Coffe aroma. Somewhat nutty. Maybe some peanuts. Pours black with a tan head. Flavor is the same roasty nutty flavor. A wierd nuttiness that might have been like unsalted dry roasted peanuts. Is heavy, syrupy even. Motor oil consistency with an alcohol burny finish. This is a huge beer!

Draft... GABF ’06... This beer rocks!... Pitch black ale with a small, creamy, beige head. Decent retention. Very subtle nose of chocolate. Perfectly balanced, chocolatey flavor with careful, burnt, bitter notes. Moderately sweet, but the bitterness totally levels the playing field. Ultra full-bodied with ’near motor oil’ consistency and lively carbonation. Chocolatey, bittersweet finish. World class brew!

Hmmm, this is going to look bad, but I was drinking imperial stouts with ChrisQ and came upon this one, never having heard of Barley Brothers. I tried it and decided I would rate it so that I just wasnt reviewing beers I liked all fest. So this isnt me being cynical or trying to be controversial or anything like that, just my honest, unbiased opinion.

So the beer pours a dark, deep brownish-black, pretty typical, with a thin, receding light tan head. Aroma is full of dry roast, nuts, burnt coffee and bitter, leafy, dry hops. Flavor takes the dryness, bitterness and roastedness and amplifies it. Grainy, sandy, gritty, bready, biscuity. However you want to say it, but with a strange sourness, bordering on astringency. But all of this is quickly washed away in a flood of thin, oxidized wateriness. Bland coffee roast, lightly dry prune-raisins. Seems dirty and like they shook up the keg, let all the pressure out and mixed in all of the bland yeast. A horrible mess of a beer, most exacerbated by the extreme wateriness. Had it on Saturday, maybe something went wrong between thursday and then?

Creamy beige head lasts a while, but recedes to ring on top of the pitch black glow. Bold malts, very roasty cocoa and espresso like darkness. Hugely biscuity, but the strong grassy hops don’t let the malts have it their way. Berry sweetness rides along it all. Somehow, in mouth, it seems that both adversaries were weakened from the fight because it’s not so flavourful at all, moreso on the bready side, while the carbonation is very restrained and bitterness almost absent despite a mostly dry mouthfeel. It all started well..

GABF 2004: Opaque black with brown edges and a thin tan head. Aroma of sweet caramel malt and some roasted coffee notes. Rich, sweet, smooth and flavorful with lots of roasty malts and caramel toffee, dark fruit complexity. Finishes sticky and dark chocolatey with lots of malty and hoppy bitter balance. A really good imperial that I hope more people will get to try.