750 ml bottle into tulip glass, bottled in 9/2018. Pours opaque dark brown/black color with a 1 finger fairly dense and rocky tan head with great retention, that reduces to a small cap that lingers. Nice spotty soapy lacing clings on the glass, with a light amount of streaming carbonation. Aromas of big red grapefruit, tangerine, lemon, peach, pineapple, apricot, passion fruit, papaya, mango, melon, guava, berries, citrus peel/rind, peppercorn, pine, dark chocolate, cocoa, coffee, caramel, brown sugar, roasted nuts, toasted dark/brown bread, light smoke/char, herbal, floral, grass, and roast/toasted earthiness. Damn nice aromas with great balance and complexity of citrus/fruity/tropical/earthy hops and dark/roast/bready malt notes; with great strength. Taste of big red grapefruit, tangerine, lemon, peach, pineapple, apricot, passion fruit, papaya, mango, melon, guava, berries, citrus peel/rind, peppercorn, pine, dark chocolate, cocoa, coffee, caramel, brown sugar, roasted nuts, toasted dark/brown bread, light smoke/char, herbal, floral, grass, and roast/toasted earthiness. Light-moderate pine, citrus peel/rind, herbal, floral, grassy, peppery hops; and roast/char bitterness on the finish. Lingering notes of grapefruit, tangerine, lemon, peach, pineapple, apricot, passion fruit, papaya, mango, melon, guava, berries, citrus peel/rind, peppercorn, pine, dark chocolate, cocoa, coffee, caramel, brown sugar, roasted nuts, toasted dark/brown bread, light smoke/char, herbal, floral, grass, and roast/toasted earthiness on the finish for a while. Awesome complexity, robustness, and balance of citrus/fruity/tropical/earthy hops and dark/roast/bready malt flavors; with an awesome roast/hop bitter/sweet balance; and no cloying, acrid, astringent flavors after the finish. Light-moderate increasing dryness from lingering hop/char bitterness. Medium carbonation and medium-plus body; with a very smooth, moderately creamy/bready/grainy, sticky/resinous/rindy, and fairly chalky balanced mouthfeel that is great. Minimal warming alcohol for 8%. Overall this is an awesome imperial black IPA. All around great complexity, robustness, and balance of citrus/fruity/tropical/earthy hops and dark/roast/bready malt flavors; very smooth and dangerously easy to drink for the ABV, with the modestly bitter/drying finish. Not aggressively bitter, or overly charred on malts. Amazing Citra, Simcoe, Centennial profile. Very juicy, vibrant, and fairly dank/earthy hop complexity; great clean midnight wheat, and oat/malt balance. Not overly sweet/heavy from lingering resin dryness. A really enjoyable offering, and outstanding style example. One of the better black IPAs I've had in a while, wish more breweries still made them.

Bottle shared by Pierluigi @Luppolo Station (thank you!). Nera, densa, impenetrabile, schiuma beige medio-leggera. Al naso note di caffè, cioccolato fondente, liquirizia, vaniglia. In bocca tantissimo bourbon e caffè, equilibrata, rotonda, splendida. Corpo pieno, carbonazione media. Boom!

Xmas THT. Bottle. Black with tan head. Big sweet deep roasted chocolate malts. Nutty chocolatey, massive maple, hazlenuts, perfect cappuccino’s, very nice mouthfeel. Sweet and bitter. Full body. Smooth, muddy, greasy, juicy. Very lovely. --- Beer merged from original tick of Imperial Smells Like Bean Spirit on 17 Dec 2018 at 09:40 - Score: 8

Bottle shared at THT December ‘18. Black with a beige head. Aroma of huge espresso, maple, dark chocolate, toffee, vanilla and dark fudge. Flavour is heavy sweet. Full bodied with soft carbonation.

Bottle sampled at THT December. Black with light brown head. Massive coffee, roasted malts and maple up front. So much maple and coffee. Dark chocolate, earthy roast, toffee, caramel. Over medium sweet and bitter. Full bodied. So much coffee and maple, nice! ☕️ 🍁

Russian chocolate