4.7 AROMA 9/10 APPEARANCE 5/5 TASTE 9/10 PALATE 5/5 OVERALL 19/20
for me, the best imperial stout i've ever tasted. amazingly drinkable and smooth, but with a sweet and rounded taste with just the right bitterness. very difficult to find unfortunately.
4.5 AROMA 9/10 APPEARANCE 4/5 TASTE 9/10 PALATE 5/5 OVERALL 18/20
Cask, Burton Summer Fest 08. Dark brown with minimal head. Aromas are rich malts with figs, raisins and bready yeast. Smoky, woody and peppery. Flavours are molasses and dark chocolate malts with liquorice. Herbal and vinous with raisins. Roast malts with berries and citrus and smoky notes. Viscous on the palate with a woody, bitter finish. Warming and drinkable despite its strength. Amazing.
Earlier Rating: 1/28/2003 Total Score: 4.1
Finally, I had this in a bottle at home. Dark with hints of purple this beer pours with a small amount of foam. Flavours are of coffee, chocolate, licourice and earthy notes. A burnt malts finish completes this good beer.
4.3 AROMA 9/10 APPEARANCE 4/5 TASTE 9/10 PALATE 3/5 OVERALL 18/20
Gravity fresh @ Pig's Ear Beer Fest, East London. This is the beer that dragged me out here to East London on a cold December day. A famous beer, and one not often seen in the cask. It didn't disappoint! Absolutely black - no red tinges at all. Small coffee coloured ring of vanishing bubbles. Raspberry, balsamic vinegar, glue fumes - quite a heady and pleasant aroma, though not totally absorbing. So far, a decent Imperial Stout. Mouthfeel is firm without being too sticky or syrupy. Splendid range of toffee, coffee, raspberry, treacle... some sweetness, but dark and restrained by a good bitterness. Quite wonderful.
4.3 AROMA 8/10 APPEARANCE 4/5 TASTE 9/10 PALATE 4/5 OVERALL 18/20
Bottled from the cask at Pigs Ear Festival, London , 2003.
Jet black with an acute brown trim. Amazing aroma that somehow inspires the imagination back to the period. There’s no alcohol on the aroma, although it does warm the chest on the way down. Smooth mouth feel but not silky, there is no need. It’s not this beers style. Wonderful depth and breath of expression. A very fortunate rate.
4.3 AROMA 9/10 APPEARANCE 5/5 TASTE 8/10 PALATE 4/5 OVERALL 17/20
Absolute black color; thick creamy head. Wonderful aroma, very strong: fine roasted malts, coffee, liquorice, Stilton (!); very cheesy; persistent (maybe worth a 10)
Very good mouthfeel (even if a bit dry at the end); lovely harmony, malt coffee roasted malt and a light cheesy touch. The final is not extremely hopped, but a share of bitterness comes from the roasted malt.
Excellent.
4.2 AROMA 9/10 APPEARANCE 4/5 TASTE 9/10 PALATE 4/5 OVERALL 16/20
#1399. St George’s Thing. Roasty slightly fruity aroma with a bit of marmite. To taste this is full bodied with lots of roasted malt and quite a noticeable coconut character I thought. Beer of the festival/graveyard for me.
4.2 AROMA 9/10 APPEARANCE 4/5 TASTE 8/10 PALATE 4/5 OVERALL 17/20
Colour as dark coffee, head purplish-brown, instantly disappearing. Nose of cocos, mocca, sweet coffee and whiff of benzene. Taste sweet, but something like smoked ham flavour, more restrained than a Rauchbier; retronasal it becomes lik Islay malt whisky. Aftertaste bitter coffee, without the coffeine, but not long remaining. Overall superb, but nearly ruined by unexplicable thinnish mouthfeel.
This ought to be enhanced to 11-12%ABV - it would be an answer to DFH"" WWS 18%!
4.2 AROMA 8/10 APPEARANCE 5/5 TASTE 8/10 PALATE 5/5 OVERALL 16/20
Bottle (St Georges Park Bottle Fest): Caramel, sweet choc and berries. Roast in the nose. Black with a brown head. Some nice dark fruit notes. Really tasty.
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