8/XI/25 - on tap @ Billies Craft Beer Festival Day 2 - Session 1 (Antwerp), BB: n/a (2025-1186) Thanks to all for sharing today’s beers!

Clear dark brown to black beer, small creamy beige head, unstable, dissipates quickly. Aroma: very oxidized, lots of soy sauce, earthy, roasted, tobacco, sweet, caramel, vanilla, nice one! MF: soft carbon, medium to full body. Taste: sweet start, lots of alcohol, soy sauce, oxidized, roasted, lots of caramel, sweet, a hint of vanilla, nice! Aftertaste: alcohol, more oxidized, Madeira, Sherry and Port notes, some cardboard, dark caramel, ok.

2016 Purple wax bomber, drunk 6/10/17.
Dark, inky, ebony of undetermined clarity, seemingly opaque. Dark tan head atop is initially large and shows moderate retention.
Nose is thick with rich fudge peppered by dark fruits and a liqueur-like character reminiscent of rum-vanilla-chocolate. There’s a good bit of ash and/or char-like "dryness" on the end to blunt some of this "sweet" fudge character and thankfully no sharp alcohol ever hits on the finish; probably a product of its year in the bottle. Nicely aromatic, as one would expect, and though I wouldn’t go nearly as far as to call this a "British-style Imperial Stout" as many apparently do, it does have a good helping of dark fruits that the newer American versions are sorely lacking. Liqueur-like vanilla, German chocolate cake and rich char linger long on the finish.
Rich and quite sweet in the mouth, unsurprisingly. It’s "thick" though thankfully not syrupy or cloying. Still, there’s a ton of base malt here, mixing with the dark malt to provide quite a bit of fudge character. Good amount of dark fruit, adding prunes, raisins, plums, etc...that help add complexity and gentle acidity in concert with the moderate roast and char character. Carbonation is low but engaging while alcohol is held to just a bourbon-rum-vanilla-like character that is quite enjoyable. Strong ash and light vinousness do indeed dry out the finish somewhat, though the beer is still very much on the sweet side. As is usually the case with these "iconic" monster American Imperials, I’d prefer it be considerably more dry, but it’s still pretty well-done/not messy for its size.