Northwind Imperial Stout

Pours a deep black-brown with little to no head. Some coffee and chocolate offset by fruit notes in the background (raisin? something like that) . It’s a decent beer, but there are better imperial stouts on the market.

Bottled at Monk’s Café Wallingatan, Stockholm. Viscous black, no head. Aroma of licorice and molasses. Full bodied with clean mouthfeel and oily malt. Roasty coffee wrapped in plastic, dipped in oily molasses and powdered with sugars. Sem pear esters come through. Warming but sticky.

12oz bottle. Opaque black with a tan head. Mellow chocolate aroma. Quite smooth and creamy, this could be labeled as an Imperial Porter and no one would blink an eye. Other than that, I found this beer to be quite excellent. Easy drinking, the alcohol never overwhelms. There is some faint bitterness up front, but the thick chocolate flavors quickly cover that up, leaving a sweet chocolate syrup aftertaste. I can see how style Nazis might take offense, but this is still a greatly underrated beer.

I won’t lie; I liked this. Aroma has charcoal. Flavor has smoke, a lot of smoke for the style. Charcoal as well. Medium sweet malt as well. A simple imperial stout, but not a bad beer at all. Heavy palate.

Deep dark stout with a thin light moka head. Sweet lactic coffee aroma with light chocolate, and nutty notes, roasted. In mouth, a good roasted coffee malt with lactic points, and burned toasts, alcohol not very present. Medium bodied. Bought in Chicago in Nov. 2005.

This beer is unlike other imperial stouts I have grown to like especially the body which is thin and fizzy indicating overcarbonation. The big-bubbled head on this quickly diminished to nothing. The aroma was of roasted malts and burnt wood. The flavor also showcases roasted malts with some sweet notes. It finishes bitter, but the bitterness doesn’t stick around. Not a favorite.

Nearly completely opaque with a medium-sized, dark tan lace - aroma of dark roast coffee - full mouthfeel - quite dry and not sweet at all (quite a nice change from some of the other clowing imperial stouts out there) - perfectly bitter and roasty - very full for an imperial of such a low ABV - pretty impressive, but not great.

Pour is black as midnight with a small tan head. Aroma is malty. Flavor is roasted malts with some chocolate in there. I agree with some of the raters here that the flavor is overall weak for the style. Rather average brew.

2003 bottle. Dark brown, nearly black. Wasnt able to get a head to form on this one. Unfiltered and seemingly bottle conditioned. Aroma of faint coffee roast, some mild chocolate and a bit of bittering hops. Flavor is immediately noticeable as being light. Soft palate with a smooth even, sweet mocha late flavor. Hops give some balance without being too strong or bitter. Good lingering chocolate notes on the finish, and a persistent roast flavor. The relatively low rating of this seems to me to be because it is not over the top with roast and malt and hops. I don’t think a beer’s rating should suffer just because it is not the most utterly full bodied, alcoholic, roasty, bitter example. It’s balanced, lighter (but not thin) and very drinkable. When I come home from work, I dont always want a 10%+ ABV beer. This was a great comprimise.