Bottled 355ml. -from Beergium as Cismontane Imperial Stout with Coffee added. Black coloured, medium sized brown head, light roasty nose. Roasted malt, chocolate, dried fruits and touch of coffeewith notes of alcohol in rather bitter finish.

My first from this Californian brewing company, heavy stout with added coffee. Bottle from Beergium, with different label than the one shown here. Yellowish pale beige, moussy head retaining as a dense rim and some flat, tan ’islands’ in the middle, crowning a black beer with hazy mahogany brown edges, the colour being visible for about five millimeters inwards. Aroma of cold coffee with milk, very old black chocolate and ’crude’ baker’s chocolate, moldy walnuts, tree leaves, old tea, cooked parsnip, brown rum, wet leather, dried fig, stewed beef with a lot of bayleaf in it, mud, freshly cut horseradish, a kind of ’green’ quality of raw spinach leaves, subtle accents of soy sauce, wet dog and dried blackcurrant. Clean onset, ’dull’ dried berry sourishness imbedding a vague fig-like sweetish core, umami effects of dry chicken stock cubes coming up shortly after that and quite expressively so, medium carbo, thick and lightly greasy mouthfeel but not as viscous as is often the case in this style. Thick nutty malt core, again vaguely sweetish but immediately turned towards a fairly strong toasted bitterness, exhibiting increasing coffeeish aspects towards the finish, where the added coffee indeed reveals itself clearly - but sadly not as aromatically and ’ethereal’ as I was hoping for. Ends a bit harsh and crude, with this toasted malt bitterness going down alongside the coffee grounds-like flavours, a herbal hop bitter aspect and softly but unmistakably warming, wodka-like alcohol. Bitter black coffee flavours remain stuck to the throat after swallowing, as I assume was the intention. Not sure about this one: it has an earthy, bit ’dirty’ quality to it which I was not expecting, and the coffee factor should have been more expressively aromatic, though the coffee flavour as such is certainly there; let’s say that I was expecting a fine Italian ristretto rather than drab, dull and ’generic’ coffee grounds from a coffee machine. Needs finetuning and a lot more personality to stand out in a sea of great American stouts.

Bottle (as "Cismontane Imperial Stout with Coffee Added", 8.5% from beergium). Pours dark brown with light brownish head. Aroma is beany, coffee, roast, fruits, sour notes, booze. Flavor is sweet and bitter, beany, coffee, malt, fruits, fructose, roast, something medicinal - iodine maybe. Finish is coffee and sweetness with more beaniness and booze. Overall: feels like kind of crappy recipe and beany coffee notes are just trying to cover it. Then again I can drink it without effort, so not even close to the sh*t zone for me.

Bottle pours out dark brown almost black topped with a small head. Nose is coffee chocolate sweetness green pepper spice a dark roast. Taste is more of the coffee acidic notes chocolate plenty roast malts and that pepper note.

500ml bottle. Quasi black colour with average, frothy, half-way lasting, minimally lacing, tan head. Chocolately, dark malty aroma, hints of coffee, a touch of vanilla, fruity hints of blue grapes. Taste is moderately sweet, chocolately dark malty, hints of coffee, fruity notes of dark berries, blue grapes, dry overtones of corresponding fruit parings. Relatively light, more sessionable than kind of a sipper.

Black with a beige head. Powdered cocoa, burnt malt, roasted coffee. A bit brown sugar sweetness. Finish has a hefty booze note. Pretty good but a bit too burnt malt for my liking.

Fonefan 110415. Black colour with a brown head. Flavour is chocolate, roasted malt, hop, coffee, licorice. OK beer.

Poured from 1 pint 0.9 fl oz bottle. Dark brown with dissipating tan head. Powdered cocoa and roast coffee. Alcohol hidden.