Imperial Stout aged in Weller 12-year and Wild Turkey 15-year bourbon barrels for 23 months, w/ Toasted Coconut and Costa Rican, Brazilian, and Alor Island Vanilla Beans.
For the final Advocator-exclusive bottle for the ‘24-’25 term, we opted to showcase two familiar ingredients in new ways to put together something special. This beer began as a blend of two Wild Turkey 15-year barrels and one Weller 12-year barrel, aged for an average of 23 months. For the final couple months of aging, we added 2-4lbs of hand split & scraped single-origin vanilla beans to each barrel, a significant increase over our standard dose. In addition, after de-barreling we added an additional dose of chopped vanilla, along with 1.25# / gal of toasted and raw coconut. This time we used a higher percentage of toasted coconut than ever before, despite its tendency to soak up lots of beer, and also opted to go through the laborious process of hand-toasting the coconut ourselves for the first time, for an added boost of aroma. We think the final blend shows off the best of both of these classic adjuncts, with vanilla as the star of the show bringing huge cookie dough goodness, and the toasted coconut playing off the barrel char for added complexity.