Anderson Valley Wild Turkey Bourbon Barrel Stout

Anderson Valley Wild Turkey Bourbon Barrel Stout

Anderson Valley Brewing Co. 

Boonville, CA

This stout is aged for three months in Wild Turkey bourbon barrels, thanks to a partnership between the brewery and the Kentucky distillery.

ABV: 6.9

ABW: 5.4

COLOR: 33

BITTERNESS: 14

ORIGINAL GRAVITY: 1061

AVAILABLE: AZ, CA, CO, DC, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL,  KS, KY, MA, MD, MI, MO, NC, NM, NV, NY, OH, OK, OR, PA, SC, TX, UT, VA, WA, WI

This beer has been aged in Wild Turkey barrels and has a deep ruby/black color with an enormous barley white head of foam. There’s a nose-tingling aroma of oak, smoke, whisky, honey malt, ground coffee beans and roasted grain. Creamy honey malt dominates the palate, accompanied by coffee, pungent whisky notes and spicy hops. The long and complex finish has bitter hops making more of a presence, with pungent whisky notes, oak, coffee and roasted grain.
- Roger Protz

It’s as black as you’d expect from a beer of its name, and a dark tan head rises and recedes. The aroma is mild, featuring more caramel than roast, and vanilla-like oak plays a supporting role here rather than being the star of the show. The bitterness is relatively low, and the beer opens sweetly across the palate, showing more dark bread than fruit, but it dries out just enough into the finish. This is one of the gentler uses of bourbon wood out there, but that’s not a bad thing; the flavors here are well-married. Start with a steak and glide right into dessert.
- Garrett Oliver

Roger Protz
Author of 300 Beers to Try Before You Die and 300 More Beers to Try Before You Die. Respected beer authority and editor of the CAMRA Good Beer Guide and www.protzonbeer.co.uk.

Garrett Oliver
Garrett Oliver is the brewmaster of The Brooklyn Brewery, the Editor-in-Chief of The Oxford Companion to Beer, the author of The Brewmaster’s Table, and the veteran host of more than 900 beer dinners in 15 countries.