Amsterdam Tempest Imperial Stout

Brewed by Amsterdam Brewing Company
Style: Imperial Stout
Toronto, Canada

Serve in Snifter

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This beer is intoxicating. :) It’s heaven in a glass. Caramel chocolate aroma. Toasted caramel head. Deep dark chocolate colour. Chocolate caramel coffee taste. I want to steal this from northropfrye.

Black and opaque, notes of chocolate, coffee, molasses, baking spice. Full bodied, rich and creamy while still retaining balance. Excellent example of the style. ---Rated via Beer Buddy for iPhone

500ml bottle, 9% a/v To start, the wax dip is cool, but harder to get off than id like! Spent a minute just trying to get into the bottle. Pours a thick creamy looking black color with a thick chocolatey looking brown head. Aroma is nutty, chocolate, and roasty coffee (though I had a stuffed up nose during this rating, so may have missed some nuances). The taste is fantastic, espresso, chocolate, and a bit nutty. Palate is thick, creamy and taste. Overall a spectacular brew, worth the minute of getting through the wax! Great brew Jaime and pals!

Bottle from LCBO. Pours opaque dark with a thin brown head. Aroma is really roasty, with leather and molasses. Taste is roasty, with bitter dark chocolate, and a bitter finish. A creamy vanilla taste creeps up over time. Smooth palatte, with light carbonation and a full body. This was great stuff - by far the best offering I’ve had from Amsterdam!

UPDATED: DEC 6, 2011 EARLY NOVEMBER 2011 - Same batch of stout mellowing and improving in the bottle 4 mos - less green hop bitter, more integrated and smooth with vanilla-cocoa overtones and a smooth sweet aroma. Should have bought up the 9-10 bottles if only it did not deprive others, I could drink this all year! ** old rate ** EARLY JULY 2011 - Waxed bottle from brewery. Pours a solid brown-black with gold-red highlights. Small espresso foam cap. Aroma is smooth and restrained showing lemon and sweet coffee, a little milky acidity. Taste is layered with replays of dark dried fruit and brandied cherry, coffee bitterness, aromatic dark cocoa, lemon citrus acidity, and a long play of grassy herbal hop bitterness. A little spicy and smoky. The hops seem a bit green but, taking away this the beer may age into a real beauty. Over the fence good. 7 3 9 4 16 = 3.9

In short: A complex imperial stout with a bit of everything
How: Bottle 500ml, black-waxed top requiring lots of work to open. Consumed 7 months after receiving it from blankboy, thanks a lot Paul
The look: Black body topped by a large tan head with good retention
In long: Nose is moderately hoppy (citrusy, herbal) over roast and black coffee. Taste has a bit of everything you can hope from an Imperial Stout. Medium roast level, come black chocolate, some burnt toasts, some roasted coffee beans, nutty notes of roasted almonds, some molasses and even some dark fruits. An Imperial Stout all-dressed. Hops are more discreet in mouth than in the aroma but quietly work in the background to achieve balance, certainly not underhopped. Nothing that really stands out here, but the whole is more than the sum of its parts, a superior example of the style. An excellent offering coming from Ontario, a Canadian province where convenience stores don’t sell beer in, so please someone tell me what’s convenient about them.

On tap at C’est What. Pours a dark black with a creamy tan head. Nice aroma of toasted nuts, coffee and chocolate. Flavours of dried fruit, coffee and bitter chocolate.

Aroma is lots of roasted malt, chocolate, slightly woody and just a hint of booze. Mouthfeel is incredibly rich, the beer almost feels thick in your mouth. Taste is lots of dark bitter chocolate, and roasted malt, with a bit of a yeasty character it seems and just a hint of dark fruit. Really nice beer, glad to have got to try and great work Amsterdam.

2012 Bottle. Pours a midnight black, with a massive tan head that has spots of lace. Nose of rich dark roasted malts coffee and caramel sugars. Tastes a perfect balance of bitter, dark chocolate and coffee like malts. Everything you could ask for, good job.

Bottle. Pours inky black, brown head. Aroma is chocolate and expresso, roast. Taste is fantastic. Warming, yet no alcohol, rich coffee and chocolate, sweet start and just enough bitter hop at the end to balance it out. Really nice, looking forward to seeing how this does in a few years in my cellar.