cozy outings

After all that holiday excitement it's back to weekly beers, at least for a while.  I felt like a little jaunt into town, since my last beers had me cooped up at home, and it was about time to hit up La Buena Pinta again.  They do have that bar, you know.  If there was stout on tap, I'd have my drink there, if not, I'd buy a bottle, of which there would undoubtedly be many choices.  They did have a couple of black beers on tap, a porter and a stout, and I decided to spring for the Jumping Kitten Barrel Aged Imperial Stout.  There was a pretty big crowd out for the weekend afternoon, including a loud birthday party, so the extra alcohol felt like a little bit of self-medication.

Oh, looks good, doesn't it?  One heavy, oozy stout, coming up.  Not a lot of aroma, but slightly sweet. Not super sweet tasting either, rather more bitter.  Hint of raisin? It's pretty heavy, reasonably thick in texture but not quite syrupy. Doesn't have the excessive sweetness so many barrel aged beers have. There is a certain amount of woodiness, fairly strong flavor of barrel.  It gets a little sour towards the end, but nothing over the top.  It's a hard-hitting (at 10.5%), but calm and presentable return to my beloved black beers.