Central Waters Brewer's Reserve Bourbon Barrel Cherry Stout Review

Name: Central Waters Brewer’s Reserve Bourbon Barrel Cherry Stout
Style: Imperial Stout
ABV: 11.3%
IBUs: 48

Longtime readers of this website know that I’m a huge fan of the bourbon barrel offerings from Central Waters Brewing: The Brewer’s Reserve Series. Although I always refer to it as the Bourbon Barrel series in casual conversation. In fact, when I’m done writing this, I’ll have looked at five of them in the series, yet there are twelve that they’ve made, so I’ve got my work cut out for me.

Regardless, I’m a long time fan of the Brewer’s Reserve series and I’m always looking out for any entries in the series. Which brings us to today’s beer: Bourbon Barrel Cherry Stout. Like all entries, this is a bourbon barrel aged Imperial Stout but each barrel has 75 lbs/34kg of the world famous Wisconsin Door County cherries thrown in and then given 12 months to age before finally being bottled for consumption. I’m eager to try this out, so let’s see how this is!

Appearance – Black with a slight dark crimson tinge along the sides of the glass when held to a light. The head is quite thing and takes on a light khaki color, with no lacing left behind.

Aroma – Chocolate malts and roasted malts dominate the nose but tucked away behind that is a nice vanilla, oak and light cherry sweetness.

Taste – Strong chocolate malts and oak flavors take center stage on the front of the palate before giving away to some nice cherry tartness and vanilla sweetness on the back. The aftertaste finishes everything off with a some nice dark chocolate, cherry tartness & light bitter hoppiness

Central Waters has, once again, proven how well they can pull off a proper barrel aged beer. Plus all the flavors mesh together in the palate in such a way where I honestly can’t find anything wrong with this beer. As such, this one is absolutely worth checking out should you see it!

Central Waters Brewer’s Reserve Bourbon Barrel Cherry Stout – 10/10