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BrewDog Paradox Speyside (Batch 011) - 1987 Macallan Sherry Cask
BrewDog
- From:
- BrewDog
- Scotland, United Kingdom
- Style:
- American Imperial Stout
- ABV:
- 10%
- Score:
- 89
- Avg:
- 4 | pDev: 12%
- Reviews:
- 54
- Ratings:
- Status:
- Retired
- Rated:
- Jan 10, 2016
- Added:
- Jul 29, 2008
- Wants:
- 6
- Gots:
- 17
No description / notes.
Recent ratings and reviews. | Log in to view more ratings + sorting options.
Ratings by BEERchitect:
Reviewed by BEERchitect from Kentucky
4.14/5 rDev +3.5%
look: 3.5 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 4.5
4.14/5 rDev +3.5%
look: 3.5 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 4.5
Seriously complex and with the most rich of flavors, the Macallan continues the Paradox trend of challenging the palate while seducing it simultaneously.
The beer pours a very deep brown, boardering on black except around the edges. The dainties of head gives a lightly tanned color and settles to a thin lace with a few intermitten pockets of foam. Lace also evident on the glass but in limited fashion. Low carbonation give a very cask ale-like calmness.
Smoky, fruity, and complexly sweet with black strap molasass, charred plumbs, currants, and grapes, and the with the essence of charred oak and chocolate- the nose is very rich, savory, and deep. The scotch peatiness is evident.
The flavors stay avery consistent with the scent: smoky rich flavors wrapped in over caramelized syrups, oak, licorice, raisons, heavy toast, cocoa, rummy alcohols all feed the notion of fruitcake, dehydrated/stone fruits and all with the savory sherry taste of plumbs, dates, figs, prunes, and red grapes. Hopped for bitterness only, the sweet and savory start finishes with a smooth bitterness that assist the roasty coffee-like bitterness.
Farily moderately weighted for an imperial stout, making the beer seem lighter and softer than expected. It's a velvety smooth and light beer for its style. Finishing with a cola-like linger of sweetness, the alcohols provide moderate warmth but is kept well in balance with other textures.
A delightful beer that peels from the norm of imperial stouts, but doing so to showcase what's best about well made scotch whiskys and sherrys. Compex. Balanced. Masculine. Refined. The beer begs to be paired with a rich and nutty maduro cigar.
May 03, 2011The beer pours a very deep brown, boardering on black except around the edges. The dainties of head gives a lightly tanned color and settles to a thin lace with a few intermitten pockets of foam. Lace also evident on the glass but in limited fashion. Low carbonation give a very cask ale-like calmness.
Smoky, fruity, and complexly sweet with black strap molasass, charred plumbs, currants, and grapes, and the with the essence of charred oak and chocolate- the nose is very rich, savory, and deep. The scotch peatiness is evident.
The flavors stay avery consistent with the scent: smoky rich flavors wrapped in over caramelized syrups, oak, licorice, raisons, heavy toast, cocoa, rummy alcohols all feed the notion of fruitcake, dehydrated/stone fruits and all with the savory sherry taste of plumbs, dates, figs, prunes, and red grapes. Hopped for bitterness only, the sweet and savory start finishes with a smooth bitterness that assist the roasty coffee-like bitterness.
Farily moderately weighted for an imperial stout, making the beer seem lighter and softer than expected. It's a velvety smooth and light beer for its style. Finishing with a cola-like linger of sweetness, the alcohols provide moderate warmth but is kept well in balance with other textures.
A delightful beer that peels from the norm of imperial stouts, but doing so to showcase what's best about well made scotch whiskys and sherrys. Compex. Balanced. Masculine. Refined. The beer begs to be paired with a rich and nutty maduro cigar.
More User Ratings:
Reviewed by HattedClassic from Virginia
3.96/5 rDev -1%
look: 3.75 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 4
3.96/5 rDev -1%
look: 3.75 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 4
Batch 11; Bottled on 03/03/09; Aged for almost 7 years; Rust on the mouth of the bottle.
The beer pours a very flat beer because the carbonation has probably gone out of the bottle after being aged for so long. The beer itself is an opaque black with a bit of a watery look to it. It isn't bad and looks fairly decent.
The smell is really fascinating and pretty good. Despite it being on the slightly diluted side, the smell is fairly complex. There are some nice wood notes from the barrel that make it out and mix very well with the sweet dark chocolate note and light roasted note. The fruity sherry note is there and seems to resemble a slight cherry, which works very well with the chocolate notes. Overall, it's a very nice smell and works pretty well.
The taste is the same as the smell and is pretty good too. The main difference is that wood note isn't as present as it is in the smell. The sherry and chocolate combo is still in the taste but not as strong. There is still a little bit of a hop note in the taste but it's almost gone.
The feel is heavy bodied but a bit watery. Still feels decent though.
Overall, a pretty good beer and one that should have been drunk more than a few years ago. Still, not bad and a decent drink.
Jan 10, 2016The beer pours a very flat beer because the carbonation has probably gone out of the bottle after being aged for so long. The beer itself is an opaque black with a bit of a watery look to it. It isn't bad and looks fairly decent.
The smell is really fascinating and pretty good. Despite it being on the slightly diluted side, the smell is fairly complex. There are some nice wood notes from the barrel that make it out and mix very well with the sweet dark chocolate note and light roasted note. The fruity sherry note is there and seems to resemble a slight cherry, which works very well with the chocolate notes. Overall, it's a very nice smell and works pretty well.
The taste is the same as the smell and is pretty good too. The main difference is that wood note isn't as present as it is in the smell. The sherry and chocolate combo is still in the taste but not as strong. There is still a little bit of a hop note in the taste but it's almost gone.
The feel is heavy bodied but a bit watery. Still feels decent though.
Overall, a pretty good beer and one that should have been drunk more than a few years ago. Still, not bad and a decent drink.
Reviewed by TboneRN from Minnesota
3.48/5 rDev -13%
look: 4 | smell: 4.75 | taste: 3 | feel: 3 | overall: 3
3.48/5 rDev -13%
look: 4 | smell: 4.75 | taste: 3 | feel: 3 | overall: 3
The look and smell of this beer are spot on for a barrel aged imperial stout, in fact when I first smelled this beer I thought it was going to be something special, the smell was spot on...but the mouthfeel was quite thin and the taste just didn't follow. Average barrel aged beer at best
Jul 30, 2014Reviewed by BierJager89 from California
4.16/5 rDev +4%
look: 4 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 4.25
4.16/5 rDev +4%
look: 4 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 4.25
A: Dark brown/black with a few brown bubbles.
S: Anise, dark berries, and peaty smoke in the nose.
T: Peat, roasted barley, berries and anise. Quite tasty.
M: Medium bodied with less than optimal carbonation. Not what I was expecting.
O: Not the best Whisky barrel aged stout I've ever had, and the fact that it was from Macallan barrels is a bit of a disappointment. That said, I still liked it a lot and would recommend a more recent batch (Imbibed in 2012 at roughly 3 years old)
Jan 28, 2014S: Anise, dark berries, and peaty smoke in the nose.
T: Peat, roasted barley, berries and anise. Quite tasty.
M: Medium bodied with less than optimal carbonation. Not what I was expecting.
O: Not the best Whisky barrel aged stout I've ever had, and the fact that it was from Macallan barrels is a bit of a disappointment. That said, I still liked it a lot and would recommend a more recent batch (Imbibed in 2012 at roughly 3 years old)
Reviewed by Pinknuggets from Massachusetts
4.18/5 rDev +4.5%
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 4
4.18/5 rDev +4.5%
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 4
100th Review, Hooray me!!!
bottle to worthy sniffer
A: Dark dark brown very near black but not quite there in terms of color. There is essentially no head with not even a quarter cup of lacing. It is however completely opaque with nothing going through it at all
S:Dark smells chocolate almost with hints of the sherry but surprisingly not a lot of dark fruit it maintains its stout smell to it I cant quite describe.
T: There is a smokey taste in the beginning that fades into more of a stout taste with hints of dark chocolate the sherry like in the nose comes out but is not very powerful flavor. Though it is well blended with the stout flavor and adds an interesting depth to the flavor
M: Thin for a stout very watered down with a light chewy texture but not much there. It goes down easy especially with lack of carbonation as that adds to the smoothness. It is kinda of weird I do not dislike it but its not my favorite.
O:This is a good beer but not great I like the use of sherry cask it adds a lot to the flavor but almost everything else in this beer is good though needs improvement especially the mouthfeel. I will say it did complement my canoli ice cream well. Its worth a try but weather it was worth $10 is much more questionable
Feb 02, 2013bottle to worthy sniffer
A: Dark dark brown very near black but not quite there in terms of color. There is essentially no head with not even a quarter cup of lacing. It is however completely opaque with nothing going through it at all
S:Dark smells chocolate almost with hints of the sherry but surprisingly not a lot of dark fruit it maintains its stout smell to it I cant quite describe.
T: There is a smokey taste in the beginning that fades into more of a stout taste with hints of dark chocolate the sherry like in the nose comes out but is not very powerful flavor. Though it is well blended with the stout flavor and adds an interesting depth to the flavor
M: Thin for a stout very watered down with a light chewy texture but not much there. It goes down easy especially with lack of carbonation as that adds to the smoothness. It is kinda of weird I do not dislike it but its not my favorite.
O:This is a good beer but not great I like the use of sherry cask it adds a lot to the flavor but almost everything else in this beer is good though needs improvement especially the mouthfeel. I will say it did complement my canoli ice cream well. Its worth a try but weather it was worth $10 is much more questionable
BrewDog Paradox Speyside (Batch 011) - 1987 Macallan Sherry Cask from BrewDog
Beer rating:
89 out of
100 with
75 ratings
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