Hadn't intended on cellaring this this long because of all the negative comments about pepper tastes but this has aged very well. Very creamy chocolate taste with still a barrel presence as well as coffee. Incredibly smooth mouthfeel. Still have one left in my cellar fridge to experiment with. Slainté.

Almost gave up on this because my 2019 experience was shall we say less than optimal. I'm not sure what happened but it didn't taste any different than Founders Breakfast Stout; which isn't a bad thing per se but when you're paying a premium for barrel and bourbon and detecting none of them, it creates a bad feeling. So I was ready for an amicable parting of sorts, since it's not like alternatives aren't readily available, until an online friend said this years is really really good. And the price wasn't bad. So I took the plunge and my friend was right. So life is good.

4.48/5 rDev -2% look: 4.75 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.75 | overall: 4.5 My youngest daughter gave me this for Christmas and had been bugging me to not wait too long to drink it (little does she know what's in my cellar). So I was waiting for the weather to cool down and today is it. 2019 poured into a DFH tulip. Brownish black body with a nice creamy head of tight bubbles with good retention. Smell is cinnamon upfront with not much coffee and deep roasty malts. Taste is big cinnamon with a bit of coffee and chocolate. Nicely complex. Can taste a bit of a booze burn when it warms but the balance on this is good enough that I'm not kicking myself for not aging this longer; at least not too much. Mouthfeel is beautifully creamy and that's what really sets this off. Usually with a big dark bomb like this I'm all about it being chewy but creamy really works. Just a fantastic experience. Thank you, Jenny Wren.

MHuge fluffy head which produces the most abundant lacing I think I've seen over a dark brown body through which no light seems to pass. Quintessential RIS smell of malts and dark chocolate. Taste is very rich and creamy as the hop bitterness has faded into maybe a dark chocolate aftertaste that lingers on the palate in a pleasant way. Mouthfeel is very rich. This is a superb RIS in terms of the alcohol staying understated while still making itself felt. Catherine the Great would surely approve.

Still has plenty of carbonation producing a prodigious fluffy head. Smell is very malty with a hint of chocolate. Taste is creamy and rich with the before mentioned chocolate. Body is very rich and full. This has aged very nicely. Glad I still have one left.

Carbonation is still undiminished. The smell is rich chocolate malts. Taste still has a hop presence but things are very creamy under the slight bitterness with a very rich flavor. Mouthfeel is very full. I might let the other two rest and see what happens.

1/25/2018 12 ounce bottle on 1/18/2020. Large tan head over a dark brown body. Rich chocolate infused malty smell. Taste is much creamier and mellow with the hop bite lessened from fresh with complex dark fruit flavors making their presence known. Not boozy per se but you know you're drinking something with heft, the type of brew that Catherine the Great wanted transported large distances for her enjoyment on the long Russian nights.

3.91/5 rDev +1% look: 4 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 4 | overall: 3.75 Welp this was a disappointment. At some point in the past, probably last year, I had a chance to snag one of the regular Trip in the Woods, didn't do it and it was gone forever. So when I saw one of these in a bottle shop, 2016 vintage, I grabbed it so quickly I didn't notice the ginger caveat. To be honest I'd have surely grabbed it anyway but I'd have not been so surprised as I was tonight as I was about to enjoy this on an end of the summer cool weekend evening as my attic becomes habitable for listening to music, reading and drinking beer. Poured into a DFH tulip a small tan head quickly dissipated over a dark brownish amber body. Smell was nicely complex of candied fruits over barrel, booze and malts. It's in the taste that the ginger dominates. When it was cold out of the cellar fridge it was "whoa that's too much ginger" but as it warms it somewhat fades but it's still prominently there. There's still the traditional Bigfoot hop bite in the taste but the barrel and bourbon fade way into the background. Mouthfeel is standard Bigfoot so no surprise there. If I hadn't tried this I'd be kicking myself so I think this will ultimately be a historical curio that I participated in the experiment.

Hadn't intended on cellaring this this long because of all the negative comments about pepper tastes but this has aged very well. Very creamy chocolate taste with still a barrel presence as well as coffee. Incredibly smooth mouthfeel. Still have one left in my cellar fridge to experiment with. Slainté.

Almost gave up on this because my 2019 experience was shall we say less than optimal. I'm not sure what happened but it didn't taste any different than Founders Breakfast Stout; which isn't a bad thing per se but when you're paying a premium for barrel and bourbon and detecting none of them, it creates a bad feeling. So I was ready for an amicable parting of sorts, since it's not like alternatives aren't readily available, until an online friend said this years is really really good. And the price wasn't bad. So I took the plunge and my friend was right. So life is good.

2015 (12/4/2014) bottle bought cellar aged. Poured into a DFH tulip there was a thick creamy head of an inch and a half over a clear dark reddish amber body. Smell was richly sweet with the hoppy pine scent having fallen off for a sherry and other sweet smell. Still some hop bitterness in the taste but much reduced from younger bottles. Defintely the dark fruit sweetness is more prominent with very little cardboard presence. Although this will never attain the complexity of an English Barleywine it is still very very good. Not sure if this is the ultimate sweet spot but I will strive to research this as a long term project.

4.24/5 rDev -2.1% look: 4 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25 8/31/2018 750 ml bottle poured into a DFH tulip. The cork released easily but without as much pressure as I expected. As a brief aside, I stored this at my cellar fridge temperature of 55 which is warmer than the recommended temperature of 6-8 celsius on the bottle; I put the bottle in the regular fridge to cool it down more for the following pour and will report any significant changes if any. A small quickly disappearing head over a reddish mahogany body. Smell is intriguingly sweetly sour with hints of berries. Taste is very tart with the sweetness not being as prominent as I was expecting; maybe I need a fresh bottle to experience that to the max. Not tasting much oak either; maybe further aging brings that out. Still the taste was quite appropriate after a hot summer day. Likewise the zesty feel. This was a good initial experience. Edit: the second pour at the suggested serving temperature (or closer to it) muted the sourness and accentuated the sweetness more. I'm not going to change the ratings because while the experience is different the quality level stays constant.

4.44/5 rDev +3.3% look: 4.5 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.5 Picked up a single of this at the grocery store. After a disappointing Saison on a hot summer evening I needed something to end the night on a positive note. Whoa baby did this work. Poured into a DFH tulip there was plenty of dark tan head over an inky dark brown body. Smell was gorgeous with sweet boozy malty highlights just competing for attention. Taste delivered all the goods and the feel was suitably thick that it kept the feeling alive long after the stout had vacated premises. I hope I can find more of these to enjoy when the weather is more appropriate, like cold as an ex wife's almost non existent heart.

3.64/5 rDev -1.4% look: 3.75 | smell: 4 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 3.5 Picked up an 08/2016 22 oz. bottle this week and poured into a DFH tulip to enjoy after a hot day. Problems immediately with runaway carbonation making me worried it was infected. Finally, after much more effort than should have been necessary, the massive foamy head subsided over a dark coppery body. Smell was very pleasant of a sweet grassy saison smell. Taste started out nicely but finished more bitterly than I consider optimal, maybe because of the rye. Finish was a little thinner than I was hoping. I'm sure this beer was not infected but I don't think aging it on the shelf did it any favors.

22 ounce Batch #9, 9.4%, brewed 11/23/2014, bottled 3/22/2016. Found this in a bottle store and snagged it immediately. Poured into a tulip with a deep golden body capped with a small white head. Sour funk smell hits you immediately followed by a grape and grass pleasant aroma. Taste followed the smell with a nice wine tinge that I really like in a saison. I assume the wine taste comes from the barrels. Mouthfeel was very refreshing. Perfect farmhouse ale selection for an early summer night. Too bad they don't make this anymore because this deserves to be tried by all fans of the style. The bottle place had one more left which I'll do my best to snag.

4.15/5 rDev +1% look: 4.25 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 4 From yellow ink on the neck of the bottle: "PKG 151 05/27/19 11:40" From the neckerchief: "10.75% by Volume" Found this at a bottle shop last week and snagged it. Swore off big imperial stouts until autumn but today was an uncommonly cool day so here we are. Nice tan head over an inky dark body. Smell is nicely berry sweet maybe due to the port barrels because I'm not detecting any rum with some vanilla and chocolate tinges as it warms up. Taste likewise improves as it comes closer to room temperature. Mouthfeel is a bit thin for this type of stout. I'm not sure that further aging would improve this but that's why we experiment.

4.07/5 rDev +4.1% look: 4.5 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4 | overall: 4 2016 bottle bought a week ago without having checked the date. When I got home I thought WTF let's see what happens. Poured into a DFH tulip, body was a dark mahogany with a tan head that showed no sign of having aged badly. Smell was very sour at the cellar temperature, which worried me but as it warmed up dark fruit and funk began to make their presence felt. Taste reflected the smell but was also very refreshing. At first I thought it tasted a bit "old" as in past its prime, and maybe it is because I never had it fresh; but as it warmed up and the other flavors began blending in it tasted very zesty. By the time I got to the end I was sorry I didn't have more. So this was a successful inadvertent experiment in aging.

Release #100 2/21/2018 11.8% 22 ounces Had intended to sit on this a while longer but it was an uncommonly cool day today and this is probably the last big stout I'll have this year until after all the Oktoberfests are gone this fall. This is very similar to a 2017 I had a little over a year ago except the barrel and alc were more apparent in the smell after the initial 50 degree cellar fridge pour. There was still a lot of char bitterness in the initial taste which faded as it warmed up and became a very balanced taste mixing chocolate, barrel and booze as the bitterness faded.