Appearance - 7 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 8.5 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7.5

Tap at La Tireuse. Black, low head with a purple shine. Dry dark roasted, light cognac aroma, medium full dry body, pleasant cheey. barrel notes, tobacco, cork, nice cocoa roast, well balanced, easy drinking for the strength. Lovely.

Magus, mõru, linnaseline, röst, puuuuviljane, hapukas, marjane. Ok.

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

33cl bottle. A black beer with a beige head. Aroma of roasted dark malt, strong malt, liquorice and some red fruits. Taste of strong dark malt, cocoa, liquorice, coffee, some red berries.

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

Every French department has its own craft breweries meanwhile, and while the French still have not found a connection with their wine heritage (which I insist would prove very interesting), their craft beer in general still fits the styles revived by the Americans in the late 20th century - like this non-flavoured imperial stout, a new one from Le Détour in the far south (Montpellier, near the Mediterranean Sea). Quite thick, dense, membrane-lacing, pale ruddy-beige, creamy and stable, regular head on a very dark mahogany brown beer - as good as black, but with a hazy burgundy hue still visible at the edges. Aroma of espresso, old coffee filters, furniture wax, hard caramel but less sweet, ground pecan nuts, extinguished bonfire and cigar ashes, burnt cardboard, gin, Ersatz chocolate, roasted chicory, dried thyme, hints of cola, damp earth and wet leather. Dried-fruity, spritzy onset, very minerally effervescence (too much so for this style, even), old raisins and dried prunes but ignoring the sweetness, hint of burnt black olive, light beef stock-ish umami effect, full and oily body but thinned a bit by said effervescence (or overcarbonation if you will); dryish middle, layers of burnt brown bread-, roasted pecan nut- and chicory-like maltiness, heavily roasted with little sweetness (though there certainly is a caramelly core to it) and strong ashiness, becoming all bitter black coffee-like in the end with a strong effect of, well, paper, cardboard or old wood ashes. Some spicy phenols pop up briefly, while an earthy note sets in underneath; the ashy effect is drying and even a bit astringent, as if actual paper ashes were used. Old coffee filter roastiness prevails, though, aided by a leafy hoppiness to provide a sheer ever-lasting, earthy bitterness, accentuated by 'jenever'-ish alcohol. Coffee grounds, ashes and alcohol remain stuck in the throat for a long time. I have argued often before in my reviews on this site that I miss the old school days, when American IPAs were invariably very hop-bitter and imperial stouts very roasted-bitter; well, this one feels like a blast from the past, but with added dramatic effects - it almost exaggerates its roastiness, ashiness and 'deeply situated' but in this case lingering sourishness accompanying heavily roasted malts or grains. I am convinced that most young beer geeks, accustomed to sweet imperial stouts that taste like boozy chocolate sauce, will be completely unable to appreciate this old-fashioned interpretation of the style, but I remember what strong stouts were like a couple of decades ago - and I thank this French brewery for bringing me back to those days for a brief moment. Nostalgia is a file that removes the rough edges from the good old days, to quote the deceased American journalist Doug Larson.

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

A strong alcohol-forward beer. The roast is nice, the bitterness balances it. The body could be rounder, but overall it’s a nice sipping beer. AFK Lyon