Firestone Walker: Parabola 2024 (USA: Imperial Stout: 13.8% ABV)
Visual: Black opaque body. Thin brown froth of a head.
Nose: Caramel. Fudge. Strong liquorice. Black-cherry.
Body: Black liquorice. Caramel. Black cherry. Bitter cocoa. Dry chocolate cake. Thick and boozy. Slight dry alcohol. Fig rolls.
Finish: Chocolate cake. Liquorice. Dry coffee cake. Rye whisky. Rye crackers. Drying alcohol character. Fig rolls.
Conclusion: Turns out that everything has an exception. In this case the fact that super evident liquorice notes in beer are not my thing. Apart from here it turns out. There is so much liquorice going on here, but somehow the big booziness backing it up makes it manageable and more than that, enjoyable.
Which is odd, but, ya know, also cool. Not unexpectedly that base beer is boozy in that viscous way that a big abv beer can be , which is not to everyone’s taste, but that I enjoy. Though there is also some of that drier neutral alcohol air which I am less a fan of. It handles the alcohol weight of the beer a lot better than the recently tried barrel aged speedway stout did though – I think the chewiness of the main body makes it more manageable.
Flavour-wise it leans heavily into the caramel and fudge notes for the sweetness, I presume from the barrel aging – though there is evident dark fruit, black cherry and figs that come out underneath if you let the beer air for a while. Before that, early on the more traditional imperial stout coffee and chocolate play is there, but that seems to fade over time as the dark fruits come out.
Overall it feels like a stew of dark fruit, sweet fudge and maybe a bit too much liquorice even with how well it handles it, but I can roll with that.
Not a greatest beer in the world for me, despite its reputation, but still very impressive, especially considering how one of its core notes is one I don’t normally enjoy. If it could just negate the drying alcohol better I feel it would improve massively and become an all time great. As is, still very good, just not a must have for me.
Background: Another ratebeer top 50, seen at the EU based beer republic at the same time I grabbed the also top 50 Barrel Aged Speedway stout. Due to incredibly high postage prices I had to keep the order small but those two were must grabs. This is an imperial stout that has been aged in barrels that previously held 12 year Elijah Craig bourbon and is part of the 16th batch of the beer. I’ve loved the hoppy firestone walker beers I have tried, so had high hopes for this one. Ratebeer has a bias towards and dark and rare beers in its ratings IMHO but still, the top ones tend to be worth checking out. Music wise I went with Green Day: Saviours as they were still on my mind having seen them live recently.
