There's a tinge of the sourness that usually afflicts these beers but for once it's just background noise and easily balanced by the chocolate and roast of the stout. It's still not something I'd go out of my way for, but maybe there's hope.

Fool me twice. Sour, vinegar-like, burnt sugar/caramel. Buffalo Trace barrels used, we preteneded the first time that it was a wine barrel and we could excuse the taste, or something went wrong, but now I have to assume this flavor is by design.

Either this was wine-barreled or Big Block's barrels are infected. Given I've just tried their plain scotch ale and with my memory of both the plain RIS and barrel-aged Scotch Ale, the barrel-aged beers come out extremely sour and funky, just a bit more than Bellevue's similar-tasting results. Fine if you imagine wine, terrible if you imagine bourbon.