Lucky Bucket Certified Evil

Certified Evil is an undomesticated beast, a dark, ominous and oak aged creation. It's aggressive hops battle it's massive malt profile, Flavor assaulting all those who bear witness." Do I want to get assaulted with flavor? Hmmm, maybe, maybe…
"Malt beverage brewed with brown sugar, raisin juice, molasses, cardamom and orange peel and aged in wine casks." It's called an Imperial Porter, rings in at 9.6%, and has been aged in Cabernet barrels. Let's get cracking' at it…

Solid blackness, dark as sin, with a thin, brown ring for a head.

Deep and rich aromatics, dark fruit foremost, with molasses, chocolate, espresso, and more making up the mix. Raisins, figs, brown sugar…cocoa powder. Well balanced, nothing is dominant, nothing too loud or too callous. Even tempered all the way, aromatically.

Now, let's taste…in the mouth, it's a thick morass of flavors, sweet malty flavors kept in check, well maintained, tremendously balanced. Some berries in here, too, all that dark fruit, the raisin, the brown sugar, the molasses, the deep, dark richness all comes out on the palate, the cocoa and coffee. And before you know it, you start to pick up on the wine barrel aging, too.

Some tannins pop on the palate, we're getting some of the grit and the grab of the wine flavoring for sure. It wraps around the other flavors lovingly, coats them, covers them and makes them all get along. A little pithy twinge of sweetness rings it out. Sip again, the complex mix comes together on the palate, they all show themselves and make themselves known among this behemoth blend, stick their necks out and take a little bow. Then the wine barrel bit sweeps them up again, and we're picking out favorite cameos from that previous performance. "Ah, wasn't the coffee delightful? Did n't the cocoa shine? Remember the raisin, and wasn't molasses in top form?"

And now, at the end of the glass, the bottle drained, the alcohol comes booming in, …glad this is the last beer of the night. I'm off to bed, and dream of happy things, hopefully, with no evil creeping into my slumber.