What beer were you drinking?

I received a bunch of emails from people asking more about the beer I was talking about during the show yesterday. Those of you that listen know that I'm a geek when it comes to beer. Yesterday I mentioned that I found a beer that I was really looking forward to trying at a bar over the weekend. The beer is called Brooklyn Black Ops and is made by Brooklyn Brewing. True it its name, finding this beer hasn't been easy and very little information has been leaked about when and where you can get it. (I missed trying it by hours on my last trip to the city). It's an Imperial Stout that weighs in at about 11% alcohol (Bud is about 5%). The stout is aged in oak bourbon barrels for 4 months, and then refermented in the bottle using champagne yeast. The oak barrels are supposed to give the stout a boozy vanilla flavor. Brooklyn already makes one of the best imperial stouts called Brooklyn Black Chocolate Stout, so I was really excited to try this.

How was it? Well, I've had many oak aged beers, and more than my fair share of imperial stouts. and while this one was very good... I was expecting more. I like big, strong stouts that have lots of flavors like vanilla, molasses, licorice and brown sugar. This one was suprisingly a little thin. The alcohol flavor was very strong, too. A sign of a good imperial stout is one that is balanced well enough so you don't feel the heat from the high amount of alcohol in it. This could have been from the burbon barrels it was aged in. Maybe it was the hype and hefty price tag that built up my expectations too much... although after hunting for 2 years and trading with some guy on the internet for the super-hyped and elusive Dark Lord Imperial Stout I was completely blown away, and still think it's one of the best beers I've ever had. Would I have the Black Ops again? If someone else will spend $28 on the bottle I'll gladly give it another shot!