Church-Key Riot Act Imperial Stout

On tap at the Church Key Spring Revival open house weekend, May 6 2006. Pours a deep pitch black with an oily dark brown medium head - looks fantastic, even in the plastic cups! Lovely aroma of roast, molasses, coffee and chocolate. Sticky, oily medium mouthfeel. Tons of flavour - lots of roast, lots of molasses, oily hops, a hint of acidity. Hides the 9% stunningly well. We don’t have too many Imperial Stouts in Ontario, and I suppose the obvious comparison here would be the Katarina, but I found this to be easier to drink yet more complex (and without the sour acidity that can detract from the fine Scotch Irish effort). Ontario’s best Stout, great job John, and what a nice reward for going to another Spring Revival!

Draught at Volo. Deep brown-black with a wispy tan head. Aroma has a lot going on - roasty and smoky, hint of burnt coffee beans, and even a bit of funkiness. Mouthfeel is soft and silky, lovely! Flavour is big, but well balanced, with notes of coffee, chocolate, malt, smoke and wood melding perfectly, leading to a long, dry finish. Fantastic stuff - please make more, Church Key!

Opaque black with small head. Half pint at Volo. Malt and coffee and bittersweet chocolate aroma, but also boozy. Lace in glass. Roasty with generous coffee. So much so that acidic coffee, being the biggest stomach irritant in the world, had its effect. Medium bodied, rolling carbonation. satisfying but more like a coffee porter than a thick RIS

Smokey stout with a full bodied roasty flavour. A nicely balanced sweetness and a slight hint of coffee gives this solid brew a reputation on par with some other impressive micro stouts coming out of ontario these days. Best Churck Key brew I’ve had yet.

Draught at Volo. Pours a deep black with an average size semi-lasting creamy light-brown head. Nice roasty malt aroma with some coffee, chocolate and hops. Great tasting roasted malt flavour with lots of coffee, some chocolate and hops and ends with a long bitter finish -- this goes down incredibly easy and hides the alcohol very well. Medium bodied. This is a great example of the style, many kudos to Church-Key for a very fine beer, I hope it sticks around and becomes a year-long beer.

Draught. At Volo. Simply put, this is an excellent imperial stout. Poured thick, opaque deep brown-black with a small creamy brown head. Nice roasty aroma, bitter chocolate, strong coffee, a hint of cream and green hops. There was a widely acknowledged initial hit of metal in the taste, but it settled out quickly and I was left with roast choc/coffee bean malt (not as bitter as the aroma), dark fruit, slightly tart, light alcohol and increasingly bitter as it warmed green hops; longish finish, some acidity and more strong coffee grounds in the finish. Solid body on this one, thick, creamy, increasing astringency and acidity as it warmed - unlike tupalev, I actually prefer the acidity and in-your-face nature of the Tsarina K to this, but he’s right, this one has more sublety, although I suspect it could have been a tad fresher (hence the mild metal). Solid all round.

I forgot about this one black with good foam good roasty malt nose is choc, and as said before that church key yeast, flavor is chocolate and uhhm some dried prunes good hops, alcohol is well balanced

tap @ volo. Pitch black, dark brown creamy head. Nose is deep chocolate malt, some iodine, some coffee. Flavor is dark roasted malt, some cherry, chocolate. Bittersweet astringent finish. Reminds me a bit of founders IS.