Black Butte XXI

[Jaeger48]

Ok, let me preface this review that I LOVE Deschutes. BBP and Obsidian Stout are two of my go to beers. They balance flavors almost perfectly in most of their beers and that may have taken me off guard with this beer.

I drink beer because I love the malt and hops, I can moderate my alcohol levels, and the wide variety. Having said that this is a good beer but the bourbon is too much for me.

Initial nose let's you know this has bourbon- alcohol heat, and bourbon with very little indication of the coming roasty flavors to come. The chocolate malts and coffee don't seem to catch up to the bourbon. They say there is coffee and chocolate in there but the roastyness and bourbon kill it for me.

Now- I still drank the whole bottle and will still buy most any beer that Deschutes puts out but I'm a bit jaded on this beer. If you are a bourbon fan and can pick out more flavors then I'm sure you're experience will be better but for $14 a bottle I'll pass on this one.

PROST!

[azbrewhooligan]

I bought this beer due to Beer magazine's review on it. I to thought it was heavy on the bourbon. I did buy two ottles of it and took there advise, and am letting it age until the best after date on the bottle. I think the purpose of this beer was to try it now and to try it again after the date on the bottle. It was a limited release for the 21 st birthday reserve. The date best by one the other bottle i have is 10-17-10. If you could still get your hands on another bottle it would be interesting to know what you thought then. Here's to hoping the second bottle is better

[Pharmbrewer]

I loved the original release and thought it would age well, alas I liked it so much the one I bought to age was consumed after an encounter with the abyss. I thought the abyss definately needed some age and wanted to see how it compared with the XXI. I highly favored the XXI. We'll see how well the aged abyss stands up next year.

Prost

[azbrewhooligan]

Well opened the second bottle on new years 2010. Posted back in Feb on this thread. I can say i can understand now why they have pulled these off the shelves. Bourbon still comes through very strong. Extremely roasty, chocolate and coffee comes through much better as the flavor are more refined. But it has no head retention what so ever (which is why they pulled it, well that and the chocolate staying in suspension) But i would have to say after 10 months of aging it was a different beer from the first one i drank back in Feb. Thats pretty much a given though.