Bottle. Thanks Jordan - weekly share. Pours black tan head. Nose/taste of chocolate, black pepper, coriander, sour earth, citrus and oak - medium body. The best beer of our tasting. A bit surprised as 12% sour imperial stouts don’t usually hit the mark quite like this.

Draught at the brewery, 6/6/15
Dark mahogany liquid has some dark auburn highlights on the edges with a medium-sized drab tan head that shows moderate retention. Great clarity on the beer as well; could see pretty far in to it while holding it up to the sun.
Nose is quite a bit more reserved than the flavor; not muted or not-aromatic, I suppose I should just say quite a bit different. Some treacle and light acidity combine to immediately announce this as a nicely attenuated, dry version. Not intensely sour in the nose, nor is it full of barnyard quite yet. The beer being fresh and still relatively young, the spices and citrus are felt more prominently now. Still, there’s a delightful amount of playful acidity and fruitiness, with light caramel and toffee notes emerging more with warming. Even with the spice/citrus/brett, it’s not too dry/astringent and comes off surprisingly light and airy for an Imperial Stout. Alcohol immensely well-controlled, as well.
Rich, leathery and tobacco-laden dark malts are wonderfully attenuated, while the wheat provides ample softness on the palate as the citrus bitterness cuts in to the malts. It’s very citric, there’s no getting around that. Even to the point of astringency. There’s a lasting bitter grapefruit rind note that is taken a bit too far and dominates the malts, on the finish. Most likely a combination of the beer being so well-attenuated and the citrus flavors still very fresh. Fruit flavors die off as the beer ages, so I’d hold off on opening the bottles (all 130 of them that were produced....) in hopes that the dominant bitter citrus character recedes. Other than that, tart brett notes, earthy funk and extremely well-drawn out and complex malt notes overwhelm the senses with sheer quality. This is one hell of a beer and were it not for the extreme bitter citrus rind character, it’d be upper 4’s in my book. Hopefully, as I said, the citrus bitterness recedes over time. Would like to revisit in a year or two, but there are so few bottles out there it may prove difficult.