MacTarnahan's Bourbon Cask Aged Blackwatch Cream Porter
Blackwatch Cream Porter, voted the best porter in the US at the 2001 Great American Beer Festival, is further enhanced by slow aging in cask barrels. Essences of cask flavor and aroma meld with Blackwatch's smooth drinkability to create one of the greatest drinking experiences you will ever encounter.
3.8
165 reviews
Portland, United States
Community reviews
Lots of very creamy chocolate in the aroma.Pours black with a big tan head.Nice chocolate flavor with some noticable hops in there as well.Thin to medium mouthfeel with a hoppy chocolate finish.
Bottle courtesy of Walt. Chocolate and tangy bourbon aroma. Stoutlike appearance has a medium to full palate. Hops are clearly present in the taste. Very light bourbon and malt actually don’t dominate the BA brew--which is nice. Still, I felt it was lacking in overall complexity and fullness.
Bottle. 2003 vintage. Black body with mahogany tinges and a mocha-brown head. The aroma is subtle in many ways - lots of rye and bourbon qualities but otherwise uneventful. Creamy, thick body with chocolate and toffee flavours. Kind of complacent and tame in the end. Sharp carbonation.
Photo of the bottle and glass:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mdstich/424309445/
pours black with a one finger brown head that quickly disappears. aroma is roasted malt and barrel. flavor is a light roasted malt and wood barrel. light to medium body with no lacing. i really like the barrel taste it is what saves some of this brewery’s beers. not bad but not the best. there is also a little licorice aroma and flavor towards the end of the glass. pretty smooth and balanced though.
Thanks to richlikebeer! Pours dark brown/black with a creamy head. Aroma of chocloate, alcohol, vanilla. Tastes of chocolate, vanilla, molasses and maybe some hops. Too bad it’s retired.
2003 vintage 22oz bottle: I know that I got this in a trade sometime back. Thanks to whoever it was! This pours a very dark and opaque brown. There was quite a bit of a tan head onit after the pour, but it drops off rather quickly. It leaves really no lacing on the glass. There are many different aroma that present themselves here. Chocolate, coffee, possible some raisin and vanilla. There are others, but they are part of the complex nose. The taste is silky. There are notes of chocolate and bourbon to the taste. Slight note of bitterness in the finish. This is quite nice.
22oz bottle vintage 2003 - via my Secret Santa! - Thanks! - Pours dark brown with ruby red highlights and a big foamy tan head that stays well and laces pretty well. Aromas of chocolate, caramel, some oak, raisin, maybe just a little bourbon and some vanilla. Flavor is lots of cocoa, some bourbon, oak, vanilla, raisin, molasses. Well carbonated medium body with some light hops on the finish still surviving 3 years later. Very tasty brew..Glad to have the chance to try this one..
Bottled, 2003 vintage. Poured black with a deep tan head. Fruity, malty nose (raisiny). A sweet, creamy flavor with woody notes and a hint of bourbon in the finish. the mouthfeel was a bit thin, and the finish was mildly hoppy. An excellent brew that I’ll look for again.
Pour black with a big bubbled nice tan head...smell is vanilla, cocoa, bourbon, smoke, wood, and delightful...taste is sweet with some cocoa and bourbon flavors including vanilla and molasses...not incredibly lively mouthfeel, or full bodied, but it is a 6% porter that was aged in wood over three and a half years ago...delicious it is...
Bomber 2003 vintage poured a clear dark reddish black with a small lasting brown head. Aromas of bourbon, vanilla, oak, roasted malt and a bit of vinous notes. Palate was light bodied and smooth. Flavors of light bourbon, oak, vanilla and chocolate with a smooth slightly sour finish.
Courtesy of Boboski..Thanks Jason for a beer I thought I’d never get to try.
Unsure of the date. Lots of wood notes int he aroma, burnt and roasted malts. Body is a deep black with a diminishing finger thick tan head. Gobs of oak in the fore and srong bourbon accents. Amazing amounts of vanilla and some faded roast elelments. The carbonation is low, I assume due to age and the bourbon is very strong. The finish is a suprinsgly tasty melange of vanilla, chocolate, oak, coconut and bourbon with a pretty acidic/sour flourish.
22-oz 2003 bottle from ratman197, thanks Don. Pours very near opaque with a small frothy tan head that dissipates quickly. Aroma is bourbon nose, vinous port and oak notes, dark chocolate and coffee dregs, sour yeast (dough), malt (straw), slightly sugary caramel. Moderately bitter, medium acidity, sour malt and yeast flavor, ends with a fading bourbon hoppy flavor. Dark bodied and thin, spicy but smooth, creamy palate, dry finish.
22 oz. bottle, from Liquid Solutions. Pours black and opaque, with a large beige head that diminishes leisurely leaving some creamy lacing. Dark chocolate and roasty malts dominate the aroma, along with bourbon and moist prune. Nice roasty malt flavor, bitter cyhocolate, floral notes, dandelion mil, bourbon and oak and an astringent finish. Smooth but thin body, easy carbonation. Pretty good and enjoyable overall.
Very dark brown with low carbonation and a weak tan head. Chocolate, vanilla, coffee, anise, bourbon, and a light acidity are detected. The bourbon and oak flavors are nice with the roasted malt flavors, but the beer seems very weak and has an unpleasant finish.
This smells great. It really isn’t very creamy, but it is quite nice. The bourbon is lsightly there in taste, but it does enough to transform the beer significantly from the original. A little think on the tongue, but good overall, and my gf loves it.
Thanks to hopdog for this...
Appears a black with a small light tan head that retains for a minute and spotty lacing left around the glass.
Smell is of anise, rich caramel, cocoa, cream, and milk sugar.
Taste is of the same aromas kicked down a slight notch.
Mouthfeel is creamy, and sugary smooth. A very enticing beer.
Thanks to hopdog. Pours a dark brown with a blubby tan water yet lacing head. Aroma of coffee, dark fruits and alcohol. Flavor of coffee, vanilla and an overall sweetness.
22oz bottle acquired in trade (I think with DarkElf?). 2003 vintage. Poured a dark brown color with a small sized off white head. Aromas of dark fruits, cofee, smoky, vanilla, and very light bourbon. Tastes of dark fruits, vanilla, coffee, chocolate, and some lactose. I found the barrel aging was done just right on this one (enhanced the flavors and wasn’t ’in your face’). Nice and smooth body. I really enjoyed this one.
2003 bottle found at Keg & Bottle #2. Pours dark brown with a small tan head. Aroma is ripe with bourbon, vanilla, and malts. The taste is very rich; chocolate, coffee, and roasted malts. The bourbon and barrel taste comes out in the end. There is a strange sourness in the aftertaste. Overall, a great porter that just didn’t store well.
Sample courtesy of BBB63. Pours dark brown with minimal head. Lots of vanilla and bourbon in the aroma, slight roastiness. Flavor is all bourbon and vanilla again, with some chocolate and roasted grain. A fruity sourness comes through in the finish/as it warms.
Huge Thanks to SlikWily for this one! 03’ bottling. Pours a pitch black color, small tan colored head, a few dabs of lace and what not. Aroma has huge nots of bourbon and vanilla. Some chocolate and coffee notes as well. Flavor has gone down hill, now is sour and thin. Woulda loved to try this fresh!
Pours a dark brown color with brown highlights. Aroma of bourbon and chocolate. Flavor of mild bourbon, mild roasted malt and chocolate. The body is light with a syrupy texture and strong carbonation. It’s interesting but I have to agree with Rastacouere that it’s past it’s prime.
2003 bottle. A ring of yellowish head covers the deep cola brown body and somehow manages to lace a bit. Woody oxidized aromas hint at penny, nuts, mellow bourbon and strong chocolate milk. Keep in the same vein in mouth, but the bad parts are pushed further, a metallic-wood combo with strong barrel influence on a seemingly dull base beer. Leafy, penny-ish and chocolatey. Very bubbly thin body doesn’t help the matters. Some may like it, but this has to be past its prime.
Bottle: Courtesy of BBB63 (I think). Aroma is a great balance of chocolate, vanilla, and bourbon. Pours a dark brown with no tranparency and a fizzy tan head that quickly fades to a ring. Chocolate and vanilla up front with some light hints of tart fruitiness. Finishes with a nice balance of roasted coffee and bourbon.
2003 bomber: Pours a dark a luscious looking brown accompained by a small tan head. The aroma is a strange smell, but it does have nice notes of chocolate, toasty malt, rice, and wood. The flavor has gone quite flat and seems to have lost all of its personality over the years. However, i do note small signs of roasted malt and wood, but i mean, it is so faint that i’m not enjoying this beer as i sit here drinking it. Past its prime, for sure.
Bottle Pours a deep inky black with a large faomy dark tan head. Lacing is coarse and spotty. Lots of dark pitted fruits aromas, chocolate and vanila and a little of that bourbon cask. Flavor is mainly very smokey and chocolate and yes, lacking that common porter tang. Very smooth though not particularly heavy and fairly lively carbonation. Very yummy. May have to hoard a few of these.
This came to me in a nice trade from someone whose name I can’t recall at the moment. The beer, sadly, like many barrel-aged beers, tastes more like the barrel than like the base beer. I looked somewhat in vain for my buddy the Porter Tang and didn’t find him. What I did find was a ton of char, vanilla, and oak flavors along with a slick mouthfeel and a slightly alcoholic aftertaste. The porter was there, of course, in some roasty notes, a fleeting bitterness, some coffee and chocolate notes...but almost all was bourbon.
The name of this beer really is an apt description of what it is really like. Definitely a porter with its characteristic nicely toasted malt flavors, very creamy with a pleasant mouth feel, and a very slight bourbon character in both the aroma and beer. One of the best offerings from this brewery.
Buttered popcorn nose, dark dark black color. Tastes like buttered popcorn also. Whiskey end. Heavy sweet taste. The burbon really comes through. I’m not so exciting from these bourbon cask ales overall.
2003/ thanks arnoud and Shelly! Nice black color, medium hazelnut brown head. Coffee - slightly sweet taste. Butter popcorn nose.