Packaged 10/31/2023.

I’ve never been a fan of barrel-aged beers period, even from the very beginning. I remember tasting some of the earliest BCBS which I guess was around 2002 and thinking, “Why would I want a beer to taste like bourbon?” Nothing has changed for me since then, and of course a gazillon such beers have come and gone since too.

As such, to me, Black Note is really an irrelevance. However, anytime that I can talk about a beer from a position of knowledge – meaning that I’ve tried it – I seldom turn down the chance. (There are some exceptions to that).

Pour is as one would expect, and a deliberately aggressive dispensing forms some nice mocha head. Of course, It’s gone quite quickly.

In terms of the nose and the tastes this is a bourbon beer than is down the spectrum and scale of bourbon elements. That’s a good thing for me. To its credit there is a lot more chocolate and cocoa than one often finds in bourbon based beers, and again that’s a credit in my book. In beers like this I need muted bourbon alongside a smooth, rich mouthfeel, and this brings all of those attributes for me. Not much bitter/coffee/roast/alcohol/aggression, this beer sits at the gentler end without ever getting too sickly.

Light enough in the mouth to be drinkable, but big enough to apply a presence. Good balance.

I’m rarely in the mood for such things, but if I am/were this is a good candidate. Better than most in this tiresome (for me) genre, the bourbon doesn’t wear on me like it so often does. Decent, even if not a beer I’m going to reach for very much.