Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 9 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7.5

330ml can. Dziwne, bardzo ciemna piana, obok risfactorow od pinty chyba najciemniejsza piana jaka widzialem. Nie ma tez mowy o jakimkolwiek przeswicie. Tyle ze piana srednia i szybko znika. Zdecydowanie wytrawny profil winny, slony. Porto i beczki po tym wzmacnianym winie powinny dac raczej nadmiar slodyczy a w tym przypadku jest slono i wytrawnie kwaskowo. Dziwne to, ale dobrze ze zaskakuje, tak jak w swiecie craftu byc powinno. smoked tea imperial stout widze, ale z wedzonki chyba tylko sol zostala. Herbaciane no moze troche tak. Ciekawe i odwazne podejscie do rIS

Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 8.5

can Extremely dark beer, black with dark brown smooth large head aroma is port wine, roasted malts, charred wood, dark dried fruits. very solid aroma. Flavor is sour and roasted malty with dried dark fruity notes as well as fainter charred woody notes. Not sure it was meant to be this tart and sour, however, it's kind of nice anyways. The tart and sourness is red grapes, red berries. it is balanced by tons of roasted malts and topped off with a bit of charred wood and port barrel aging notes.

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

Can, 0.33l. Aroma of roasted malt, cocoa, port, red fruit and tea. Pours almost black color with medium sized soapy brown head and average sparkling appearance. Taste starts tart fruity and vinous, following is roasted and woody with dark chocolate note, mouthfeel is warm, while finish is mild bitter. Full body, thick texture and average carbonation in palate. Perfect caravanserai refreshment…

Smokey en zurig, niet mn ding

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

The port barrel aged version of what is apparently an imperial stout flavoured with smoked tea, from the bold Romanian geniuses adversarially calling themselves 'Hop Hooligans'. Can from Beergium. Thick, frothy and dense, (very) deep mocha-brownish beige, audibly crackling, slowly breaking and eventually only (and thinly) edge-retaining head on a pitch black beer without even the slightest sign of colour even under bright light - have a point for looks already. Intense, 'dense' and profound bouquet of molasses, dried prunes, salmiak, blackberry jam, Belgian chocolates made with black bitter chocolate, marmite, beef stock and even 'Maggi', unsmoked pipe tobacco and Scandinavian chewing tobacco which no doubt represents the smoked tea, indeed sweet tawny port when warming up, Worcestershire sauce, wet oak wood, hazelnut purée, brown rum, liquorice (quite strong even when warming up - an effect which will not be to everybody's liking), wet wholemeal bread dough, cooked marrow, wax, searing hot olive oil, burnt teabags to even a whiff of burnt cardboard somewhere faraway. Sweet onset, candied dates, blackberry coulis and glazed pear, with a strong umami effect on top (dried porcini, beef stock) and a subtle sourishness running underneath, softly carbonated with very (and I mean very) thick, syrupy, even 'viscous' (and sticky) mouthfeel; after that, layer upon layer of molasses, bitter chocolate, toast and toffee, deeply penetrated by this smoked tea effect, again reminiscent of chewing tobacco but also fresh bayleaf and strong salmiak, the latter even evoking a very slight salty touch. Woody tannins make a showy appearance after the middle, with drying effect, almost - but not quite - up to the task of soothing the sheer power of this beer; salmiak and beef stock umami linger in the end, even when the port comes in and adds a renewed kind of sweetness, aided by the alcohol, which in this case presents a warming glow rather than unpleasant wryness, though some astringency on the root of the tongue is undeniably there. Meanwhile that smoky element, tobacco- and smoked paprika-like, continues; hops constitute an underlying structure rather than explicitly revealing themselves. This beer is so intense, thick and warming that I wish it was colder than it is today even in December - even a can of 355 ml is perhaps a bit much to ingest. Typical Eastern European 'tour de force', a boastful, condensed and powerful concentration of flavours - which more often than not turns out crude and unrefined for me, but in this case it kind of works, with the port adding sweetness that matches well with the smoky element (though I hasten to add that both flavours are buried under an exceptionally heavy imperial stout basis here). Another testimony of Hop Hooligans' audacity, creativity and technical mastery, this is not the first time these guys impress me. Still, I think this might have worked better with less of that beefy umami flavour and, more importantly even, at less ABV - the alcohol is, unsurprisingly, just a bit too pushy and astringent for me, even if I admit that I am rather sensitive to it even in a class of beers intended to be boozy. In any case: quite a spectacular beer, I have no real overview of the Romanian beer scene but I can only hope these 'local pioneers' inspire lots of others there.

Appearance - 9 | Aroma - 8.5 | Flavor - 9 | Texture - 9 | Overall - 8.5

Pitch black pour with a fine-grained tan head. Cacao nibs, smooth chocolate, beautiful port notes, smooth and rich, vanilla, oak, smoke, tobacco. Really smooth and complex, a sipper. Delicious stuff.