Arcadia Imperial Stout

Brewed by Arcadia Brewing Company
Style: Imperial Stout
Battle Creek, Michigan USA

A very soft imperial stout, from the velvety chocolate head that never quite disappears, to the mild burnt flavors of roasted coffee and chocolate that predominate, with underlying licorice notes, this beer makes a good case for the drinkability of this style- unfortunately, the slight mashy taste of sour grain in the finish significantly detracts from what is otherwise a very good beer. Hop presence is slight in the finish and overall is almost a non-factor. Basically, this beer starts out great, but finishes very weakly. Reservedly disappointing.

12 oz bottle. Bonus Beer in a trade with demitriustown. 2nd Michigan brew of the night. Still have a bit of lingering sweetness on my tongue from a bottle of Founder’s Black Rye. Pours black as night with a small light brown head, the exact kind of head I want to see when i pour an imperial stout. The nose is rich with aromas of roastiness and a nice chocolate feeling. The taste is nice, but a bit more watery then I expected. The coffee is overwhelmed in the taste by the chocolate but a bit is still there. If it had a bit more octane I might like this brew more. Good work Arcadia, but not quite there yet.

This stout pours a deep, rich chocolate color with a small brown head. Flavor of chocolate and smokey wood are the most abundant. Strong alcohol is well hidden by the intense flavors. Also hints of molasses and vanilla. Very tasty and enjoyable.

12 oz bottler thanks to dmac621. Poured a deep dark black with a small head. Smells of chocolate, vanilla bean. Tastes smooth, with hops, malt coffee, chocolate and a little fruit. Pretty good.

12 ounce bottle in pint glass. Blacker than Dick Cheney’s soul. Flatter than Keira Knightley. Something went wrong here. Well, at least I know that the date code is E2, whatever the fuck that means. Anyhow, some nice roasted chocolate/coffee flavor unblended with some underlying hop bitterness and some water floating around in between. Probably a good beer, but I gotta call ’em as I drink ’em, and this one is didn’t make it. And I shoulda known because the label was peeling off, always a bad sign. Sorry. I would have given more points or not had this experience at all if I could have deciphered the date code. Re-rate: Got a fresher bottle of this. Very midl roasted aroma. Roasted coffee and dark chocolate with bittersweet dark chocolate finish. Medium-low carbo. Full body. Nicely roasted. Much better.

Weak charcoal and currant aroma. Black, headless pour. Relatively strong dark chocolate and molasses flavor. Smoky charcoal finish. Flavorful and drinkable.. Rather simple for an imp stout, but delicious.

On tap, this has a mellow malt-coffee flavor. 8.4.% alcohol content is well-hidden. Not too hoppy or harsh, very drinkable for the style.

Bottle: Pours pitch black with almost no head. Aroma of malt, coffee and smoke. Flavor of same. Tastes like it has more alcohol than it really does. Not bad.