My third encounter with this Californian craft brewer, an imperial porter from a somewhat old school-labelled American style bomber. Mousy, mocha-beige, medium thick, gradually opening head on a very dark chestnut brown beer with mahogany glow, approaching black. Aroma of bitter chocolate, green coffee beans, pipe tobacco, very clear iron (as in ferrous spring water or even haemoglobin), coffee filters, dry tea bags, blackpudding, caramel, pine wood, minerals. Sweetish onset, very clean and streamlined, caramelly from the start with accents of candied fig and dried date, softish carb, smooth and slick body. Hard-caramelly and walnutty maltiness developing a more bitter-chocolatey and roasted coffeeish bitterness towards the end, while this strong 'ferrous' iron effect zings at the edges; peppery hop accent in the end, along with lingering caramel, coffee (or iced latté) and bayleaf impressions, followed by gently warming, well-positioned and nowhere too intrusive alcohol. Clean, rather straightforward but very well-balanced strong porter with a stout-like roastiness to it, quite old school but I love it; some minor criticism could involve a somewhat thinnish body for its ABV and too much iron effect, but I personally am hardly bothered by that in this kind of beer.

Fles gekregen van Benzai. Zwart bier. Aroma is houtig en caramelachtig en koffieachtig. Smaak is koffieachtig en houtig. Nasmaak is iets bitter.

Bottle @ joes. Black with a small offwhite head. Smells sweet, coffee, vanilla. Tastes very sweet, roasty,vanilla. Medium body, soft carbo.

Bottle. Blackish beer with a light brown head. Coffee aroma. Coffee and caramel flavor with light chocolate. Medium bodied. Coffee and chocolate linger with light caramel and backing hops to clean.

From bomber to glass. Massive coffee aroma. Deep, deep brown with sustained brown head. Light drinking a light coffee, with moderate roast. This is a really tasty beer and my favorite from Mad River.

Bomber from Capitol Beer in Sacramento, CA. Pours dark, slightly ruddy, brown with a creamy tan head. Aroma is very pleasant and smooth coffee. Full bodied. Flavor is like a mix of chocolate and coffee. Starts sweetish, but some hop quickly neutralizes that. Finishes coffee and towards dry. The changing or interchanging play between chocolate and coffee is nicely done. This is a really good and tasty beer. IMHO