Bourbon barrel aged and spiced imperial stout from the guys in West London, belonging to that first and highly influential, 21st-century wave of American style craft brewing in merry old England. Thanks to Steve for sharing. Mousy, medium thick, pale greyish beige head, breaking here and there over a black beer with hazy mahogany edges. Intense, rich bouquet of white cardamom upfront and cinnamon lagging not far behind, ‘fondant’ chocolate and chocolate sauce, vanilla-like oak, bourbon, toffee, fresh thyme, almond, incense, nutmeg, hard caramel. Sweet onset (lactose!) but nothing too cloying, candied dates and raisins, medium carb, very full and oily body; molasses- and bitter chocolate-like core with toffeeish and hazelnutty side effects, immediately followed by very pronounced spiciness from the cardamom and, to an only slightly lesser extent, cinnamon. The spices add that typical herbal wryness, but sweet mals and bourbon do provide counterbalance; lots of warming, bittersweet bourbon booziness in the end as well as lingering chocolate effects, but the cardamom reigns till the last drop. The delicate rose petals that allegedly went in here, are obviously completely lost in this storm of much stronger flavours – one can wonder why Weird Beard added them to begin with… In short: you will really have to like cardamom and I can imagine this being a bit much for some, but I fortunately love it, and there is no denying that the actual brew is as solid for an “impy” as it gets. I’d love to try a non-spiced version of this, though.