Deep black ale with thick moka head. Chocolate and raisins aroma. Bitter roasted coffee beans and chocolate malt with a sweet finish. Lots of hops in final. Rich and complex bodied. Alcohol well camouflaged by all this malt. Beautiful.

Bottled. Very black, brown head. Intensely roasty with some licorice up front. Dry and richly malty and full flavoured with clean mouthfeel. Strikingly hoppy, some citrus. Very bitter, resiny finish.

Slim rim of brown-yellow bubbles on a jet-black, ink-or tarlike beer. Chocolate, blackcurrants and other dark fruit in the nose - and then the truly imperial hops kick in. Cold coffee and moccha, dark bitter true chocolate, hops in jute bales. Under all this great bitterness, there is a massive dose of all sorts of sugar; malt-, lactic-, and cubes, but nowhere cloying. Long tarry aftertaste, partly tobacco ash, but mainly like incredibly concentrated Lapsang Souchong tea. Mouth impression is full chewy - one wants to use one’s teeth involuntary. With every sip, again a firecracker of heavenly hops bursts open, scattering its sparks over mountains of excellent - Belgian? - chocolate. There’s all sorts of dark fruit growing in those - but I’m starting to sound like a pale imitation of Martin T., the Muse of beer, who brought me this incredible concoction.

Acquired via trade. Pours like a claggy can of motor oil with a thin beige head. Rather thin lacing that trails down the entire glass. The aroma is a bold mix of coffee, roasted malt, caramel, and chocolate. Very rich bodied and smoothly balanced with flavors of espresso, malt, chocolate and a touch of hops. Alcohol is difficult to detect but it is definitely there. The finish is on the dry side with bitter coffee and hops. Overall this is a very good Imperial Stout and I would like to find out what else this brewery has to offer someday.

2003 bottle, fresh
Motor Oil pour, jet black, unfiltered, thick, dark tan roasty smelling head. Tons of roast, lots of coffee. Very good aroma. Opens up with a thick, oily very dry roasted barley flavor, some earthy/anise flavor and quite syrupy. Moderate amount of coffee, and a nice bitter hops kick. Quite complex with plenty of good malt sweetness. I was looking for the thinness that people had mentioned, didnt see it at all. Very good mouthfeel and stood up well as it warmed. Alcohol very well masked. More like a souped up version of a straight up Stout, but I thought it was a good take nonetheless. Thanks for the bottle OldGrowth.
Rerate Same vintage with Muzzlehatch. Seems to be aging perfectly. The resinous hops havent even mellowed that much, while the oily roast and chocolate show no signs of decline. Really decadent, but I love it. I’m a study in contradictions, I by all accounts should not like this beer.
Rerate yet again, same vintage Wow, this year is just sublime and still aging perfectly. No oxidation, wonderfully dry, but not too bitter (still nice and bitter though). Light chocolate, some light fruitiness, but not overly vinous. Thick, sumptuous mouthfeel too.
2005 bomber shared by SuIIy on 2/3/07
What a terrific beer, even with my palate shifting towards pale/lower abv and Belgian beers, I still couldn’t help but drool over this stuff. Elegantly attenuated, with very strong and dry, but not ashy or oily/stale roast notes and lots of dry vanilla. Dryness seems to be the key here, but it’s still got a wonderfully chewy, strong texture and tight carbonation. Light vinousness on the end adds further elegance while hints of cigar-like notes and dots of dry chocolate emerge as well. Still one of the best, IMHO.