Bass P2 / Czars Imperial Stout

Brewed by White Shield / Museum (MolsonCoors)
Style: Imperial Stout
Burton-on-Trent, England

Serve in Snifter

Big thanks to Craig for this hand bottle. Pours a dark brown and struggles to form a small off-white head. The aroma is very nice; chocolate, dark fruits and molasses. The taste was also way above average; the initial taste was full of chocolate covered fruit, perhaps raspberries, some burnt malts and a very different finish that is mostly coffee and is fairly dry. Survived the trip well, the body was fairly thin, but otherwise a very good beer that I am very happy to have the chance to try. Thanks Craig.

Courtesy of Craig, I really appreciate this hand-bottled treat! It’s pitch blanc and has a small, creamy head, or more a ring along the side of the glass. The aroma has notes of roasted malt, dark fruits, licorice, and it’s rather vinous. The mouthfeel is semi-oily and naturally flat. The flavour has notes of roasted malt, licorice, very light hints of smoke, dark fruits, light chocolate and a light bitterness. The finish is very, very long. It’s a really nice Impy!

Hand bottle from cgarvieuk. Drank on Father’s Day 2008 while watching the Cubs put it to the Blue Jays. Hell yeah! Pours dark brown with a slightest white ring around the edge. The nose is full of dark fruit. Plum is what comes to mind. There is some chocolate and roast as well. Again, very plum or prune in flavor. I can get the coconut that Craig mentions. I think I taste some licorice. Very bitter. Light, oily body. Light carbonation. Dry finish. I feel that this may have suffered a bit. Craig shipped on a Monday while I was on vacation. This could have been sitting on my front porch for a day or two. Ouch.

UPDATED: MAY 20, 2011 Mini Cask ... Huge thanks to the Brewer for helping me out here Deep brown.black ... thin off white head ... Deep rich roast malt nose with some toffee and plums ... mellow roasts with a touch of meeatness i often find in an Imerial stouts ... little coconut ... lots of coffee ... little bitterness in linger ... This beer lived up to my hopes for it ... alcohol is nicly subdued for 8% ... good depth and great rich flavours ... Just a bit of a long bitter linger once your finnished ...

Wow Its Day 3 into the Mini Cask and F... Me if it isnt getting better ... Its smoother more rounded still a bit bitter in its finnish for me but wonderful none the less...

Cask at GBBF 2009 ... hahaha i got this one again .its LOVELY

bottle at home ... deep black ... thin tan head ... big licorice roast malt nose ... too heavy licorice roast ... toffee malts ... too bitter ... and not as nice as cask... very licorice 3.4

UPDATED: JUL 30, 2008 Hand bottled, by me, from a mini-cask, sorted from the brewery in an grand-scale logistical coup pulled off by cgarvieuk. Cheers to the brewers: I hope you are able to brew to your own lights again at some point in the future, maybe out from under the Coors thumb. You clearly have skills. Really big thanks Craig for working this deal out.

A month and a bit after hand bottling, this still has a really nice level of carbonation. Pours black with a nice layer of persistent light tan head. Soft tinned coffee aroma, like the stuff that comes pre-ground by the gallon. Rubbish to drink, but that first sniff, when you break the foil seal, is lovely. (It’s the souls of all those murdered coffee beans, brutally ground to powder while still so young...so young.) After the coffee, green grapes, milk chocolate. There is an odd stale butter note right after the pour, but that happily dissipates after a swirl or two of the glass. Very soft chocolate flavor with a hint of smoke and an earthy finish. It appears that a month in the bottle (and a month or more in the mini-cask) has given the last brave yeasties a chance finish their work. This is a much better beer than fresh on cask. Less sticky than fresh, and in the absence of the heavy sweetness, I feel like the body actually softens and is much more refined. A nice lingering bitter chocolate finish. Really wish the brewers could bottle this. As nice as cask beer can be, this beer belongs (live, unfiltered) in bottles.

(Previous rating: Gravity, Reading Beer Festival. Black, brown highlights, light tan head. Figgy/date sugar aroma, a nice touch of leather, fumes. Very sweet raw sugar flavor, smokey dark chocolate, rum. Fairly light bodied for the abv. Warming, very flavorful, with the sense that the flavors are pulled from opposite sides of the flavor spectrum. Leather, grapeskin, oyster brine finish. Really fun to have a chance to taste this! 7/4/7/4 15)

A Mes rate: Gravicask at the White Horse.
At last, I have been chasing this one for a long time. At every festival I have been to that has had this on, it has finished by the time I have got there. Thrilled to see it on the list at the White Horse and it was an easy choice for my first beer. It didn’t let me down either. Dark opaque mahogany with a thin tan head and some legs from the alcohol. Aroma of nuts, caramel, chocolate malt and some slight hops. Thick, chewy and tar like in the mouth but not at all cloying. A proper imperial stout. Coffee, lots of chocolate, almost chalky, lovely bitterness but not really in a hoppy way. Glorious alcohol notes. Fantastic stuff all round.

A great stout! A really great stout. Brewed in the bass micro brewery next to the main factory. Very drinkable!

Deep reddish, almost black colour with a small light brown head. Roasted malty, dried dark fruit sweet aroma with a light chocolate note. Malty, fruity sweet flavor with a vanilla note.