12 ounce bottle into snifter, bottled on 5/21/2014. Pours dense pitch black color with a small dense dark brown head with good retention, that reduces to a thin cap that lingers. Light spotty soapy lacing clings around the glass, with a moderate amount of streaming carbonation. Aromas of big dark chocolate, cocoa, coffee, fudge, toast, molasses, raisin, prune, licorice, dark bread, light smoke/char, and roasted earthiness. Damn nice aromas with great balance and complexity of dark/roast/bready malt and moderate dark fruit notes; with good strength. Taste of big dark chocolate, cocoa, coffee, fudge, toast, molasses, raisin, prune, licorice, dark bread, light smoke/char, and roasted earthiness. Moderate amount of roasted bitterness on the finish; with lingering notes of dark chocolate, cocoa, coffee, toast, molasses, raisin, prune, licorice, dark bread, light smoke/char, and roasted earthiness on the finish for a while. Damn nice complexity, robustness, and balance of dark/roast/bready malts and moderate dark fruit flavors; with a great roasted bitterness/sweetness balance and zero cloying flavors after the finish. Light-medium carbonation and full bodied; with a very smooth, creamy, moderately slick, and lightly chalky mouthfeel that is great. Alcohol is well hidden with only a light warming present after the finish. Overall this is an excellent imperial porter. All around great complexity, robustness, and balance of dark/roast/bready malts and moderate dark fruit flavors; and very smooth to sip on for the big ABV. A very enjoyable offering.

Nose is rich, raisins, licorice, slight vanilla, brown sugar, booze, slight coco, a touch of cream. Taste is beautiful, smooth vanilla ice cream on the first sip, leading to smoke, hazelnut, emerging bitter chocolate, slight licorice, lots of cherry, fruit cake, latte, cream, a touch vinous / sherry in the back end. Lots of wood character over lays the body. Mouthfeel is rich. My only complaint is this is more stout than porter, but it seems churlish. An outstanding, complex beer.

Appearance is black as a moonless night, a one finger dark beige head which doesn’t last long. Aroma- very chocolatey, caramel, treacle, vanilla ice cream, a bit boozy, fruitcake, fudge, milky coffee, sweet, dark fruit. Taste- nice and thick, bitter chocolate milkshake, coffee bitterness, dark chocolate, vanilla hints, slightly vinous, dark cherries, a bit oily towards the end, the right amount of carbonation to clean things up, some alcohol in there but hard to detect. Quite a sweet finish, with burnt treacle and molasses. Luxurious.

Bottle at Craig’s. Pours black, nose is chocolate, cherry? raisins, taste is dry, bitter, chocolate, sweet.

Nydelig duft av kaffe, bek, lakris, wiskey og vanilje. Dyp sort farge. Lite skum, brun ring langs kant. Nydelig markant smak av lakris, wiskey og vanilje som sitter. Ja takk en til.