BrewDog Abstrakt AB:13

Keg & Bottled, special

Aged for over 14 months in barrels, AB:13 is an 11.3% Cherry Imperial Stout aged in ex Sherry whisky barrels. Cherry & Sherry, the recipe was devised by our production manager Nikola and is based on the classic German Schwarzlwald dessert.

3.9

185 reviews

Ellon, Aberdeenshire, Scotland

Community reviews

4.2 Bottle @Alex T’s, Kishan is leaving, will he come back Tasting. Pours black, very small tan head and in seconds it was flat. Nose is sherry, fruit cake, licorice, cherry, red wine. Taste is like alcoholic Ribena, spicy, prunes, figs, chocolate.

3.9 Classic Imperial Stout with a twist. Aromas of soy, roasted malt, chocolate, cherries and coffee. The cherry/sherry combination doesn’t add much to the taste though - it drowns within the bitter-sweet flavors of the Imperial Stout, even though it adds some sourness. The concept of this beer sounds really cool, but it doesn’t really work out as intended I feel.

3.8 On tap or bottle at CBC 2013. Pours black with a light brown head with some lacings. Bitter and sweet with malty aromas of toffee and burnt malts. Hints of caramel. Medium bodied. Soft carbonation. Sweet and dry finish.

3.8 Bottle at home. Pours a full dark depth with a deep tan head. Gonna mark the appearance high despite it fairy quickly looking flat and loosing the initial good looks. Aroma of dark fruits, dark malts and some booze. Quite tart at first; providing a bit of a shock to the palate. This rounds off with adjustment and a little time to warm up. I found this beer both challenging - initially - then very enjoyable, particularly the fruity cherries soaked in booze and aged on wood experience. Rich and tangy.

3.4 from Erzbierschof - black beer without foam; woody aroma with strong notes of black cherries and licorice; some notes of cacao; thick and a bit oily, full-bodied and quite sweet, a fair earthy bitterness and a long woody, chocolaty finish with more notes of black cherries and cacao

2.7 duft. dyb sukker agtig duft. sød karamel. sirup mørk malt svag kan af soja. fed dyb duft., smag. sød malte sirup. bitter besk citrus agtig syre fra det mørke malt. lidt kaffe sur.

3.1 Bottled from Systembolaget a couple of years ago Pitch black with no head. Sweet, vinous aroma with some tar and cold coffee. Very sweet flavour with some wood and sour cherries.

3.6 Bottle shared by a friend. Pours black with a thin brown head. Aroma of malt, dark fruit, molasses and cherries. Malty flavor with cherry and molasses character before a chocolate finish.

4.3 From the very old notes, hence this is not a real rating, but more just a mark to myself that I have tried this at one point. Actually I don’t need notes to remember this one. It was one of my favorite beers. It had really really nice mix of cherries, sherry whisky with some raisins and caramel thrown in. I would really like to try it again to see if it lives up to the memories.

3.8 37.5cl bottle at home from Only Good Beer, Budapest. Body is pitch black, head is flat, no lacing. Nose is sweet fruity, cherry, floral, roasty, slightly smoky. Flavor is dried fruits, dates, raisin, honey, licorice, light liqueurish, red wine, chocolate, bonbon. Heavy sweet, medium roasty bitter, light to medium fruity sour. Finish is medium lasting roasty bittersweet, light ash and smoke, alcohol is hidden, later softly warms up. Full body, oily sticky texture, flat carbonation. Quite easy dessert beer, unique, interesting.

3.9 KØLF 281214. Black colour with a tan head. Aroma is alcohol, berries, roasted malt, coffee. Flavour is sourness, berries, alcohol, roasted malt, licorice, coffee. Full body. Very nice beer.

4.3 A very unusual imperial stout, but what do you expect from the Abstrakt series? The nose is stupendous, featuring leather, wood and some cherry booziness. The colour is near black with (typically) almost no carbonation. Guess what, the taste profile is complex. Sour cherries sit up front, supported by dark leather, liquorice, woodiness and ripe dark berries. A significant acidity overpowers whatever sweetness existed from the cherries and sherry casking. A touch of booze helps balance the sourness and tougher tastes of wood and leather. A challenging sipper, but a worthwhile investment nonetheless.

3.9 Lukt: Frukter, kaffe og vanilje. Utseende: Sort. Skum/kullsyre: Lite skum, ring langs kant. Smak: Nydelig smak av kirsebær, kaffe, vanilje og en anelse sherry. Hvor: Kjøpt@VP, Nydt@Lokal tasting hos Bryne. Medium: Flaske@375ml, ABV@11,3%, Når@19.06.2015

3.8 May 2015 - 375ml bottle at home as 'BrewDog Abstrakt AB:13'. Bottled Mar 2013 at 11.3%. Bottle #5535 / 9972. Thick pour. Black with a small brown head. Aroma is sherry, strawberries, deep rounded cherry, earthy. Body is medium to full, smooth, low carbonation. Taste is sherry, grainy plain chocolate, a little calpol, some smoke in the aftertaste. Pretty sweet. Nice sipper. (7-4-6-4-16=3.7) October 2017 - Bottle share at Magic Dave's Leaving Tea Party. Thanks to Paul. Oily black, no head. Aroma is huge chocolate syrup notes. Taste is totally different – tangy sherry and cherry with a faint chocolate dimension. I think the synthetic corks were a bad call as this has absolutely no condition left. But it smells nice. (8-4-7-3-16=3.8)

3.8 Flaska från SB. Kolsvart tjock vätska med minimalt skum. Stor söt fruktig doft med mörk torkad frukt, choklad och fudge. Massor av choklad och fudge i smaken och en liten syrlighet som för tanken åt körsbär, fat och kanske en liten nyans sherry, lite kärv hårdrostad beska i slutet som är ganska nedtonad. Utan att nå riktigt ända fram ändå riktigt smarrig och en av de bättre i serien.

3.4 Two year old vintage bottle. As with the other vintage Abstrakts, the synthetic cork was very hard to remove. Opaque jet black colour, as black as any stout can be, with a creamy, tan head, moussy at the edges but thinning in the middle, initially still retaining a thin beige ’veil’ over the beer but completely disappearing in the end. Weird, strong and complex aroma of soy sauce, cold black coffee, hint of dirty rubber, candied figs, black olives, hint of sour cherries and elderberries, very old sherry, some phenolic presence of shoe polish and wood glue, whisky, fondant and bitter chocolate (increasing as it warms up), burning wood, ’old leather’ if that makes any sense, subtle touch of baked banana and a lot of salty liquorice. Smooth and ’fatty’, very creamy mouthfeel, very thick and viscous, with a subtle sweetness in the onset, refinedly sugary and reminding me of my grandmother’s old-fashioned candi syrup as well as her salty liquorice candy (a taste I never quite managed to acquire), salty and very ’umami’, with only a very faint suggestion of cherry juice in the form of a subdued, lean, sharpish acidity, being snowed under with a heavy malt character, layered, beefy, bitterly chocolatey, a bit toasted, thickly caramelly and gently roasted bitter in the end while the salmiak-like umami and salty flavour persists, never becoming overly coffeeish; a deep, earthy hop bitterness is there too in the finish, woody tannins stimulating the submandibular salivary glands and expectedly booze, very sherryish indeed, in staying relatively gentle and smooth, nothing really burning or astringent here; the initial candi syrup flavour does stick to the throat though, almost like actual candi syrup - or salty liquorice, the flavour I associate most with this beer. Complex and interesting brew, but the salty liquorice taste was a bit too powerful to my personal palate, fruit like cherries easily go lost in a beer of this profound maltiness and the aroma has a kind of phenolic quality which I wish wasn’t there. Not as good as the previous Abstrakt I tasted, but still a beer to ponder over and still making me curious about the rest of this series.

3.8 Bottle (4122/9972, bottled 15/3/13) from Appellation Wines. Pours thick black and oily with small dark brown head. Intense delicious aroma with roasted and burnt malts, dark chocolate, leather, dark fruits. Taste is roasted malts, sour cherries, dark fruits, liquorice. Finish is surprisingly light. Unfortunately the flavour is a disappointment, or I just prefer my IS without sour cherry flavour. Not worth the price for me.

3.5 chocolate, coffee, cherries,alcohol, black, hazy, no head, heavy cloying sweetness, lightly sour, full body, thick feel, flat, long finish,

3.5 Bottle, 6049 of 9972, enjoyed 2 years after bottling. Pours black as hell and then some, with a small cola coloured head. Aroma is sweet dark roasted malts, with tobacco and cherries, as well as sweet liquorice, muscovado and lactose. Medium to full body, with soft carbonation. Flavour is sweet roasted malts, with tobacco, liquorice, dark fruits, cherries and molasses. Tart fruits and wood in the finish.

3.9 Bottled on 2013-03-05. Drunken 2014-08-05 Pitch black colour with a dark foam. Aroma of bread, "julmust", roasted malt, some tar, some dirt and a hint of dark chocolate and dried fruits. Taste of tar, dark chocolate, dried dark fruits, some coffee, raisins and plums. Vinous character with a slight sourness. Soft, round and heavy.

3.9 375 mL bottle courtesy of Chris, served in a stem glass. Pours black with a minimal head that fades quickly and leaves no lace. The nose has big notes of soy and chocolate, along with cherry, oak and sherry. The flavour is moderately sweet with lots of cherry, molasses and chocolate, along with soy, sherry, oak and chocolate cake. The finish is moderate in length with roasted malts and sherry notes. On the palate it is full in body with a syrupy texture and almost no carbonation. Overall, a very nice imperial stout. The cherry and sherry notes provide a very nice complement to the malts. 2015-01-10

3.9 375ml bottle. Black color with no head. Aroma is roasted malty, chocolate, cocoa, some coffee, light dark fruity, light wood. Taste is sweet and bitter like the aroma. Medium oily body with soft carbonation.

3.7 Aroma of port, barrel, oak, vanilla, sherry, with slight tartness. Taste is quite tart, cutting the toasted malts by quite a bit, mellowed out dark chocolate, stale coffee, and candied prunes. "Dark fruity" and mellow, a bit too tart and quite thin mouthfeel, I think removing the cherry addition would do better.

4.5 Bottled On 15/3/13. Number of Bottle 5433 of 9972. Czarne piwo glebokiego koloru z niewielka ciemno brazowa piana babelkowa. Aromat wisni, deserowego ciasta i bitej smietany. W smaku malo kawowe troche moze czekoladowe, piernikowe rodzynki i ciasteczka. Slodkawe troche za bardzo. Rownowagi niewiele czyli chmielowej goryczki. lekka wytrawnosc. Plus za ukryty mocny alkohol.

4.3 Bottle #4504 at home :) Saving this for a real treat. Pours thick oily black, reddish tint, few fingers of brown head reducing to a thin, longer lasting layer. Aromas of dark berries (blackcurrants and blackberries), cherries, some light chocolate, tannins, sherry. Taste is tart fruitiness with light sweetness, healthy presence of alcohol. Heavy bodied and slick, oily mouthfeel like a heavy red wine, only a touch of carbonation. Love this, like many of the Abstrakts it’s different and memorable, a slow sipper to savour before it’s gone forever.

3.6 37,5 cl bottle @ lusikka. Bottle #7457/9972, bottled 15.03.2013 Aroma has licorice, berries, alcohol and hints of blackcurrants. Flavour has booze, licorice, dark berries and some roasted tones. Also some spices. Not very IS-like, more like an aged fruit beer. Sherry barrel is observable here though.

3.7 375 ml bottle. Bottle No 7457/9972. Bottled on 15.07.2013. Pours dark red color with no head. Bourbon and vanilla first thing on the nose, some dark berry notes with caramel and molasses and bourbon. Sweet caramel malts, dark berries, some bourbon notes, vanilla and molasses. Smooth velvety palate, slight alcohol thoughtput. ok. 4314

3.8 375 ml bottle. Pours a black colour without a head. Aroma of roasted malts, cacao and some berries. Flavour of roasted malts, cherry pie, biscuit, dark chocolate, butter and some wood. Full bodied and oily mouthfeel. Heavy, sweet and truly a dessert.

3.6 375ml bottle Bottled 15/3/13, bottle #7457/9972 - Pours pitch black with no head. Aroma of sherry, wood, roasty malts, hints of oak, whisky and cherries. Taste is sweet, syrupy and woody with hints of cherry, oak, sherry and toffee. Finish is sweet, sticky and woody with loads of syrup, hints of cherry and sherry notes. Quite heavy and sweet sticky.

3.8 Bottle (375ml). Short-lived half-inch tan head. Black/dark brown oil colour. Oil-like viscosity. Rich malty-fruit aroma with cherries, roasted malt, port wine, tobacco, wood. Full body, flat carbonation, oily mouthfeel. Taste is sweet upfront, with cherry liquor notes. Balance is provided by a growing acidity, which becomes slightly overwhelming, though. The finish is fairly bitter/tart.