Strictly speaking, this beer hasn't been covered previously, as it's the barrel aged version, released a year after the original formed part of The White Hag's launch line-up. It's close enough for my purposes, however, and the ABV is the same. The 75cl bottle with a sealed-on cap should mean it has held up well, even after a full decade in my sub-optimal cellaring conditions. As I struggled to prise open the thick layer of wax, I hoped that the oxygen had as much trouble getting in as I did.
From the initial taste, I thought something had gone horribly wrong. There's a huge phenolic character sitting up front, all peat and seaweed. I had not noticed that the barrels it was aged in were Highland scotch, and it was clearly one of the peated varieties. There's no whisky spirit nor oaken spice, just that earthy peat. I was half way through the first glass before I could taste anything else.
The stout beneath is pristine, without a hint of oxidation, autolysis or anything else untoward. I suspect that this tastes identical to when it went into the bottle. Peat aside, it's more a beer of texture than flavour, lightly carbonated and incredibly smooth. That's easily interpreted in a less positive way, of course: the subtle coffee and caramel I noted in plain Black Boar has been drowned out by the blousy barrel, and there's no sign of evolution of extra complexity after ageing: no thinning out from in-bottle attenuation, despite bottle conditioning, and none of the vinous qualities that a little oxidation can bring to a beer like this.
This one is good for quite a few more years yet, I'd say, if you're holding a bottle. And it'll still taste mostly of peat regardless of how long it's left.
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