100 ml. from 750 ml. bottle @ Gollem Warpigs Tap Takeover. Black, very deep mocha head. Nose is very thick umami smoke, molasses, gravy teriyaki sauce,... Taste is heavy smoke umami, teriyaki sauce, soy sauce, molasses, gravy, malt,... Interesting stuff but too umami, smoke, teriyaki sauce, bit much,... I get the BA versions getting higher scores. Body is umami, teriyaki sauce. Too much but quite interesting.

Bottle at home. Pours black, nose is sugary, meaty, roasted, chocolate, coffee, dark fruits, taste is similar, light bitterness, salty.

Danish ’impy’ from a 75 cl bottle with black wax adorning the crown cap, spreading its long tentacles downwards like the aerial roots of some weird exotic plant... No handwritten label anymore and the ABV has apparently been increased to 10.4% rather than the 9.6% given here. Creamy, medium thick, tightly ’membranously’ lacing, deep brownish beige head, retaining well as a dense rim and a flat, disparate veil in the middle (but practically gone completely in the very end), comfortably sitting on top of an ink black beer, the dark chestnut brown hue of which only becomes visible under bright light and shows for less than a millimeter off the edge - this is one very, very black beer indeed. Strong, intense, robust, almost overwhelming bouquet of high quality espresso coffee and even pure roasted coffee beans, a ton of black Belgian ’fondant’ chocolate, toffee, bayleaf, ruby port, quite a lot of ’blood’-like iron but feeling completely natural and fitting in well, dried black olives, stewed beef, caramelized brown sugar, dried banana slices, soaking wet leather, candied fig, burnt toast or even charred meat, cloves, biltong, black tea, dried bladderwrack (probably the iron and umami impressions combined), elderberry juice, beef stock cubes, pipe tobacco (even ashes, ever so slightly), walnuts, brown rum, hints of thyme and liquorish. The mouth gets the same treatment as the nose: a wave of intense flavors, pointy candied sweetness (raisin, date) at first but not over the top and countered by an underlying, blackberry juice-like sourish factor as well as outspoken umami (bladderwrack again but without the saltiness, beef stock cubes even); the sweetness, however, remains dominant, accentuated by brown sugary effects (and according to the label, Belgian candi sugar has effectively been used), yet nothing cloying and eventually, after swallowing, turning into something not unlike sweet sherry, far away but delightful. Carbonation is soft, and in combination with the copious malt dosage, results in a very thick and fat, oily mouthfeel made even silkier by the oats; the sweetness refinedly continues thanks to a supportive caramelly malt sweetness in the middle with a thin grainy edge (the oats again, maybe), but things get darker and darker towards the finish, with a lovely toasted bitterness (even retronasal impressions of toasted brown bread) and eventually the expected, mouth-filling roasted bitterness, cold black coffee- and even very subtly espresso-like. This symphony of huge bittersweet maltiness covers the entire finish well into the throat, with the addition of a peppery hop punch at the back as well as an afterglow of strongly warming, rum-like alcohol, which cleverly manages to avoid wryness; the sweetness balances it, sticking a bit to the palate in the end. All the way through, this blood-like iron factor lingers at the sides (as well as a sourish roasted barley undercurrent), but as in the aroma, it does not bother me at all in the mouth either, since it gives the impression to inherently belong to the core nature of this beer, as is the case with many other stouts as well. Long-stretched, really big and potent beer, an imperial stout the American way, with sweetness overruling the roasted bitterness (Dark Lord is not that far away and neither is Mikkeller’s Beer Geek series - uncoincidentally); I had a few things from this famous and ’geeky’ brewpub before but those were modest sips and I’m glad I can finally sit down to undergo a complete bottle of one of their beers - allegedly the first stout they bottled. Impressive, though clearly designed to please the still growing crowd of hipster beer geeks, but who can blame them - maybe that’s just me getting old... Very big stout for sure. I wonder what a few years of ageing would do to this one, I guess ’inky’ and soy sauce-like flavours would come into play (especially considering the already outspoken umami factor), but I’ll never have the patience to let a bottle like this rest in the cellar for such a long time anyway, I’m afraid.

Bottle shared at Mechazilla event. Huge cacao forward-nose with some light berry, molasses and marshmallow notes. Slightly oily on the palate and very complex with some spice notes as well as a punch of milk chocolate. Slightly sweet but not overly so. Some light smoke in the finish and more roasted cacao. Not much perceived bitterness and very drinkable. Awesome. --- Beer merged from original tick of Smoldering Holes on 04 May 2016 at 22:02 - Score: 8

Pitch black color. Molasses, dark chocolate, salty iodine, dark fruit, very intense. Sweet malty iodine, a bit too sweet for me but nice lingering dark choocolate salty finish

Sample at All IN Beer Fest. Pours a black color with a small tan head. Aroma of roasted malt, liquorice and chocolate. Roasted malty, liquorice, chocolate flavor. A little bit on the sweet side.