Herevana – #200 – Sunshine – Port Barrel Imperial Stout

To prove that I’m an easy mark a daringly packaged beer will always grab my eye, this one dipped in wax was like a shiny thing to a Magpie. I’ve been looking for a good time time to open it. That means that today is the day.

Sunshine Brewery make the Sunshine Port Barrel Imperial Stout, and they do that in Gisborne, 🇳🇿 , New Zealand, naturally it is a Stout – Imperial in style with an ABV of 10.0% This is 2.6 standard drinks in New Zealand.

Looking back over the last few weeks on the Insta and Untappd apps it seems to have been an almost unending run of yellow beers with hardly a stout amongst them, which isn’t a bad thing it’s just a bit unusual. I’m determined to try and break that, with a couple of dabbles in Scotch Ales and the like. But being me the Stouts I have seem to be the bog ones, oh well.

At least this one is bottles in a smaller 330ml bottle, at least it is in a bottle rather than a can, maximise that product appeal.

I feel it could be the wrong beer to stat an evening with, the same sentiments that I had last night of course, and probably others. So, anyways after a struggle to get this open, it’s wax, you need implements and the added frission of danger that it brings with it. But I did get it open.

Even outside in with the swimming winds this has a loud bold aroma, rich fruity, a bit boozy, and it is a lovely pour of rich oil back beer with a nice head, which isn’t around for one and settles to a film

This is quite sweet and a lot less full in the mouth than I expected, bit the length of the flavour is impressive, a really long lingering fruity sensation.

Not as bold on the coffee but this leads with that dried fruity richness, which tempers the slight bitter up-tick at the end.

The Pdubyah-o-meter rates this as a 8 on the arbitrary number scale. I wanted it to be more than it is, and whilst it is bold and rich, for me, this isn’t bold and rich in the right places.

Music: I’m listening to Teskey Brothers on some vinyl. You can on Spotify if you’ve a mind to.

Herevana beers are those I drink at home, I’m not at some beer festival, like, for instance, Beervana, but am just in my kitchen, usually, dining room table, sometimes, or outside, occasionally, where I can take an average picture and write in real time about the beer that I’ve invested in, both in a monetary and emotional way.

Philip himself.

An intense and complex dark ale rested in ex-port barrels. Cacao and roast malt characters lead layers of coffee, dried fruit and hazelnut before a lingering finale supported by structured oak

Brewers Notes

Stout – Imperial

The “Imperial Stout” or “Double Stout” is an intensely-flavored, big, very dark reddish-brown to black colored ale with a wide range of flavor balances and regional interpretations. Roasty-burnt malt with deep dark or dried fruit flavors, and a warming, bittersweet finish. American versions have more bitterness, roasted character, and finishing hops, while the English varieties, or “Russian Imperial Stout” (RIS), reflect a more complex specialty malt character and a more forward ester profile. Like a black barleywine with every dimension of flavor coming into play. More complex, with a broader range of possible flavors than lower-gravity stouts.