was founded in 1996 by two friends, Mike McElwain and Jerome Ebel. The two bought an old brick building in Junction City, Wisconsin. During the next two years, the two restored the building, and put in brewing equipment. A few months later, Paul Graham joined the brewery. After three years under the original ownership, the brewery was sold to brewer Paul Graham and home-brewer Clint Schultz. On the brewery's five-year anniversary, Central Waters purchased a new brew house because the old location was having issues with equipment and age. In 2006, Clint Schultz left the brewery. The brewery is currently owned and operated by Paul Graham and Anello Mollica. To read more about the brewery, check out their history page.

The Brewers Reserve Bourbon Barrel Stout is obviously part of the brewers reserve series. This one is aged in used oak bourbon barrels, and is described as containing notes of bourbon, vanilla, and roast. Let's get this into a snifter and do our thang.

Central Waters Brewers Reserve BBS

The Central Waters BBW BBS pours into a mostly opaque, cola-black/brown body, and kicks up a finger of light khaki/sandy/tan head. Bright light confirms the cola-brown tones, and there is some sea foam head chilling on top of the beer. As you'd expect, there are some legs, and there's some spotty lacing as well.

I'm digging this beer's aroma...it's like Bourbon County-esque. I'm getting big sweet bourbon, oak, vanilla, light wood and barrel, chocolate, coconut/toasty nuttiness, and plenty of sweet dark fruits. Namely cherries, chocolate-dipped dates, and some boozy berries. There's some dark malt and molasses lurking in here as well, but it's sweeter than bitter or roasty.

This beer is fantastico. It's a bit bourbon-forward, with bourbon, whiskey, some wood tannin, boozy dark fruits (raisins namely), and then...the chocolate starts to pick up, and you get some of that chocolate and coconut and oak. There's some coconut and nutiness in the mix as well, maybe some faint coffee and dark fruits hanging around behind the curtain.

Say what you will about Central Waters, but they pretty much nailed this one. This is a big, boozy, bourbon barrel-aged Imperial Stout. I don't know for sure what the ABV is, but it feels right around 10%. You'll want to sip on this, and you can do that thanks to the medium-full bodied mouthfeel and sticky finish. There is carbonation, and the beer is smooth. It's sweet and bourbony. I'm not going to lie...it's not very complex, but the palate depth is good. You get lots of bourbon, whiskey, booze, and wood tannin up front; that rolls into oak, vanilla, coconut, chocolate, dark fruits, raisins, and faded hints of chocolate/coffee; the back end has some oak, vanilla, chocolate-dipped raisin, and the finish is sticky and dry with lingering vanilla and bourbon.

Coconut. Om nom nom.

Rating: Above-Average (4.0/5.0 Untappd)

I'm feeling a Light Above-Average here. This is an enjoyable beer, but not my favorite from Central Waters. It's not Bourbon County, but not many beers are. Some people give Central Waters shit for the mouthfeel on their beers...I think this beer is spot on. Fuck the haters. I have also heard that this particular beer right here does not age well...so drink this one within a year. ALSO, see my random thought, because this beer absolutely works when you infuse it with toasted coconut. But yeah, this beer is cheap (4-pack range from $10 to $15), available, and delicious. Pick it up, pair it with a woody cigar, dry chocolate desserts, bread pudding, creme brluee, or drink it solo as dessert.

Random Thought: So I French Pressed/Randall'd some toasted coconut into a bottle of this beer, because I had toasted coconut laying around. The end result was fucking fantastic, putting this beer ahead of my homemade, coconut-infused BCBS, and maybe as good if not better than the huge and intense homemade, coconut-infused Founders' Imperial Stout.

This is fucking fantastic. Do it.

When you Randall some coconut into the Central Waters BBS, you get huge toasted coconut, nuttiness, and tropical coconut on the aroma. The coconut plays off the dark fruits in the beer, and you pull out raisin, chocolate, coconut, vanilla, and some bourbon. It is great.

The taste? It's also fantastic. The beer is appropriately dense, with huge swaths of molasses, dark fruits, booze, bourbon, and barrel playing off toasted nut, coconut, coffee, and lingering coconut in the back. The coconut adds a layer of toasted, nutty goodness to this beer, and you should definitely try infusing this beer with coconut at home. It also adds some velvety nutty/chocolate smoothness to the mouthfeel. Om nom nom so fucking good.

Central Waters, take note, you need to get on this shit.