“Mmmm…tastes like a glass of bourbon and a porter had a baby,” my wife said when I gave her a blind taste of the Bourbon barrel aged Imperial Porter from North Sound Brewing. Not being a beer geek, (one per household is quite enough) she doesn’t overanalyze, and is spot on and succinct. That’s exactly what this beer tastes like. It’s the beer equivalent of those old peanut butter cup ads where the guy in the walkman is strutting down the street with a chocolate bar and collides into a woman eating peanut butter. Ignoring the fact that only a lunatic walks down the street eating peanut butter, the marriage of bourbon and porter by North Sound is fantastic. While technically not labeled a winter beer, this is exactly the type of beer I want during the cold winter months. North Sound’s winter offering is a little boozy, has hints of vanilla from the bourbon barrel, coffee and molasses, but most importantly, not too sweet. Sucellus Imperial Porter is meant to be sipped by a warm fire, or your favorite cozy bar. Ideally, both at the same time. I realize that barrel aged beers have become about as ubiquitous as teriyaki restaurants in Seattle, but unlike so-so teriyaki, I always look forward to trying a new barrel aged beer.
North Sound Brewing-opened last year in Mt. Vernon-may be a newcomer to the Washington brewing scene, but they are making some beers to take notice of. If you are driving up north stop by their tap room, and tell them to send some more barrel aged Sucellus Imperial Porter down to Seattle!
