It’s officially 2015 and boy have I started it off right.

Nickel Brook’s Kentucky Bastard is a special offering from the brewery. They’ve taken their incredibly well-received and sumptuous Bolshevik Bastard Imperial Stout and aged it in Kentucky Bourbon barrels to create a beer with extraordinary depth of flavour.

It pours coal black – entirely opaque – with a thick, fluffy, sepia-toned head that pretty quickly drops down to a thin layer sitting just on top of the brew. The smell. Oh dear Gods, the smell! Picture a rich dark chocolate coffee milkshake. Then imagine mixing that with the oaky, vanilla, booziness of a sweet bourbon. Add in some dark plums, dates, raisins and the burnt quality of toasted Russian Rye bread; that’s all here in this beer. And more.

If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a hundred times: Special occasions require special beers. Celebrating the first day of 2015 merits a brew of this quality. Not for the faint of heart, the 10% ABV Kentucky Bastard is a fabulously complex and robust beer and if I take this experience as an indicator of the year to come, I couldn’t be more excited to get it started.

Cheers and Happy New Year!