BrewDog Riptide

Brewed by BrewDog
Style: Imperial Stout
Fraserburgh, Aberdeenshire, Scotland

Serve in Snifter

Bottled. Pitch pour with ruby edges, and filthy caramel suds receding to a slick. Charred malt aroma wafting with bitter choc, liquorice, smoke and brine. Brackish and yeasty like a Baltic Porter, but the flavour is bittersweet, chunkily smooth, biting with cocoa and lingering smoke, and leaning towards America. Delicious impy.

Nearly black body with a pretty garnet edge. The large head is dark tan with lots of large bubbles. The aroma is at first quality roast coffee with some sweet pancakes. There was also a note of almonds. The taste is brash with strong coffee and dark chocolate. The finish has prunes and some bread crust. The body is nicely balance, but has a little bit of rubbing alcohol in the aftertaste along with a strong bitterness. Well made, but I would like a touch less roast.

750mL bottle pours deep mahogany with nice firm looking mocha head. The aroma has dark roasted malts, dark roasted coffee and a mild level of spicy black licorice. The taste is rich with plenty of dark roasted malts moving into near burnt malts and some spiciness kind of like black licorice. Wow this is lovely, rich, highly roasted and all good. I dig it!
Earlier Rating: 2/5/2009 Total Score: 3.5
Courtesy of THE tpd975. Pours deep brown with amber edges and almost no head. The aroma is roasty malts, mild wood and smoke to go along with a pulse of vanilla. The taste is roasty moving toward burnt malts and then into wood and mild smoky peatiness. Pretty nice stuff. It thins out into the finish. Starts bold and then finishes with smooth and light lingering notes of wood, peat, smoke and molasses.

Bottle. Not sure of the reason for the high ratings - and like Rastacouere I’m surprised at the amount of two line high scores. I’d appreciate people saying why they liked it: "Colour is black, aroma is coffee, flavour is strong, I liked it." seems a bit shallow. It’s a strong stout for sure, and people like strong stouts, but this is really not one of the best strong stouts I’ve encountered - and considering how easy they are to make, and how home brewed strong stout can taste really nice even from kit, I’m perplexed at the scores (can’t say praise as nobody has really praised it) this beer is getting. The aroma is not exciting. It’s an indifferent slightly fish-tinged chocolate. The taste is strong, but not actually that pleasant - and I’m aware that people can get quite excited about intensity. There is a strong bitterness. It’s quite oily with a viscous and firm mouthfeel - and a firm mouthfeel is often rated highly. For me the beer is not good. Given that a strong stout is baby school easy to impress with, the brewers are revealing themselves as inept with this garbage. It smells unpleasant, tastes unpleasant, is boring and unadventurous, is too bitter, too oily, too fishy, and lacks character, This is simply a badly designed and brewed beer. Crap.

Bottle. Dark brown body with a amsll off white head. Roasted malt, caramel, cream and tobacco in aroma. Mostly roasty flavour with notes of chocolate, raisin, light coffee and caramel leading to a dry roasty finish. Medium bodied. To the ordinary side of the impy stouts.

Cask (gravity dispense) at Reading Beer Festival. The body is dark as pitch with only a few bubbles on the surface. Rather zestful and smoky aroma. In-depth flavour of dark chocolate and liquorice blended by dark fruits. Progressive bitterness with alcohol shining through. Dusty mouthfeel (sampled with Finn, 02.05.2008).

bottle, thanks to bu11zeye, coca cola colored body, coffee colored head, roasted coffee flavors with cocoa and dark fruits, finish is very dry

Looks thin as it pours, and is only semi-opaque. No head. Aroma is total highland whiskey. Bright whiskey cake. Musty wood. Liquor-filled chocolate. Palate is thinner than expected but doesn’t bother me because it makes it very easy to drink. The flavors are dry and tannic with wood accents, smoke, and toasted malt. Very nice.