9.8

Appearance - 9 | Aroma - 9.5 | Flavor - 10 | Texture - 10 | Overall - 10

One of the top stouts from one of the top stout specialists in the world, invariably featuring in lists of the world's best beers along with a couple of other stouts from the same brewery - I have been looking forward to tasting this one for years now, never quite had the chance, but obtained a bomber of the 2021 vintage through a private collector and my fiftieth birthday today seemed like the best occasion I could think of to open it. Open, deep mocha-coloured (brown), tiny-bubbled, dense ring of foam over a jet black beer - with perhaps one millimeter or less of a mahogany tinge around the edge. Intense, mesmerising bouquet of all the good things one can find in a top notch U.S. style "impy": clear whisky upfront, embedded in blankets of chocolate ganache, soufflé au chocolat, thick fudge, black peppercorns, latté macchiato, cold Irish coffee, bayleaf, vanilla-exuding oak wood (strong), hints of cinnamon rolls, chocolate chili, cognac, artisan mocha ice cream, vague fond brun, reduced port sauce, pear syrup, fig liqueur, nougat, touch amaro. Utterly dense, concentrated onset, lots of 'praline'-like sweetness, pear syrup, yellow raisin, fig compote - with a waferthin sourish edge but sourish as in blackberry jam and not more; a brief moment of fond-like umami is present too, but all these flavours are rolled up into one ball of deliciousness from the start. Soft carbonation adds to a very dense, oily, velvety mouthfeel - very thick as one can expect from the genre, but also exceptionally smooth, maintaining relatively high drinkability (again: for the genre). Thick layers of toffee, chocolate ganache, pure milk chocolate, coffee liqueur and even caramel tart build up, with these candied dark fruit flavours continuing - also carrying onwards this sourish blackberry-like touch which subtly breaks the sweetness a bit. Tannins remain fairly soft while the vanillin aspect of the oak is very strong retronasally, along with all these other aromatic impressions of bayleaf, mocha and very vague (but in this case actually ornamental) liquorice, while a spicy hop dosage sits underneath, adding foundation. Roasted bitterness, as in coffee, remains subordinate to toffee-chocolate-caramel sweetness, but it too lurks in the depths of this wonderful beer - until the whisky sets in, slowly but steadily, heating the back of the throat without scorching it. Whisky, toffee, chocolate and vanilla flavours last forever after swallowing and remain supported by peppery hops. The perfect winter warmer Iowa style, stylistically quite old school to contemporary American standards in fact (even though, having originated 'only' in 2012, it is by no means a pioneer in the style), executed to perfection; not just the rich tapestry of flavours impresses, the perfect mouthfeel does so too, just as is the case in its even more coveted brother Kentucky Brunch: every time I have a Toppling Goliath treat like this, the sheer velvetiness and smoothness baffles me. This is an assassin of a beer indeed, but one with velvet gloves - and fine dining manners. I could not have wished for a more satisfying beer on not just a snowy winter night, but my fiftieth birthday as well: this is beer drinking at its most refined, classy and glamorous. Rightfully regarded as a masterpiece - perhaps even a tad more convincing in fullness and velvetiness than Mornin' Delight, but also just a tad less entirely perfect than the divine Kentucky Brunch (booziness being just a smidge more apparent here), so have a score right in the middle of what I rated these two other Toppling Goliath legends.

9

Mad barrel juice, fudgy bourbon brownies.