Tipples Beer Review #125 - Bad Shepard and the Russians (Australia)
So I was catching up with a couple of friends who have recently left were I worked, we hadn't seen each other for about 3 months, it promised to be a night of gossiping, sharing information and plotting revenge of our previous employee, so what better to accompany it than some Russian Imperial Stouts.
Three of them, all from the same brewery - Bad Shepard which is a smallish brewery in the South Eastern suburbs of Melbourne, Australia - they have a small brewery bar and generally produce some impressive, on style beers. The bar I'm drinking at is Penny Blue which is a little hidden gem tucked into the back corner of a laneway right in the middle of the city, equal walking distance from all our workplaces.
Here is the tap line-up I was faced with - as I mentioned three Russian Imperial stouts, all the same beer, but then place in three different barrels for aging, the concept being you will get a different taste in each:
Kikimora
This one isn't a barrel as such, but it's been aged with some Cherry Smoked wood from a local BBQ place. It is dark with a dense head, but it feel the the thinnest of the three brews, both body and head which doesn't make a huge amount of sense. I'm not getting much from the wood, rather it's pretty standard roastiness of a Stout with just a touch a astringency in it.
Posalav
This one has spent time in Bourbon Barrels and it does all the good things that bourbon barrels do to dark beers. It is sweet with a big creamy body a gorgeous stickiness which lingers and makes you lick your fingers, it's turned the base beer into something more, something like a dessert beer which means I can drink much of it.
Bukavac
The final and best version of this has spent time in Starward whiskey barrrels (Starward is a local whiskey distiller) It is a lovely well rounded beer, not too boozy, not too sweet, It has an amazing silky mouthfeel, and somehow the whiskey barrel have rounded off the edge so It almost feels like I could drink a reasonable amount of this - but I probably shouldn't.
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