Deschutes Black Butte XX review

Word of mouth can be a powerful promoter for a beer these days, especially when you use many of the useful social media sites these days such as Twitter. I recently heard of a 20th Anniversary beer that was brewed by the Deschutes Brewery of Bend, Oregon. They took one of their regular porter recipes and transformed it into an imperial porter. I'm talking about none other than their Deschutes Black Butte XX imperial porter.

The Black Butte XX came in a big 22 oz bomber bottle that was topped off with a thick layer of black wax. It took a while to peel off 2 different layers of wax to get to the bottle cap. Once the wax was off it revealed a special 20th Anniversary cap underneath. That cap was a nice touch and made the beer seem a bit more special. After the cap was off I poured this beer into a nice goblet cup.

This beer pours very dark and was being served cold. This imperial porter poured with very little head to it and left a thin tan ring around the glass. I should know better than to pour a very dark beer when it is too cold as it tends to inhibit the head formation.

Immediately, I could smell an abundance of rich coffee, caramel and toffee aromas. It was hard to get much hop smell out of this beer but I think that's ok for this style. I could smell the 11% ABV alcohol and some wood overtones to this beer. It smelled wonderful. This beer was made with cocoa nibs, a lot of dark roasted coffee and then a portion of it was aged in Stranahan's Colorado whiskey barrels for extra flavor. It seems several brewers these days are finding the advantages of aging in Stranahan's barrels (Oskar Blues for one).

I bought this beer in the late summer and managed not to touch it until now. Given the higher alcohol content, this beer will age very well. Upon the first sip, I could immediately feel the alcohol warmth. The coffee and cocoa nibs hit you up front as well. It has a nice smooth dry finish to it and warms your throat on the way down. I could tell right away that if aged, this beer could mellow out quite a bit more.

I've had their regular Black Butte porter before at an Old Chicago during the big beer run with the BeerTapTV boys (Erik and Eli) and enjoyed that, but this beer was something extra. Wow! It's much stronger than the regular porter. You definitely could taste the flavor of the whiskey barrel in this beer as it imparts some nice vanilla overtones.

As this beer warms, the cocoa nib flavor really starts to come out more. This is excellent! The beer itself packs a wallop so if you're drinking this bottle all by yourself, you'd best not drive anywhere afterward. I've tasted a number of porters and so far, this one is my top favorite so far. The 2nd pouring of this brew yielded a much better head than when cold, so if good head is important to you (no pun intended) then let this baby warm up a bit first.

I couldn't resist the temptation to pour some of this over ice cream. Good imperial porters and stouts always taste good with ice cream. In this case, I poured some over the top of some Oreo Cookie ice cream. Simply fantastic! I'm going to give this beer a top notch rating and a huge THUMBS UP! I've got to get more of this before it's all gone. Stock up now and age this puppy and they'll most likely disappear soon.

Related articles:
- Flying Dog Gonzo Imperial Porter review.
- Ska Nefarious Ten Pin Imperial Porter review.
- Full Sail Top Sail Imperial Porter review.
- Alaskan Smoked Imperial Porter 2008 review.

This article came from FermentedlyChallenged.com
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