King Kona Vs. Marzilla

Enjoyed at home during training period for work, and it's mid December so it's stout season. Really nice one here. Thick pitch black with moderate tan head, goes down slightly sweet rich in chocolate with light burn. Overall pretty good stuff.

"Imperial stout with coconut, coffee, chocolate and vanilla" from Marz, a brewery in Chicago, which I believe is the city with the highest number of craft breweries in North America; can from Bier Bazaar - and cheers to my colleague Lode's description of the label below, I could not describe it any better. Medium thick, quickly opening, deep yellowish-beige, fine-bubbled head initially retaining as a creamy ring and some veils in the middle but disappearing afterwards, over a black beer with deep burgundy red edges of no more than a few millimetres. Intriguing bouquet of chocolate sauce, fudge, bourbon, indeed coconut flakes, latté macchiato, cold Irish coffee, 'drop' and liquorice, vanilla already retreated to the background a bit but still very noticeable, hazelnut paste, roasted chicory, molasses, hints of shower gel, wodka, heavily sauced black pipe tobacco but not dominantly so. Dense, sweet onset, candied dates, rum-soaked raisins, very light sourish undertone offering a bit of balance against the overall sweetness, refinedly carbonated but still with minerally effects gently piercing through a very full, oily, smooth body; 'deep' layers of toffeeish, black-chocolatey and sweet-cashew-nutty malts ensue, filling the mouth cavity with a big, bold bittersweetness, though sweetness clearly prevails, accentuated by the actual added chocolate (adding to the chocolate sauce experience) and the vanilla, which does pop up retronasally. The coconut, something I love as long as it does not cross my path every single day and remains 'pure' and natural, is certainly there, but less strongly so than expected; instead the booze takes over in the end, very bourbon-like and very 'American' in a way, while the coffee gradually overshadows the coconut (also retronasally, in a refined aromatic way). Some coffeeish roasted bitterness supports this coffee aroma, but the chocolate never goes away and the whole ends like a liquid 'chocomousse' flavoured with coffee (and bourbon). The booze in itself could have been a bit more subtle for me (becoming rather wry in the very end) and the sweetness should not be this heavy either, but it cannot be denied that a beer like this embodies American style imperial stout anno 2021, a style imitated all through the Western world today. I cling to the idea that a bit less booziness and (much) less sweetness would make even a pastry stout like this better, but I guess this is what today's craft beer crowds want, and I have to admit that in its genre, this is very well made, with extra points for its alluring, expressive, flawlessly desserty aroma. --- Beer merged from original tick of King Kona Vs. Marzilla on 19 Feb 2021 at 23:44 - Score: Appearance - 4 | Aroma - 9 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8.5. Original review text: Imperial stout with coconut, coffee, chocolate and vanilla from Marz, a brewery in Chicago, which I believe is the city with the highest number of craft breweries in North America; can from Bier Bazaar - and cheers to my colleague Lode's description of the label below, I could not describe it any better. Medium thick, quickly opening, deep yellowish-beige, fine-bubbled head initially retaining as a creamy ring and some veils in the middle but disappearing afterwards, over a black beer with deep burgundy red edges of no more than a few millimetres. Intriguing bouquet of chocolate sauce, fudge, bourbon, indeed coconut flakes, latté macchiato, cold Irish coffee, 'drop' and liquorice, vanilla already retreated to the background a bit but still very noticeable, hazelnut paste, roasted chicory, molasses, hints of shower gel, wodka, heavily sauced black pipe tobacco but not dominantly so. Dense, sweet onset, candied dates, rum-soaked raisins, very light sourish undertone offering a bit of balance against the overall sweetness, refinedly carbonated but still with minerally effects gently piercing through a very full, oily, smooth body; 'deep' layers of toffeeish, black-chocolatey and sweet-cashew-nutty malts ensue, filling the mouth cavity with a big, bold bittersweetness, though sweetness clearly prevails, accentuated by the actual added chocolate (adding to the chocolate sauce experience) and the vanilla, which does pop up retronasally. The coconut, something I love as long as it does not cross my path every single day and remains 'pure' and natural, is certainly there, but less strongly so than expected; instead the booze takes over in the end, very bourbon-like and very 'American' in a way, while the coffee gradually overshadows the coconut (also retronasally, in a refined aromatic way). Some coffeeish roasted bitterness supports this coffee aroma, but the chocolate never goes away and the whole ends like a liquid 'chocomousse' flavoured with coffee (and bourbon). The booze in itself could have been a bit more subtle for me (becoming rather wry in the very end) and the sweetness should not be this heavy either, but it cannot be denied that a beer like this embodies American style imperial stout anno 2021, a style imitated all through the Western world today. I cling to the idea that a bit less booziness and (much) less sweetness would make even a pastry stout like this better, but I guess this is what today's craft beer crowds want, and I have to admit that in its genre, this is very well made, with extra points for its alluring, expressive, flawlessly desserty aroma.