Town Branch Maple Barrel Stout Finished Bourbon Review

By Richard Thomas

Rating: C+

Before there was a Town Branch Distillery or even a sourced brand, there was a Lexington Brewing Company, with the distillery erected on the property of the original brewery. Today’s joint Lexington Brewing & Distilling Company isn’t quite what most people imagine when they think “brewstillery,” because the brewery and distillery aren’t under the same roof or even fully adjacent (although there is a brewery next to the distillery, large parts of the brewing operation are conducting elsewhere in Lexington, Kentucky).

Yet no romantic and crafty image changes what the actual value of a brewstillery is, and Lexington Brewing & Distilling certainly enjoys that: synergy. Such is the case with the Town Branch Maple Stout Finished Bourbon. This starts with an imperial stout, brewed with brown sugar “for extra kick;” and an ex-bourbon barrel that has been used to age maple syrup. The imperial stout is then aged for 18 months in what is now ex-bourbon maple syrup barrels, becoming Kentucky Maple Barrel Stout.

Those barrels were then taken over to the distillery and filled up with already mature bourbon again. This second, November 2023 batch of Town Branch Maple Barrel Stout Finished Bourbon has received two years in the finishing casks; the third batch due out later this year will raise that finishing period to three years. After that lengthy finishing spell, the bourbon was bottled at 94 proof.

The Bourbon
The pour took on a light, dulled amber look in the glass. The nose had a core current of benchmark bourbon notes: vanilla, candy corn, a sliver of oak, but add to that a whiff of earthy cocoa. The flavor spun around a bit to lead with the earthy, coffee-ground bitter flavor of stout, but behind that came up those previously mentioned benchmark bourbon notes. The dry finish mixed that bitter coffee-stout current with the oak sliver, but didn’t linger for a particularly long time.

Certainly the stout influence on this bourbon is strong, but not so much so that it overwhelms the core point of it being bourbon. The one thing I thought was largely absent was the maple syrup part, but having never actually tried the Kentucky Maple Barrel Stout, I can’t say how strong the maple influence was on the root beer. The problem here is that while some people like their bourbon spicy, I can’t recall anyone ever saying to me that they like it to have a bitter aspect. I find myself wondering if perhaps this would not have been a better effort on their rye, but that is just me being speculative.

The Price
This bottle is listed at $70.