Coffee Imperial Stout

Dark brown coloured body with a nice pretty thick three centimetre tall rich light brown head. Aroma of coffee (of course), a lot of roasted malts and a good vanilla note, but the sweetness does come through in the nose with a smooth bit of alcohol that is noticeable as well. Medium-bodied; Pretty balanced malt and sweet bite at first with a nice light coffee hit, but the alcohol is very well muted and while the malts make this smooth with some vanilla notes as well. Aftertaste shows the coffee and earthy malt notes with some light sweetness here from vanilla and even some lactose, but the creamy and mild finish of this is very nice for the style, and most likely due to the aging in the bottle - very nice. Great to sample and while I preferred the Coconut Option (sampled horizontally), this one was great, as well! I sampled this 65 cL bottle, purchased from Lidl in Manassas, Virginia on 24-November-2017 for US$4,99 sampled horizontally with the Coconut Imperial Stout (same purchase date/age) on 24-December-2022, a bit more than 5 years after purchase, on Christmas Eve, 24-December-2022, while hosting the holiday dinner for my family.