Beer Works Imperial Stout

Brewed by Beer Works
Style: Imperial Stout
Salem, Massachusetts USA

Serve in Snifter

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On tap at the Canal Street location on 6 April 2010 in a Tulip glass. Listed on the board as Russian Imperial Stout but no mention barrel-aging, so I guess it was this one. Difficult to be certain as there was no ABV given and I couldn’t find it listed on the Beer Works website as one of the April (or March) beers. Black as night. Surprisingly modest aroma. Quite fruity flavour. Some roasty notes with a noticeable bitterness and fairly understated coffee. Subtle burnt & smoky elements. Quite light and easy-drinking for an imperial stout. Still enjoyable.

On tap at Fenway. Consumed in a flight of 4. Very dark with low carbonation. Aroma and flavor were somewhat typical of this style. Chocolate malts with a bitter-ish finish. Good but not outstanding.

[Draft in Lowell] Poured an opaque black color with a small, tan head that left nice lacing on the glass. Aroma of roasted malts, dark fruits, smoke, chocolate, wood, light anise, and some alcohol. Taste of roast, smoke, charred wood, some caramel malts, dark fruits, and alcohol in the finish.

Tap at fenway. Pours a dep dark brown, almost black with a thin beige head. Light roasted malts an chocolate in the aroma with hints of licorice and tar but also thick sweet fruity esters and a solventy alcohol note. More roast, almost coffe in the flavor, solvent and acetone as it warms, sharp caramel and fruity high temp esters.

This beer was great, it delivered what was advertised. I ordered it because of it’s notation of "licorice" in the description. The beer was great- but honestly, have a Guinness at an Irish place and get the Bluebeery Ale here!

Draught. Darl brown with a thick coffe colored head. Aroma of vanilla and chocolate. Flavor of chocolate, coffee with a nice hoppy finish. Very light for an imperial, lacks the full body that it advertises. Still, not too shabby.

on tap-pours a big creamy tan head that laces and black color. Aroma is licorice-dark malt. Taste is licorice-dark malt, hops bitterness. OK carbonation.

Draught pint at the brewpub (Fenway) on 2/8/06. Perfect pour in all aspects. The head is large, yet dense and lasting, a burnt sienna color, consisting of very minute bubbles. Lacing is created in sheets down the glass, while the beer’s color is near black, certainly opaque. The aroma is a light espresso, with bits of dark chocolate, tons of black malt and/or roasted unmalted barley. Very earthy, dry, dripping with unsweetned molasses. Warming allows some light creamy-sweet malt flavors to emerge in the nose, but an increasing amount of hop bitterness also begins to appear in the nose, battling back any sweetness to be seen. The flavor shows the strong black malt/roasted barley character of the nose, and runs all over the palate with it. Intense, black, old coffee, high alpha acid hop bitterness and biting acidity from the roasted barley as well. It dosent start out over the top (and it’s served extremely cold to start), but the more it warms, the more the acidity increases. At first it’s rather masked and there is some lightly sweet chocolate and graham cracker going on, but it’s short-lived. Alcohol provides warming, though it is not too pervasive. The body is a bit watery, which also contributes to the acidity problem. More thick malts might pick that up and dull it better. Low carbonation, though, with an oily feel to it.

Thought at first they brought me the Irish stout instead. Poured out like a Guinness nitrogen and all. This beer was basically s stronger Guinness with a little more of a warming kick to it. Overall it was a good beer, but I wanted somethign more