UPDATED: NOV 21, 2022 Black color, thin tan head. Flavor is roasted malt, bit of chocolate, decent bitterness, just a hint of alcohol. Aroma is a bit of chocolate, more roasted malt. Alcohol is very well masked for 10.5%. Nice beer overall.

UPDATED: JUL 16, 2022 9 year old 750ml bottle, guess the old rate must be in the backlog. Deep and roasty, massive chocolate malt tone. Licorice tone is subtle but present. Significantly more enjoyable than all the 14 percent sugar bombs of the last few years. True to style, solid beer.

UPDATED: SEP 24, 2020 750ml bottle, 2014 vintage. Rich roasted malt aroma with notes of dark chocolate, molasses, licorice and a little bit of coffee. Pours black with a thin mocha brown head that has little retention and some lacing. Starts with rich roasted malt, dark chocolate and molasses flavors as well as having a rich, robust body and slick, viscous mouthfeel. Finishes very smooth and a bit dry with licorice and a little bit of coffee. Really nice, especially since it’s almost 5 years past the best by date...

UPDATED: SEP 23, 2020 Part of a sampler at the brewpub. What a wonderful aroma of beautiful chocolate. So robust. Flavor is nice but not as pronounced as the aroma.

UPDATED: SEP 10, 2020 Quarantine Beer #094 sampled at home on 04/30/2020. Black pour with some brown around the edges and a medium tan head that diminishes gradually to a wispy film. Small patches of lacing. Aroma of roast malt, chocolate and anise. Full-bodied with flavors of charred malt, dark chocolate, black licorice and coffee. The finish is roasty with a malt and anise aftertaste. Pretty good beer all around.

UPDATED: SEP 3, 2020 Can from Total Wine in Austin, TX. Aroma is dark chocolate, coffee, boozy chocolate dessert. Taste is tangy dark chocolate, mild licorice, oily coffee. Surprisingly good and the first great beer I've had in Austin, TX (even though it's from Utah).

UPDATED: JUN 7, 2020 An old one from the cellar. Black thick pour, tan head. Malty aroma. Carmel malty and black licorice flavor. Long lasting finish.

UPDATED: MAR 14, 2020 Super deep dark brown coloured body with a nice, albeit quite thin light brown head, about two centimetres tall. Aroma of deep roasted malts, almost burnt, with a lot of nuts, earth, coffee and more soy sauce and deep meaty notes than anything else - also on the burnt side as well. Medium to Full-bodied; Strong chocolate and soy sauce components show up at first with a lot of roasted malt, burnt sugars, caramel, deep molasses and caramel with some nutty flavours, a good hit of walnuts and pecans that finishes off with a lactose and pure cream flavour towards the end, that is burnt as well. Aftertaste shows the graininess, a lot of caramel and nuts to go with the soy sauce and chocolate flavours that are so pungent in this one, especially at the end. Overall, a deep and incredibly pungent beer that shows the soy sauce, heavily roasted malts and robust chocolate side of things way more than anything else, and sadly - not too a good balance, nor a soft tone, even with the light aging that I did to this one. I wouldn't have wanted to sample this one fresh, as it would have been way too pungent. Nice to sample, but if I were to buy another one of these, I'd age it for a minimum of five years before drinking, as the body was still very nice after two years. I sampled this twelve ounce can, purchased from BeerTopia in Omaha, Nebraska on 13-March-2018 for US$2,99 sampled exactly two years later at home in Washington on 13-March-2020.

UPDATED: FEB 5, 2020 12 oz can, poured black with tan head. Full body. Chocolate and licorice aroma. Boozy cocoa and roasted grain taste. Sweet malt finish.

UPDATED: JAN 27, 2020 So I bought this beer literally years ago (I'm thinking something bordering on 10) and held it like a prized possession until now. Of course, this was stupid since even though this is a really big beer, it should have been opened years ago. Even so, after all that time, it was still really delicious and deep, but I'm sure it would have been even better if I'd had it earlier. The aroma from the bottle was pure dark molasses and nothing else. In the glass, it was this with a bit more chocolate, but there wasn't much coming off of it (possibly due to age). Definitely one of the darkest beers I've ever seen with just a tiny bit of ruby brown color at the bottom edge of the glass under intense light. The head was truly a medium dark brown color which few beers actually achieve. The taste was more dark molasses, dark chocolate and dark roasted coffee with cocoa and charred wood notes. Some good earthy bitterness probably from a combination of hops and heavily roasted malt. I think the flavor would have been fuller and more complex if this was a younger version of this, but it honestly was still very tasty and superior to many imperial stouts I've had. Finished with loads of dark chocolate and charred bitterness around the edges of the tongue. I hope to get to try this again when it's a bit younger, but I can tell this is a classic beer regardless of age.