7.1/10
—
Appearance 10
Aroma 8
Flavor 6
Texture 6
Overall 6.5
2003 Bottle: This Imperial pours a thick syrupy black with a dark brown head. Nice lacing throughout the glass. The aroma consists of coffee, caramel and hops. Rich bodied and overly bitter for my tastes. The label boasts of the hoppiness of this beer at 75 IBUs, and it threw off the balance of it in my estimation. I learned that while I like hoppy beers I do not like hoppy Imperial Stouts. The bitterness overpowers the malt, roasted coffee and chocolate flavors that would otherwise make this more enjoyable. The finish remains bitter with hops and coffee. Overall this beer would be much better if the the scales were not tipped so far on the bitter side. The one saving grace is that by the time it really, really warmed the balance was noticeably better.
Tried
from Bottle
on 10 Mar 2004
at 10:01
8/10
—
Appearance 8
Aroma 8
Flavor 8
Texture 8
Overall 8
Black with dark brown head. Coffeeish, slightly chocolatey aroma. Stingy alcohol taste but this is more than countered by chocolatey, lightly coffeeish malts. Hop balance is noticeable, but not aromatic. Straightforward, tasty strong stout...the hop bitterness and black patent has me thinking a bit of McAuslan, but with more alcohol.
Tried
on 02 Mar 2004
at 15:42
8.4/10
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Appearance 10
Aroma 8
Flavor 8
Texture 8
Overall 8.5
2003 bottling. Pours nearly black with a dense, thick, creamy tan head. A ton of caramel in the aroma as well as earthy hops and a touch of chocolate. The inky black liquid reveals nice complexity upon my sip, with dry chocolate flavors, roasted malt, caramel and alcohol interplaying with bittering hops. Flavors blend nicely, and the beer leaves a "warm" aftertaste with alcohol and somewhat bitter hops. On second thought, the aftertaste could be toned down a bit. Overall a very nice Imperial Stout.
Tried
on 28 Feb 2004
at 19:25
6.9/10
—
Appearance 8
Aroma 7
Flavor 7
Texture 6
Overall 6.5
Pours a nice reddish amber, with some oranges and what not. Good big off-white head. Aroma is powerful. Wow, I wasnt expecting this much straight-up hops. Smells like 3Cs, at least I know it's got some cascades in there and probably chinooks. Very dry hopped flavor on the finish. Unlike a nice IPA dosent have as much malt to balance. VERY Bitter, weird how 55 IBUs seems this bitter, but it's probably due to lack of balance and the freshness adds alot of acidity. Pretty good medium body dosent quit. Dosent seem to have a tremendous amount of personality.
Tried
on 14 Feb 2004
at 10:09
6.9/10
—
Appearance 8
Aroma 7
Flavor 7
Texture 6
Overall 6.5
Paid $1.09 for a 12-oz single. Slightly cloudy golden, GREAT head: off-white and fluffy. Interesting smell. Smells like a typical amber almost, but with sweet honey... but the honey isn't sickeningly sweet, like it can sometimes be. Not bad... tastes a bit like chamomile tea. The honey is not overly prominent in the taste at all. A decent brew... nothing enormous here, but sometimes it's nice to kick back and drink a plain beer.
Tried
from Can
on 29 Jan 2004
at 20:23
7.9/10
—
Appearance 8
Aroma 9
Flavor 8
Texture 8
Overall 6.5
Paid $1.09 for a 12-oz single. Very nice raspberry colored brew (gee, rasperry colored for a raspberry beer?), with a nice sized, pink head. Smells like real raspberries, rather than some sort of cheap extract they added later- top of the line in the fruit beer smells!! Very nice light raspberry taste- not overwhelming like some fruit beers can be, but not so weak that you wonder how they can call this a fruit beer. This is definitely a nice fruit beer- not a big fan of them myself- but this stands up higher than most I have sampled.
Tried
from Can
on 29 Jan 2004
at 20:02
8.5/10
—
Appearance 10
Aroma 9
Flavor 8
Texture 8
Overall 8
Finally found this in bottles at Box Bar in Plymouth. 2003 bottle. Pours a drab brown, very muddy with some slightly lighter yellow tinges around the edges. Big dark yellow head. Bottle conditioned. Aroma was so good, I couldnt even wait until the beer warmed before trying it. Smells of spices, but mainly from hops and yeast, with some lighter sweet malts. Flavor is big with some cherry and other ripe fruit flavors, english style yeast and hops. Woody oak flavors meet crisp hops and plenty of nice english toffee and light chocolate. Very complex, approaching the grandeur of the Fullers Vintage line. Only setback was a slightly acidic astringency on the finish which seems to be found in most of these American ESAs. However, here it is much less apparent. Body is slightly less full and flavors are not as deep as Fullers Vintage Ales, but the fact that this beer actually comes close is impressive.
Tried
from Bottle
on 29 Jan 2004
at 15:06
8/10
—
Appearance 10
Aroma 8
Flavor 8
Texture 8
Overall 7
2003 bottle. Pours the most dark, oily yet lusterous black. Opaque. Moderate amount of deep burnt beige-brown head. Smells heavenly, oily, roasty, syruppy hops, dark chocolate. Opens up very smooth, even, moderately acidic, low carbonation. Full body, less so than say Speedway and even Stone, but still up there. Reminds me of Arcadia Imperial, slightly, not as much coffee, but lots of bittering hops against a pleasantly syruppy roasted malt. Flavors meld very well together, great balance. I can’t honestly find a bad thing to say about this beer. I like the relatively less alcohol too. Not the most complex example, but again, still up there. Could be more exciting on the mouth, flavors are solid but redundant.
Tried
from Bottle
on 11 Dec 2003
at 08:30
7.9/10
—
Appearance 10
Aroma 8
Flavor 7
Texture 8
Overall 7.5
Bottled. Extremely black with dark brown. Licorice aroma. Very sweet, intensely malty. A lot of grapefruity hops. Some coffee and an aromatic bitter finish. Full bodied and packed with flavour, I would still make it less sweet. Many thanks to hopsrus for sending this and many other great beers!
Tried
from Bottle
on 22 Oct 2003
at 15:01
6.8/10
—
Appearance 6
Aroma 7
Flavor 7
Texture 6
Overall 7
A solid porter by the folks at Great Divide. Dark brown appearance, thin tan head. Nice roasted aroma. Flavor is roasted chocolate and coffee, with a sweet aftertaste and rich mouthfeel. Neither too thin nor too thick. A great session porter, clean and tasty.
Tried
on 09 Oct 2003
at 00:53