FiftyFifty Imperial Eclipse Stout - Heaven Hill Rittenhouse Rye Barrel

Brewed By: FiftyFifty Brewing Co. in Truckee, California

Purchased: 22oz bottle bought at Binny's in IL; 2014 (2012 Vintage)

Style/ABV: American Stout/Imperial Stout, 10.0%

Reported IBUs: 75

FiftyFifty's Eclipse series is the best kept secret you won't afford. These are certified shelf turds, sitting around on shelves while equally alluring beers sell for half the price. I'm not a rich man, so I've held off on every impulse and compulsion...until last Friday. I was able to find a couple of dated vintages of this beer on the shelf for $15 dollars a pop. And the store even aged it for me. I'm very curious and excited...I hope the hype is worth it. Even for a 2012 vintage. About FiftyFifty: 

The FiftyFifty Brewing Company is a brewery/brewpub based out of Truckee, California. The brewery was founded by Andy and Alicia Barr in 2007, and has become renown for their barrel/bourbon-aged Imperial Stouts. For more info, check out the FiftyFifty website or Wikipedia.

Tonight's beer is part of the FiftyFifty Eclipse Barrel Aged Imperial Stout series. Every year the brewery brews their Totality Imperial Stout -- a behemoth of a Stout clocking in at 75 IBUs and 9.5% ABV; brewed with Rahr 2row, Simpsons Golden Promise, Gambrinus Munich Light, Dark and Honey Malt, Rahr Red Wheat Malt, Crips Pale Chocolate Malt, Simpsons Brown, Chocolate, Black, and Roasted Barley Malts; hopped with German Magnum, German Perle, and Mt. Hood hops; and finished with Dry Malt Extract, Rice Syrup Solids, and "exotic sugars" -- and then ages the Totality base beer in various whiskey/bourbon barrels. To confuse people, the brewery doesn't label their beers with obvious descriptions. Instead, they wax each label in ambiguous colors that are hard to tell apart, and then you can reference their website to figure out what the fuck you are drinking. Sometimes I just want to get drunk, bro. According to the FiftyFifty website, the green wax 2012 is their Heaven Hill Rittenhouse Rye barrel-aged Eclipse. I don't know anything about Heaven Hill's Rittenhouse Rye, but it sounds delicious. Without further dicking around, let's embrace this shelf turd. 

50/50 Eclipse - GREEN WAX / Heaven Hill

After painstakingly removing layers of green wax, I was able to crack into this beer...some head was creeping out of the bottle, and as you can see from the pour, this one is pitch black and opaque in body, with two or three fingers of thick, dense, creamy tan/khaki head. Head retention is surprisingly good (or maybe not...look at that malt bill). A pinky's worth of head is hanging around, and the head that did drop off is leaving lacing all over the place. I should mention the glossy alcohol legs, which are in fact present.

The aroma was exploding out of the bottle when I popped it; I was getting giant waves of whiskey and raisins on the pour. When you stick your nose into the glass, you are greeted with big raisins, sherry/oxidation, cherries, whiskey, rye whiskey, dark rye bread, barrel character with some wood/oak, hints of faded woody chocolate, and some of that bourbon/coconut/oak. It still smells pretty good for a 2012 vintage...she said.

Oh...wow. This is incredibly smooth...and it's layered too. There's some hefty malt character in the back dialing up roast, oats, chocolate, malt balls, and brownies. Up front is really mild whiskey character, with raisins, bourbon sweetness, hints of toasted coconut soaking in alcohol, fusel cherries....the mids dial up some chocolate sweetness, wood, barrel character...and then the back layers on the malt base. The finish is boozy and big, but just slightly sticky. 

This is fantastic...it's slightly chewy and the malt base is substantial and has held up well over the past year or two. Seriously, look at the grain bill for this. The whiskey has melded into a wonderful accent, with hints of barrel and even some rye bread and rye showing up. This has a little booze in the mix, but not so much the burn...it hides the 10% well, but the beer has heft and the barrel character might turn off people that hate whiskey. It's definitely a sipper though, worth unraveling. Palate depth is really good, and complexity is outstanding. The mouthfeel is medium to full-bodied, even with the barrel and the aging. I just wonder if I'd be as happy about this beer if I paid $30 for a bomber. One last time...up front: velvety smooth chocolate and wood, dark fruits, raisins, brown sugars, rye spice, cherries and coconuts swimming in alcohol; the mids dial up more rye spice, some wood tannin, barrel, chocolate; the back hits the malts with hits of roast and oats and chocolate. The finish is dry with lingering bourbon sweetness...slightly sticky, she said.

Rating: Divine Brew (4.5/5.0 Untappd)

I'm going to go with a Light Divine Brew for the 2012 vintage...this is drinking pretty good right now, so maybe consider that an endorsement if you are camping on a few bottles. Or don't. The fuck do I know about aging a beer I didn't try fresh. Truth is, this beer is retired and I have no baseline. I just like bourbon barrel-aged Stouts and this one is fantastic. It's like a less boozy Bourbon County Stout, only with its own unique personality. It would be a tragedy to pair this beer with anything but a cigar, dry chocolate cake, or a super raunchy burger or steak with strong cheeses. 

Random Thought: I chose to be a bit more analytical in my review, but speaking freely, this beer kind of reminds me of a Barleywine. An English-style Barleywine. Namely, the Goose Island Bourbon County Barleywine. If I had to pick between the two, right now I'd opt for another bottle of the 50/50 Heaven Hill 2012 vintage aged. BUT, I have high hopes and expect good things to happen to the Bourbon County Barleywine. We will see.