7

Sweet and roasted dark malty with nice nutty accents going on, cocoa, full bodied, nutty almond dark sweet roasted malty finish.

7.4

Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7.5

Keg at 'If It Ain't Dutch', Enid Street, 31/07/24. Extremely dark mahogany brown verging on black topped with a khaki head. Nose is toffee, chocolate, dark malts, light spice, earthy roast. Taste comprises toffee, cocoa powder, nougat, sugars, nutty, dark malts. Medium bodied with bite, fine carbonation, semi drying close with a kiss of alcohol. Lacks complexity for the ABV but a competent sipper ... surprised this is riding at 3.10 off 28 rates!

6.5

Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 6 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 6

31st July 2024
Keg at If It Ain't Dutch. Almost clear deep brown beer, small pale tan head. Airy and semi dry palate, decent fine carbonation. Light malts, a little earthy creamy mess. Vague cake sweetness. Modest ripe fruits on the back end. Light and semi dry finish. Bit of a nothing brew. How is this an Impy Pastry? A modest imperial brown maybe.

7.2

Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7

Tap at the Dutch bar bermondsey. A light hazed brown nutty colourd pour with a sticky khaki head. Aroma is semi sweet. Nutty, brown sugars, red berries. Flavour is composed of semi sweet, toast, berries, cranberry, brown sugars, palate is semi sweet chewy, moderate carbonation. Good stuff.

7

Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7

Bottle. Brown colour with a big foamy beigeish brown head which leaves some lace. Aroma is roasted malts, some smoked tones with mild lactose and some nutty tones too. Flavour is nutty, some roasted tones, coffee, smoked wood, mild alcohol and some chocolaty tones. Quite biting carbonation, so feels like something has fermented a bit further creating a bit too much co2 (as it was rather lively when poured too).

5.9

Appearance - 2 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 6 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 6.5

Flesje gedronken tijdens vakantie. Diep donkerbruin bier met matig beige schuim dat snel weg trekt. Aroma en smaak van chocolade, vanille en nougat. Chocolade smaak blijft even hangen.

7.1

Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7.5

23 June 2021. At Slot Oostende, Goes. Shared with the lovely Anke! Clear dark brown, small, foamy, off-white head. Aroma of pecan, hazelnut paste, cinnamon, chocolate sauce, brownie, cookie dough, prune. Taste has sweet date & prune, bit sourish (red apple), spicy cinnamon, chocolatey & pecan-nutty maltiness, touch of hazelnut too. Herbal hoppy finish, chocolate, spices, vague tea, remaining sourish too with some warming rum-like alcohol. Medium body, creamy texture, average to fizzy carbonation. Clearly must have improved on previous batches, telling from the ratings. Still, a weirdly sourish element lingers, impairing the actually 'natural' creaminess of the beer.

6.2

Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 2 | Overall - 7

Emelisse, now under Slot Oostende, has been very active in creating new beers ever since star brewer Kees Bubberman left their building, and this is their contribution to the flavoured imperial stout segment: a 10% ABV stout with pecan and nougat. Quite enthusiastic gusher - we're off to a bad start here... Inches thick, foamy, membrane-lacing, pale yellowish beige, pillowy but eventually dissipating head on a black beer with thin hazy chestnut brown edges. Aroma initially dominated by sharp, nostril-attacking carbon dioxide, but when this has faded (a few seconds later), I get impressions of very strong beef stock- and gravy-like scents, heavily pushing on notes of fat-blooming black chocolate, tea, indeed pecan nuts, brown bread dough, lavender, shoe polish, black radish peel, damp earth, mud, spoiled potato soup and even stale sweat - this is clearly infected. Very sharply overcarbonated in the mouth, a clear result of this infection; estery notes of plum, blackberry and red apple. The sharply tingling carbonation continues over a nutty and brown-bready malt body with bitter black chocolate- and burnt toast-like edges, the pecan nut seems to add some extra nuttiness but otherwise does not do a lot - while nougat remains as good as unnoticeable. Meanwhile a 'dirty', sourish infection effect, even reminiscent of spoiled soup, moves along, into an earthy finish adding coffee grounds bitterness, warming whisky-like alcohol and a herbal, tea-ish hop bitter aspect. This is obviously flawed from a technical viewpoint, I guess the added ingredients harboured a bacterial strain that did the damage, so it remains difficult to see what the original intentions were; maybe a turn into clean, 'safely flavoured', sweet pastry stout territory would have been a better option than just randomly trying out an experiment, establishing it has failed and still releasing it onto the public with all its flaws. Still, I had worse infections in beers and this one remained more or less drinkable, so I will not be too harsh on it - I can imagine things haven't been easy for this brand after Bubberman left either...

4.6

Appearance - 4 | Aroma - 5 | Flavor - 5 | Texture - 4 | Overall - 4.5

Very dark brown colour with massive foaming head. I don't get pecan. I get red fruit syrup and bready yeast. The carbonation is way too agressive leading to an unpleasant mouthfeel. It's clearly defective.

4.8

Appearance - 4 | Aroma - 5 | Flavor - 5 | Texture - 2 | Overall - 6

Dark brown with fleeting, foamy head. Mild nougat, chocolate aroma. Rubber. Taste is mildly sweet with some industrial notes at the finish. (Old rubber shoe. Cleaning agent.) The nougat saves it. Despite the dubious underside still drinkable. It’s the carbonation that seals the deal—very aggressive—like soda or even worse. Flawed.