Rating: 5.8/5
Embargo by Black Market Brewing is a 9.8% ABV Imperial Brown Ale brewed with Vanilla & Cocoa Nibs aged in whiskey barrels.
Label:
Embargo is an elegant, barrel-aged Imperial Brown Ale, based on a high gravity version of our popular Shakedown Brown. Embargo is aged in used whiskey barrels with cocoa nibs and vanilla beans to create and amazingly well layered taste sensation. Enjoy Embargo on special occasions with special friends.
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Picked up a bottle at Ramirez Liquor store. I was going to pass this up but the colors got to me and just the fact that I never had an Imperial Barrel aged brown ale, I had no choice but to break the Bavarian law, lol, and try to ship this to my experience of flavors as well as show may why it is called Embargo. It could be that this beer has something to hide, something dark that the government doesn’t want you to try or even know about. However, we here at brewerianimelogs would like to show you otherwise.
Aromas:
Lot’s of rich berries and dark fruits, black berries, blue berries, boysenberries, currants, raisins, strawberry jam, rich plantain bananas, dark chocolate, vanilla, oak, bourbon, coconut, coffee notes, marshmallows, clove spice, old bananas, brown sugar, dulce de leche caramel, flan, chocolate abuelita, whiskey, rye bread, sugar cone, cinnamon, molasses, mint and anise.
Flavors:
Rich Plantain bananas (Platano Macho), chocolate abuelita, oak, bourbon, coconut, dark chocolate, earthy hop notes, vanilla, milk chocolate, dulce de leche caramel, rich dark fruits like blackberries, boysenberries, blueberries, currants, raisins, plum notes, strawberries, grape marmalade of rye toast bread,clove spice, molasses, mint, anise, brown sugar, pillocillo sugar cone, cinnamon, marshmallows smores, mocha, coffee, flan, coconut and crème brulee hints.
Aftertaste:
Lingering berry flavors, whiskey, bourbon notes, caramel,flan, plantain, earthy hop bitterness, vanilla and oak. No alcohol in the taste, a sipping beer, full bodied mouth feel but very delicious that you may want to finish the bottle trying to find more of what makes this one good.
Overall:
I have no fucking idea what it is about barrel aging a brown ale but this took flavors to a whole other profile of complexity that I haven’t tried from a barrel aged beer in the past. That is also attributed to the vanilla beans and cocoa nibs for that matter. This is damn good, Black Market must have pulled a page from the Bruery book and decided to take it into a direction that I am sure not many have traversed. Imperial Brown ales aged in bourbon are very uncommon and one made with vanilla and cocoa nibs, its over!
Anime Corner:
Motoko Kusanagi from Ghost in the Shell was used in this pairing to pair with different aspect. We start with the label which pairs with Motoko’s hair color, and apparel. Next we look at the the aspect of the label that involved Embargo, the government’s intervention of stopping imports at the heart of the ports. Ghost in the Shell has nothing to do with ports really, but Motoko does work for an organization of Public Safety which connects to the government which connects to the public’s safety in terms of the access to international goods. This beer represents the hidden goodness, maybe not by the government, but something that has yet been discovered that maybe the public is not ready for. I feel that this is way to knew and the good folks at Black Market brewery know a little bit too much. Motoko, while maybe being a public safety agent, she still exposes the source for good. Meaning she can be a double agent nd bring some of those really good berry, oak, plaintain, bourbon and more complexities over to us that the Black Market has. Hey, even in the show, even though she was a mission to do, she does show her caring side even if she does the right thing when it comes to going against the system. Then again, who knows, and that is where the beer’s mystery lies in.
Brewerianimelogs (Anime and Beer Lore) 