FiftyFifty Imperial Eclipse Stout - Old Fitzgerald 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, 9.5%

Reported IBUs: 75

Tonight is a lazy night, so it's the perfect night to sit back and quaff a certified shelf turd. 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.

You can read all about the FiftyFifty Eclipse Barrel Aged Imperial Stout series in my previous post when I had the Heaven Hill Rittenhouse Rye Barrel variant. If you reference FiftyFifty's website, you can see that the 2012 Blue Wax bottle is aged in Old Fitzgerald barrels.

50/50 Eclipse - BLUE WAX / Old Fitzgerald (2012)

You would -- PROBABLY -- never guess this, but the beer pours into a dark, opaque body, and kicks up a finger of creamy, bready, tan-colored head. I'm actually catching some ruby red tones when I shine a bright light through this beer, and a pinky of dense, foamy head is hanging around. There's nice lacing and alcohol legs as well. All-in-all: it's a mother fucking Imperial Stout. What do you expect? Rainbows?

The aroma here is very whiskey-forward. I'm getting big whiskey, caramel, raisins, chocolate, toasted nuts, earthy coconut, and some fudge/brownie. There's some molasses dancing around with the caramel-raisin thing, and the nose suggests lots of sweetness from the barrel/spirit.

Yum...that's nice. This is velvety smooth, like an Oatmeal Stout. There's huge depth of flavor, as the palate lasts for a while. I'm getting nice boozy warming on the back, with lingering chocolate and woody notes. The front end has big raisins, molasses, caramel, and chocolate. I'm getting some coffee, vanilla, toffee, and aged English Barleywine sweetness mid-palate. That includes a little brown sugar. There's some hints of vanilla in here, along with alcohol-soaked cherries and raisins. At this point, the whiskey/bourbon is very well integrated into the beer, providing nice sweetness and raisin/molasses notes. There's maybe a touch of oxidation as well, but it works.

This is stellar stuff, but maybe not as good as the Heaven Hill Rittenhouse Rye Barrel. The mouthfeel is medium-full, probably closer to full...the bourbon helps cut through the base beer. The carbonation is light, but it's spot on for the style (IMO). The beer is also velvety smooth. At 9.5%, I feel like this is very manageable. Yes...this is a big beer, but there are plenty of bigger beers. This is very drinkable. And speaking of that, palate depth is somewhere around "great" or "outstanding," and complexity is average for the style or maybe a little above-average. I guess this nearly two-year-old beer is pretty mellow. Up front are big raisins, caramel, molasses, brownies/chocolate/fudge; the mids hit those English Barleywine notes, and throw in some vanilla, coffee, brown sugar, and some residual hop sap; the back end has alcohol-soaked cherries and raisins, big lingering whiskey, some barrel character, a touch of oxidation, port/sherry, and fade to sticky and dry with lingering sugar and chocolate. Boozy warming on the back is perfect.

Rating: Above-Average (4.0/5.0 Untappd)

I'm feeling a Strong Above-Average here. I would not hesitate to recommend this, especially at the price I paid ($15). This is just a phenomenally good beer, with tons of English Barleywine-esque sweetness. I don't know if that's the aging that has mellowed this out into such a pleasant and sweet beer...but yeah. Delicious. It's a very sweet, rich, and velvety smooth beer...great depth, above-average complexity...and something to sip on for dessert. Don't pair this beer with food. If you are cellaring one of these, I'd say give it a try right now. If you can find this on shelves still, maybe pick one up.

Random Thought: I'm going to go enjoy the second half of my bottle with a movie now, so heck yeah to lazy Wednesday nights.