Illicit Cargo III
Smugglers Trail Caskworks in Langley Twp, British Columbia, Canada 🇨🇦
Stout - Pastry / Flavoured - Imperial Regular|
Score
6.75
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Chocolate Hedgehog Imperial Stout brewed with a copious amount of Dutch cocoa, Madagascar bourbon vanilla bean, roasted hazelnuts and aged on toasted American oak. With an extended five hour boil to reduce this impressive stout down to something truly extraordinary, we're proud to offer you our third rendition of Illicit Cargo.
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Oakes (33493) reviewed Illicit Cargo III from Smugglers Trail Caskworks 9 months ago
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 6 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7
Dark brown. Thin head. Excessive hazelnut aroma, seems artificial, on the palate it’s actually more a fat bourbon, lacking refinement. Damn. The base isn’t bad, light dark sugars and a touch of roast, mild hazelnut overtop, but a really heavy-handed bourbon treatment. It does all the things, and doesn’t do them badly, but doesn’t do them well either.
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 6.5 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 6
16oz @ Ryan's (duck you, Alex, for bringing a beer with nuts here!).
Aroma: roasted malt, chocolate, nuts (artificial).
Taste: along the same lines, quite bitter, very earthy, harsh and chaotic.
Overall: meh.
Appearance - 7 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7
473mL can. Pours black with a minimal head. Tons of hazelnut and cocoa powder on the nose. Flavour also has a lot of hazelnut and cocoa, nice roast, some vanilla. Decent enough, but the aggressive hazelnut cheapens the profile.
mcberko (47456) reviewed Illicit Cargo III from Smugglers Trail Caskworks 1 year ago
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 5.5
473mL can, pours black with a small tan head. Aroma has a sturdy roasted malt base, with very gentle hazelnut-infused cocoa. Flavour is rather artificial tasting in the hazelnut flavouring that was added, light cocoa, toasted malt, and some low-level artificial sweetness. This flavouring is not convincing to me. The base beer is decent enough, but it's ruined by the artificial flavouring. Not terrible, but this doesn't work overly well for me.