Boulder Beer Obovoid Empirical Stout

22 oz. bottle, pours dark brown and ruby that can be seen at the edges, there are off-white and tan bubbles that form a temporary cover and leave a ring, aromas of chocolate, milk chocolate and dark roasted malt, flavor of dark roasted malt, chocolate, coffee, starts off with some malt and chocolate sweetness but ends dry, pretty dry at the finish with some roast bitterness that trails thereafter, a touch of oak flavor but I did not notice until it warmed to almost room temperature, mouth feel is medium maybe a bit more, there is some creaminess on the tongue, an ok stout not outstanding though.

Pours a dark brown with thin off white sudsy head, good lacing. Aroma is roasted chocolate malt, burnt coffee. Flavor is the same strong chocolate mal, oak, smoke, and a bitter coffee finish. Somewhat thinner body than I expected and overly bitter. Also, I was expecting more of an imperial oatmeal stout. Dissapointed for the price I paid.

$6.99 bottle from store. No ABV on the bottle. Said oak-aged RIS, so I thought this might be good. Served at room temp. Big mixed bubble head that settles at a medium pace. Aroma is grain with some husky roasted grain hints. The oak is hard to pick out if it’s there. Lots of dry, over-roasty sourness that I don’t like in many stouts. Please mash at a higher temps, or do something to increase your unfermentable sugars!!! I feel like many brewers are trying to minimize the amoun t of grain they use to reach a desired ABV quoting "maximum efficiency" as they go. The end result is a dry bitter yucky beer. I’m don’t think I like the hop combination here too, with too much early boil hops. Again I can see the brewer maximizing his IBU/$dollar ratio. Blucky.

i love boulder beer company. there. i said it. there’s no taking it back. i just freaking love everything this company makes. however, until now, i have only tasted wildly hoppy ales, an extra buttery barleywine, and an overly citrused wit from boulder. as a stout lover, i’ve waited years for boulder to go darker, to plunge into the depths of tar black lightlessness. and, finally, on a recent trip to visit friends in denver, i found obovoid. this "emperical" imperial stout is top notch. poured into wide brimmed wine goblets, obovoid rejected any sliver of light or hint of illumination. overly zealous carbonation bubbles constantly ascended and bristled the top of the glass, hindering a solid head to form on the beer’s surface. aromatic flavor notes revealed abundant gushes of espresso, burnt dark chocolate, anise and dry raisin cakes. my good friend herb and i sipped obovoid at room temperature, and i found the flavors growing more pronounced as the beer warmed. sipping slowly, i couldn’t help but think of mint chocolate chip ice cream or a fine slice of new york style cheesecake beside this beer. instead, we had the "majesty" of the denver snowcapped skyline drizzling down a chilled grey morning on our overly black goblets. perfect. a close second in genre to old rasputin’s russian imperial stout. boulder beer has impressed me once again.

bottle - Pours near black with a one finger tan head. It has a roast malt and chocolate aroma. The flavor is of course of those big roast malts along with chocolate and a hint of oak. It’s well hopped and has a medium body. I really enjoyed this one.