days counted!

On the twelfth day of Beermas I went and bought for me

Twelve days and more

Eleven pipes a-smoking

Ten horses leaping

Nine feet a-floating

Eight icicles dripping

Seven sea monsters swimming

Six owls nesting

Five malts of gold

Four avian hallucinations

Three French magicians

Two love ya dearlies

And the simplest answer there could be 

Winding down, we are, and I've been waiting for this beer a long time.  It's an aged beer too, so it's been waiting by itself even before it joined my little self-challenge.  At first I thought it would be a Saturday beer, but that name...Counting The Days.  It seemed like it should fit into the song, and in the end I stuck it in.  It's the end of the count, we count in rhythm like a drum, it works in its way. 

It has a thick-looking consistency, although not a lot of head.  It looks like there's a little mixing of something in the brew, leaving the color only dark brown and not black.  Other examples of this have been quite pleasant, so good start.  It's heavily aromatic, with a sweet alcohol scent.  The taste is muddled, changeable, a patchwork of shifting flavors: first comes the bitter stout, then a wash of bourbon; coffee and licorice prance in behind and lead the way for the barrel-aged woodiness.  I expected a much heavier beer after a while; these types do tend to get syrupy.  But really, although the alcohol makes it seem like it should be a mouthfiller, this is an exceptionally light feeling stout.  The strong flavor doesn't hang around too much, even if there's a tiny bit of burn in its wake.  This is definitely a celebratory beer, one to end a countdown with, or to toast a new beginning.