Tequila Barrel-Aged Mole Stout by pFriem Family Brewers is another example of pFriem’s ability to produce fantastic stout variants. The complexity in this one not only comes from the ingredients but also from the method of aging. This one is being evaluated as a Category 33B Specialty Wood-Aged Beer with  with Category 34B Mixed-style Specialty beer (Cat 20C Imperial Stout) as the base beer. That’s a mouthful – as is this offering! As with their Mexican Chocolate Stout, this brew has wonderful aromatic and flavor complexity, and is a delicious brew to savor!

The aroma of this brew revolves around the dark roast and chocolate character, with a peppery spiciness coming through behind this that is quite complementary! This deep black brew has great clarity when you look through a thin section of the glass, and has a substantial, tan, small-bubble head that exhibits fantastic retention and a lot of lace. Pretty!

Flavorwise, this brew delivered on the expectation from the aroma. The chocolate character adds an interesting and rich mole-like character to the base imperial stout.  The tequila character from the barrel is somewhat subtle, but again is complementary to the overall package by not overwhelming the rest of the brew, which could potentially happen when a spirit like tequila is involved. There is a peppery character presumably from the tequila and a touch of heat that comes through in the middle and the finish, which adds to the overall complexity. The base imperial stout is quite nice, but is perhaps a bit on the mild side as tasted. It is very clean, but is lacking some of the complex malt character expected for the style. This is just a quibble, as aging could definitely help this along. There is a sweetness that starts to come through in the middle that is relatively well balanced by the moderate hop bitterness. The rich chocolate character carries through well into the finish and remains at the next sip.  Alcohol is noted, but it is clean and not boozy. The body was rather full, and the carbonation was moderate, both working well with the flavor characteristics. 

pFriem Tequila Barrel-Aged Mole Stout is well crafted and would be a great candidate for long term cellaring, though it is eminently enjoyable as is!