Lost Abbey - Track #10 (Bat out of hell)

This week's dip into the stash, I came away with Lost Abbey's Track #10 Bat out of Hell

Well what is it? Another big stout as it happens, more specifically a 13.5% imperial stout aged in bourbon barrels with coffee and cacao nibs. Sounds wonderful, doesn't it?

Years ago when I first started looking further afield from your run of the mill ales and standard Belgian fare, I happened upon Lost Abbey. They seemed to come up time and again on American beer blogs and YouTube videos I had been reading/watching. When Beer Geek Nation uploaded a review of Serpent stout I just had to get a bottle and that I did. It certainly lived up to the hype and maybe one day I will crack another bottle and review it here. But when I found out they had thrown Serpent Stout in a bourbon barrel and added cacao nibs and coffee to it, I was on the search to find a bottle of what is Track #10 Bat out of Hell.

Now I have no idea how old this bottle was, and there is nothing on the bottle to indicate the date it was bottled on, but it is at least 2 years old. Popping the cork I could already smell the coffee and bourbon, once in the glass it opened up a bit more with milk chocolate and dark sugar sweetness. 

The taste is layers of coffee and vanilla, but that milk chocolate has turned dark with the associated bitterness you get with high percentage dark chocolate. All the coffee and dark chocolate bitterness is perfectly balanced when the caramel sweetness kicks in. For 13.5% there is no heat or booze on this, a dangerous thing given how smooth and easy drinking it is. That smoothness is mirrored in the mouth feel, it is like engine oil and coats the entire mouth.

All in all this is another perfectly balanced imperial stout, all components working together in harmony. I was sad to see the bottom of the glass, but I will no doubt seek out another bottle of this some day and I would recommend you do too.