Fresh off the heels of the successful release of Terrapin The Walking Dead Blood Orange IPA comes the second Walking Dead beer from this Athens, Georgia brewer: Lucille Black Strap Molasses Stout. If you missed the Blood Orange IPA when it was first released in 2015, not to worry, it’s back again and in cans to boot. Don’t miss out on Lucille, though, as it’s a limited release for early March and when it’s gone, it’s gone.

Lucille is, of course, named for arch villain Negan’s terrifying weapon in The Walking Dead comic books and AMC TV series. That weapon is a baseball bat wrapped in barbed wire which he employs liberally and to deadly effect. Terrapin Lucille Blackstrap Molasses Stout is packaged in a half-liter painted label bottle shaped if you will, like a baseball bat.

From that painted label:

“Lucille”, the weapon of choice inside of this bottle, is made with blackstrap molasses and vanilla. Swinging for the fences, we aged this beer on hickory, maple, and white ash, the three woods that are used to produce baseball bats. Big and menacing, its flavors hit hard.

Ingredients from the website:

HOPS: Columbus and Chinook

MALTS: 2-Row Silo Malt, Crystal 85, Flaked Oats, Flaked Barley, Chocolate Malt, Black Malt, Roast Malt

Terrapin The Walking Dead Lucille Black Strap Molasses Stout slams hard with a 9.4% by volume alcohol content and 45 IBUs. I paid $8.99 a bottle, and point soff Terrapin for taking this down from a 22-ounce bomber to a half liter. Equally distressing is the inverted conical bottom that makes you think you’re getting more than you really are.

Terrapin The Walking Dead Lucille Black Strap Molasses Stout pours to a jet-black color with a thick creamy tan head of tightly packed effervescence on a pour through my Fizzics draft system and a nose of sweet molasses and licorice. A thick layer of Brussels lace forms on the sides of my glass and follows the liquid down to the bottom of the glass.

Taking a sip, the beer has rich roasty goodness up front followed by caramel, sticky sweet dark molasses and brown sugar notes, licorice, and a long roasty sweet finish with hints of grassy hops. The beer is very thick, almost syrupy, and very, very good. I don’t really get the vanilla so much, and the woody notes are soft but they are there if you look for them.

For me, this is a five-star brew permeated with dark molasses notes that I simply adore. The half-liter bottle at the bomber price really annoys me, but it won’t stop me from buying another bottle to age. I will take off a star for that though, and bring Lucille down to four. Just don’t tell Negan about that, OK?

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