Parabola is the signature barrel-aged imperial stout from Firestone Walker Brewing, a massive, vintaged beer released each year, sometimes aged in bourbon barrels; I believe I may have a bottle squirreled away among my boxes of beer. The brewery also releases variants based on Parabola, and one of those is Parabolita, a slightly smaller (9.2% ABV vs. 13.5%) imperial stout infused with ingredients to emulate the flavors of salted caramel.

It’s also the first-ever canned vintage beer from the brewery, and I received a can from Firestone Walker to review. There’s a lot going on with Parabolita; here’s the description:

To create this first-ever canned Vintage beer, we aged a selection of Parabola for one year in premium bourbon barrels, then blended it with a complement of Velvet Merlin milk stout to create a silky mouthfeel and a more approachable ABV of 9.2-percent. Finally, we infused the beer with Madagascar vanilla beans, cocoa nibs, and sea salt to achieve a full Salted Caramel-style drinking experience.

The can notes that this is “Batch #1,” 2022 edition; I don’t know if that definitively means there were be future batches, or if the company will release different “flavors” in the Parabolita name.

Appearance: Dark brown and opaque, almost black in the glass, with a creamy tan head with great legs.

Smell: Bit of a chocolate milk quality, luscious and rich, and a bit of a chocolate cake character with a nice complement of vanilla. A caramelly note and a subtle-but-present splash of bourbon. Fairly dessert-y, a hint of coffee, and a subtle roastiness.

Taste: There’s a big roasty note in the flavor, rich yet full of black malts and slight char, chocolate malts, and burnt caramel. Vanilla is mild and possibly washed out a bit by the roastiness, and I do get a subtle salted caramel character though it’s not salty. Not much bourbon character in the flavor, except as vanilla/caramel notes. Sweetened coffee roastiness, perhaps a bit of Turkish coffee.

Mouthfeel: Medium-full to full body, smooth, with a big roasty-bitter finish.

Overall: Quite tasty, fantastic aroma, it delivers without being cloying.