Bottle from Total Wine in Sacramento, CA. Pours dark brown black with a slight dark tan head. Aroma is chocolate, dark fruit and smooth burnt malt. Full bodied. Flavor is chocolate, dark fruit, coffee and some reasonably strong liquorice. Pretty tasty stuff. Finishes not all that sweet, and there’s enough bitter to help with what’s left of that.

12oz bottle. Opaque brown-black body with a thin glass rimming beige head. Roasty alcohol tinged chocolate coffee aroma. Rich, sweet, and bold. Big chalky, graham cracker, chocolate flavor. Toffee caramel finish. Very enjoyable, a little different than your typical Imperial Stout.

12oz bottle poured into a smaller Corsendonk goblet. When I picked this up for my lady I actually did not realize this is a relatively new beer. I find it funny that the bottom of the label says "Rich Old Style." I have not decided if I like the idea or not. The beer pours completely black with a small cocoa colored head. But at least it sticks around. Aroma is definitely rich, but not old. I get a strong alcoholic Bon Bon, due to some alcohol, sweet dark chocolate with a bit of prune and thick smelling. Lots of roasted malts as well. I like the aroma, it is not too sweet or too alcoholic and definitely rich. The flavor is definitely less rich, bitterness dominates and otherwise its a roasted, very clean and kind of empty flavor. I like the cleanliness of the beer but the downside is that it is a bit industrial (no nuances). The bottom of the bottle is filter-clean. The bitterness of the mouthfeel makes it seem drying and thick yet not actually a thick body. I like this beer but I would love to see a bottle conditioned version of it with less bitterness in the flavor and a bit more malt (not sugar) sweetness.

Deep, jet black coloured body with almost no transparency at all, even when held up to a light. Oily glow on top with a shade of a brown head. Aroma of roasted malt, meat, alcohol, pit fruits, coffee and a ton of sugars. Full-bodied; Strong velvety chocolate and roasted malt flavour with a dash of pepper, some toffee, but mostly a deep and pungent malt flavour with a lot of caramelised sugars. Aftertaste shows a strong sweetness with a ton of malt and anise bitterness. Overall, a decent beer, not a stellar Imperial Stout, but fits the bill almost exactly - a deep dark beer with plenty of body and even more roasted malt with the most amount of sugars tucked into a bottle. I sampled this twelve ounce bottle purchased from Total Wine in Tustin, California on 06-December-2011 for US$2.29 sampled at home in Washington on 29-March-2012.

Sampled from a 12 oz brown bottle this beer poured thick, black and oily with a large foamy dark brown head that lingered and left good lacing. The aroma was faint chocolate syrup and toasty malts. The flavor was bitter and a bit sour with prominent anise and cocoa and light notes of vanilla, roasty malts and floral hops. The finish was long, dryish and bitter with lingering cocoa and anise. Full bodied and creamy. Decent but too subdued.

This is a good one. Pours a nice thick, rich, oily black with little to no head. Creamy mouth feel. Nice combination of some coffee, some fruit, and a sweetish-licorice finish in the background, not overpowering at all. Not a bad example of the style.

Bottle. Pours a thin, yet dark brown with a foamy head. First sniff reveals a slightly hot aroma... boozy and heavy with dark fruit and a little roasted malt. My first impression of the flavor is that the alcohol is way too present, with a very abrasive presence that bleaches out the fruit and malt. Astringent and pretty bad... it doesn’t get any better as it sits, either.