Deep Wood 2024: The Deth’s | Revolution Brewing

How do you know it’s barrel-aged beer season? Despite it being a year-round thing now, the true concentration of barrel-aged beer typically starts in the fall, which typically coincides with Revolution’s Deth’s Tar release. And, just like every other year, you should get pumped.

This release features two constants in the Deep Wood lineup – Deth’s Tar and its coffee brother Café Deth. This year’s fruited Deth comes in the form of a fruity mix of blackberry, boysenberry, and marionberry – Deth by Bramble. Finally, for their newly introduced 2024 variant series (in stovepipe cans!), Revolution gave the V.S.O. treatment to their previously released Half Acre collab of On & On Part 3.

Deth’s Tar | 14.8% ABV

The stalwart returns again, this time with an ambitious blend that’s best explained by Marty Scott:

“Now, every once in a while our yeast can have a bad day, and need a little extra help getting to the ABV we require to safely sequester the beer in all the lovely bourbon barrels you see in the taproom. The simplest way to do this is by adding an enzyme to the fermenting beer to further simplify the sugars, making the yeasts’ job that much easier. Do this often enough though, and you’ll deplete the dextrin concentration which provides so much of these big beers’ personalities. Even with blending, if enough of your components suffer this deficit of dextrins, the resulting product will feel thin on the palate, and the pleasant, malty, mid-palate sweetness will move forward on the tongue, presenting a saccharine sweetness which even at low levels can throw the whole thing out of whack.

Thankfully, our situation wasn’t dire. The malt sweetness was just a little bit too simple, and having identified our problem, we went back to the stacks for a solution. Within them, we found a batch of Deth’s Tar barrels with gobs of high-dextrin loveliness, so the decision was made to blend a few dozen barrels of it into the tank. Here’s where it gets cool – the even-sweeter “correction” batch, with its sweetness firmly planted on the mid-palate, brought more of the blend’s sugars rearward, right where we want them. Beer’s too sweet? Add more sugar. Science! The result is a Deth’s Tar which will present with danamic, criss-crossing lines of malty sweetness, but with reinforced body and loads of oak tannin tethering it squarely within the bounds of good taste.”

Deth’s Tar pours like a caramel cola with some khaki head that evaporates like cola. It sits black in the glass, unable to see any light passing through. Massive clear alcohol stains the glass, with an ample amount of legs streaking down. The nose features a ton of bourbon and bitter baker’s chocolate up front. Dark fruits like black cherries pop through along with some star anise. Vanilla coming from the barrels joins in the party as well.

Big Belgian dark chocolate hits the tongue as you sip it along with some light vanilla and caramel notes. Some light vanilla and dark fruits come along for the ride and that Belgian dark chocolate flavor stays around in the form of some non-hop bitterness. (It’s not enough to confuse it for some old-school bitter imperial stout). Surprisingly, Deth’s Tar sits on the lighter side of medium body, drinking less-hefty than I remember previous iterations being. Having absolutely no alcohol burn on the sip makes it very dangerous and drinkable.

While I’m a huge fan of the dark chocolate notes and the lack of alcohol burn, the body on this year’s Deth’s Tar leaves me wanting more. Is it still a world-class stout? Yes it is. But some recent years’ versions have been better, with just more of everything. The base being like this, however, somehow did not affect the variants all that much.

Café Deth | 14.8% ABV

The other stalwart, Café Deth returns again with a different coffee from Dark Matter. COFFEE NOTES. It’s also perennially one of my favorites from the Deep Wood stout side of things.

Café Deth pours exactly like Deth’s Tar, although the head sticks around much longer comparatively. The alcohol stain still exists but with a much lesser coating or legs effect going on. As soon as you open the can the room fills with coffee aroma. This year’s leans toward the dark roast side of things and along brings along some dark cherries for the aroma ride. Some bitter chocolate and vanilla round things out. My wife noted that she got chocolate-covered raspberries from it and I can smell that once you get beyond the dark roast aroma.

That bitter dark roast leads the charge followed by a nice sweet vanilla note backing it up. This isn’t a cloying sweetness either, just a nice little balance to the roast. It does come off as a “cream in coffee” flavor that I always really love in my coffee stouts. The chocolate and dark fruits on the aroma move more into the background on the sip but are still present. Like Deth’s Tar, Café Deth has no alcohol burn but, at least to my palate, a slight beefier mouthfeel. That combined with the coffee treatment makes it another winner for me.

If I want to drink a Deep Wood beer on a random night, Café Deth is my go to and this year’s is no exception. No alcohol burn, not as high in ABV (or as sweet) as some of the heavier hitters, and just an overall enjoyable experience. Easily the king of regularly released barrel-aged coffee stouts in Chicago at the moment.

Deth by Bramble | 13% ABV

And now we enter typically dangerous territory. The fruited Deth variant always does weird things to the base stout. In most cases it knocks out all the lovely flavors and mouthfeel of Deth’s Tar and replaces it with whatever added fruit. Oh, and typically thins it out as well. Only one time has Revolution nailed the fruited variant (2020). But I’ll be honest, Deth by Bramble comes very close.

Deth by Bramble features blackberry, boysenberry, and marionberry added to the base Deth’s Tar. Of course it pours just like Deth’s Tar but with a slight purple tint to things. Head retention remained similar to that of Café Deth, with it staying around for a bit before disappearing. You know immediately upon sniffing that you’re in fruited Deth territory. Absolutely jammy fruit greets the nose, with tart blackberry starring above everything else. Some of the base Deth’s Tar chocolate comes through as well, giving the whole aroma a chocolate-covered fruit vibe. While some vanilla, bourbon, and oak may exist in the background, the jammy fruit kind of knocks it out.

This year’s Deth’s Tar theme is “no alcohol burn,” as Deth by Bramble doesn’t have any either. The jammy fruit shines, with tart and sweet fruits hitting the palate all over the place. The base stout actually peeks its head in a little, providing a nice chocolate and vanilla counter to the fruit running rampart. It doesn’t really thin out the beer any and provides almost exactly what I’d want out of a fruited stout.

While Deth by Bramble’s base stout doesn’t show up as much as I’d like, it’s still leagues better than other year’s. The base stout at least shows up a bit and makes its presence known, adding some much needed balance to all the fruity things. While not a high bar to clear, I’ll say this is my second favorite fruited Deth variant they’ve released. I did not expect to be saying that! 

V.S.O On & On: Part 3 | 16.4% ABV

By far the most fascinating and unexpected beer in the Deep Wood lineup. Revolution took their latest collaboration with Half Acre – On & On: Part 3 – and let it sit longer. For a refresher, the beer was broken down into a pale malt version and dark malt version, barrel-aged, and then reassembled (a “Deconstructed Stout” if you will). The sweetest components of that blend were allowed to age for an additional year in Wild Turkey barrels. While always the most fascinating of the Deep Wood beers for obvious reasons, both Revolution On & Ons (Part 1 and 3) have never been my jam.

V.S.O On & On: Part 3 pours more of a caramel brown color – a bit more brown than Deth’s Tar does. The head behaves the same way as Deth’s Tar, with it vanishing like a soda. No head remains after that and there’s a significant alcohol stain on the glass. That complex and throughout blend leads to a complex nose. Caramel, nuts, molasses, chocolate, vanilla, oak, and raisin notes weave in and out, making it akin to a choose your own aroma adventure. Some alcohol tingles the nostrils as well.

V.S.O On & On: Part 3 tastes more barleywine than stout. The barleywine stays more nutty than anything else, along with some molasses and dark fruits. The stout comes in at the end of the sip, adding some chocolate, roast and dark fruits to things. It has a similar mouthfeel to the Deth’s but the alcohol burn actually shows up at the end of the sip giving you a warming sensation. 

All together it exists as a nutty candy bar of some sorts. But not an over-the-top one like some recent beers. As it warms up a bit the beer opens up and more of the flavors come out. It then becomes a real party. For me, it comes down to the fact that I would rather have the barleywine and the stout, as opposed to the barleywine and stout together. Although I will say this is my favorite of the On & On beers released so far.

RANKINGS

4) Deth’s Tar

3) V.S.O On & On: Part 3

2) Deth by Bramble

1) Café Deth