Old Bust Head Barrel Aged Coconut Coffee Gold Cup
I should have known something was wrong with this variant of Old Bust Head’s Russian imperial stout. Once the head receded to nothing atop the near-black brew, it was easy to see the large chunks of material — was it coconut or protein — floating throughout the bit stout. Taking in aroma of the Bourbon barrel-aged Coconut Coffee Gold Cup, there was nothing present to set off any alarms. But once the 10% ABV stout hits the tongue, we know something isn’t right.
There is no bourbon or wood or coconut once the stout interacts with the tastebuds. Instead there’s the telltale sour twang of something gone wrong somewhere in the process. Whether it’s barrel infection or a critter that crept in during bottling, the past two years have cultivated something off within the beer’s dark depths. I’m also guessing that the particulate that I witnessed floating on the surface wasn’t bit of coconut.
As a fan of the company’s standard Gold Cup and the recently reviewed barrel-aged version of that brew, I was really looking forward to what this particular variant had to offer. Unfortunately, it wasn’t drinkable. Perhaps the third bottle in the trilogy that I had purchased will come back around with a better experience.