Weyerbacher has a few big, bold beers that are available year-round. One of these beers is Old Heathen, an Imperial Stout that comes in at 8% Alcohol by volume. Once a year, in February, they release the barrel-aged version of Old Heathen called Heresy. Heresy is literally the same beer as Old Heathen except that it been aged in Kentucky Bourbon Barrels. Last night, I happened to have both of these beers on hand and decided to do an impromptu comparison. Here are some quick impressions of these beers:

OLD HEATHEN

Old Heathen is nice and complex stout. It’s significantly roasty, and there’s almost a rough bitter edge to it. This isn’t a bad thing, but it causes the beer to be more of a sipper than a brew you can chug. There’s a dry finish that brings a good amount of coffee and bitter dark chocolate. This isn’t the type of Imperial Stout that satisfies a sweet tooth, but it does have a lot of complexity and depth. It’s a little rough around the edges, but overall is a pretty decent beer.

HERESY

Heresy looks pretty much identical to Old Heathen, but this is about where the similarities end. The aroma of Heresy is definitely a result of barrel aging, bringing notes of vanilla and coconut with the slightest bit of alcohol. This beer is smooth and easy drinking, especially in comparison to Old Heathen. All of the rough edges of Old Heathen are smoothed out and are replaces with wonderful sweetness. There are flavors of vanilla, caramel, toasted coconut, dark chocolate, and iced coffee. While still a bit of a sipper, the smoothness of this brew make it a lot easier to drink than Old Heathen. Clearly, Heresy is the victor in this taste testing.

This is a great example of what barrel-aging does to a beer. These beers could easily be mistaken as completely different beers altogether. I would definitely recommend trying a tasting like this to really get an idea of what flavors the bourbon barrels bring.

Cheers!