Type Study - Touch of Death Imperial Stout

From my searches, it looks like Touch of Death, an Imperial Stout first appeared in March of 2014 and was one of the earliest beers that Jon Shari attempted. Looks to be at least three batches brewed (but there was probably two batches, the original oatmeal stout then a reworked version - at some point I'll ask Jon what was going on), the initial in March as an oatmeal stout at 13.5% ABV, a second in April (now not an oatmeal stout) at 12.5% ABV, and a third in October at 12.5% in a red waxed bottle.

 

 The image above was from an Instagram post dated 2014.10.15.

 First Untappd checkin 2014.03.23 - note the change of the typeface.

 

It's pretty unusual for a homebrewer to already have labels for his beer so early, somehow Jon managed to have labels on most of his bottles (probably thanks to his daughter Tori). 

The next appearance of Touch of Death was in 2016 with a change to Barrel-Aged Touch of Death at 13% and the description: 

"Barrel-aged in Few Spirits bourbon barrel and then conditioned on cocoa nibs, vanilla, cinnamon, coffee, habanero, and serrano peppers. Sweet chocolate and vanilla accompanied by a Mexican spice that will take your senses on a trip. ??️". 

The first Untappd check in was on 2016.03.12 but that may have been an earlier vintage checked into the wrong beer. The first image check in was on 2016.04.01 - you can see the red wax.

Again, this may have been an earlier bottle checked into the wrong version. 

I believe there was another release of Barrel-Aged Touch of Death with an updated label on 2019.09.14:

The Little Cottage Brewery opened its doors on 2021.05.12.

Jon finally added the Touch of Death as a bottle release on 2024.04.24 with the description:

"Barrel-Aged in Few Spirits bourbon barrel and then conditioned on cocoa nibs, vanilla, cinnamon, coffee, habanero, and Serrano peppers. Sweet chocolate and vanilla accompanied by a Mexican spice that will take your senses on a trip."

Here's an image from a check in on 2024.04.24:

 

Note that there's additional digital shading on the face and another change of font - the wax color is still red.

The 2025.05.05 release features a barrel change and a gold wax color:

"Barrel-aged stout. This year's Touch of Death was aged in an Old Elk bourbon cask before being conditioned on chocolate, Madagascar vanilla, cinnamon, coffee, habanero, and serrano peppers. This is a delicious spicy Mexican chocolate in liquid form."

 

 

I'm looking forward to the next release!