Christmas Bomb! from Prairie Artisan Ales

Prairie Artisan Ales, out of Krebs, Oklahoma, has an Imperial Stout called Bomb! or Prairie Bomb!. This is a very good stout. There is also Pirate Bomb!. The Prairie Bomb! is an Imperial Stout with coffee, cacao nibs, vanilla beans and ancho chili peppers. This beer is down right delicious. The Pirate Bomb! is the Prairie Bomb! aged in rum barrels (get it, rum barrels...pirate?). When these beers are released, there is usually a mad dash to your local craft beer store to get them. They are very tasty. I have both of these variants. Well, for the Christmas season, they release Christmas Bomb!. With this beer, Prairie adds Christmas spices like nutmeg and cinnamon. It is 11.5% ABV.

I was able to pick up some bottles of this stout from The Wine and Cheese Place. When it was released, we were still on vacation down south, so I placed an order online and picked up my bottles when we got back into town. I recently made my own Beer Advent Calendar and added this beer to it. Unfortunately, I have not tasted it and I will not be picking it of my Beer Advent Calendar box for over two weeks. So, I decided to grab another bottle and try it out. Boy, am I glad I did.

This beer pours a deep black with a small tan head. It was clear a little bit around the edges. The aroma was heavy coffee, some of the spices and malt. I could have just smelled it for a while but then that might have been weird. That first taste is really nice. It was chocolaty, malty and hints of those spices.

I pulled out my phone and brought up the Untapped app to rate it. I rated it a 4.0. I took another sip and got a few different tastes. This time, I tasted the coffee and more spice. I set the glass down for a minute or two. I picked it up and swirled the glass a little bit. I then got just a hint of licorice. I can not stand that anise flavor from black licorice but there was just a hint of that in the aroma. I did not taste it though. Wifey said it best when she said that when it warms up, it opens up like a flower. I have to totally agree with her on that. The more it sat and warmed up a degree or two, the more complex flavors came out. As it got a bit warmer, you get some of the alcohol heat. When you drink this, you really need to take a little while to finish it so you can taste the different complex flavors as they develop with the change in the temperature.

This is such an amazing beer. I cannot wait for the day that I can pull this out of my Beer Advent Calendar. I give this one 4.5 hop flowers!

 The Wine and Cheese Place
Prairie Artisan Ales

Here is my Beer Advent Calendar