Tiger Town Brewing is located in the tiny town of Mitchell, Oregon, best known for its proximity to the Painted Hills unit of the John Day Fossil Beds, and, up until about 2009, Henry the Bear. Tiger Town opened its doors in 2016, the first and, as far as I know, only brewery in all of Wheeler County.
For the most part, Tiger Town’s beer is only found on tap at the brewery in Mitchell, but this year, it bottled and released a limited-edition specialty brew: Mat’ Pivo 2023, a barrel-aged imperial stout. Mat’ Pivo means “Mother Beer” in English, and Tiger Town described it on Instagram:
This beer is based on our Russian Imperial Stout and has been aged in a Crater Lake Estate Rye Whiskey Barrel for ten months. Mat’ Pivo is a strong but smooth-drinking stout with notes of vanilla, coffee, coconut, and whiskey.
A few cases made it to Bend, and I picked up a bottle to try my first beer from the brewery. It’s 9.4% alcohol by volume, and I scored bottle #70 out of 120.
Appearance: Black in the glass and opaque, with a creamy tan head.
Smell: Boozy (bourbon) barrel notes, with fruity-sharp ethanol, caramel and vanilla, baking chocolate. There’s some nice roast, dark malts, rich with a touch of coffee, and a hint of pipe tobacco.
Taste: Classic Russian imperial stout profile of dark malts, dried dark fruits, and floral alcohol, with a bracing semi-sweet roastiness and Turkish coffee bitterness peppered by a lightly fruity and floral, spicy rye whiskey note. Bitter chocolate, maybe cocoa powder, a hint of oaky smokiness. A bit of warming booziness, rich vanilla, wood, chocolate notes, a hint of red fruit.
Mouthfeel: Medium to medium-full body; not cloyingly thick like a lot of imperial stouts these days. Pleasantly roasty bitter-finish and a lingering light boozy character.
Overall: It’s pretty nice, fairly restrained, and I definitely enjoyed it.
