REVIEW: Revolution Very Mad Cow

More beer from Revolution Brewing. I know, I'm getting to be a bit of a broken record at this point. These guys are good and I really like their stuff. Their Third year Beer, the rum barrel aged barleywine that I looked at a few weeks ago was one of the best beers I've had in a good long while. Today's beer, Very Mad Cow is another entry in the same Deep Woods series of barrel aged beers that brought us the lovely Third Year Beer. I had to give this one a try. Very mad Cow is a 9.7% ABV, 30 IBU milk stout aged in Woodford Reserve barrels. Sounds delightful, right? To the beer!

Very Mad Cow pours a silky motor oil black. It's topped by a thin layer of tan head that recedes pretty quickly.

Intense notes of vanilla and caramel bourbon-ness explode right out of the top of the glass. Hints of charred oak as well. Underneath all of those lovely bourbon aromas is the body of a quite sweet milk stout with hints of chocolate and dark roasty coffee.

Very Mad Cow is quite full bodied and luxuriously silky smooth. The flavor is dominated by huge bourbony notes of vanilla, caramel, and toffee but not to its detriment. Underneath the flavors added by the time spent in the barrel are rich notes of dark chocolate and coffee. There's plenty of boozy heat in here as well, but it's still avery drinkable beer.

This is a lovely barrel aged stout and another resounding hit for Revolution as far as I'm concerned. However, given the price, if you were only to get one of their Deep Woods series, I'd have to give the nod to the Third Year Beer. It seems just a bit more daring, and definitely more complex. But like I said, if you find yourself in the market for a bourbon barrel aged stout, this one will certainly not let you down.

HD