 theisti (1044), Leawood, Kansas, USA
Jan 31, 2008 Updated: Aug 25, 2008
<<<RE-RATE 6/9/08>>>
2006 Reserve (Batch 1)
Bottle courtesy of after4ever. Pour is all black with great settling and a gorgeous dark tan head. Beautiful beer. Aroma of roasted malts, earthy tobacco and some sweetness - honey, perhaps, but really sticky honey. Taste is the roast, mostly, but some really interesting pine bitter hoppiness gets added to the mix. The honey sweetness from the nose is not present in the taste. Very smooth, very melded flavors. This was an effective amount of aging for this one. Nice beer, thanks for grabbing this one for me Tom. Rating unchanged from previous. (8,5,9,4,17 - 4.3)
<<<ORIGINAL RATING 1/31/08>>>
2007 Reserve (Batch 2)
22 oz bottle shared by MaltOMeal, 8th bottle sampled at the 1/28 Houston tasting. Pour is solid black, with a 1/2 inch khaki head. Aroma of oak woodiness and some charred / burning maltiness. Taste is big coffee roastiness initially, transitioning to some licorice, finishing in a crisp bright hoppiness. Some heat in the finish. Despite the young age, and apparent heat in the finish this is a very refined and well put together beer. the flavors swirled nicely as this warmed, and had a really deep complexity. Huge thanks for sharing this one Bill, I thought it was a toss up between this and the 2008 Big Foot for beer of the night. (8,5,9,4,17 - 4.3) I will use this rating.
carruthm (388), Seattle, Washington, USA
Sep 1, 2008 black with tan head. oak, bourbon coffee aroma. smooth palate and a dark dark taste. Lots of the licorice and dark sugar.
DaSilky1 (1602), San Diego, California, USA
Aug 31, 2008 pretty dark but showing glimmers of an orangish brown in the light. thin dark tan head. remarkably vivid brownie aroma, chocolate galore. thick lucious chocolate flavors...signifantly sweet, but perfectly so. biscuity chocolate everywhere...hop bitterness is there but completely balanced by the sweetness ...slightly roasty but only enough to round out the chocolate flavors and bridge them with the subtely spiced hops. this is one of those imperial stouts that is really hard to find faults with....well done!
enginaaron (65), San Diego, California, USA
Aug 23, 2008 On tap at Churchill’s in San Marcos, Ca. Incredibly dark and viscous with a large, very dark tan head. Aroma low on hops but strong on the roasted barley with background chocolate and coffee and alcohol. Flavor is hugely dominated by coffee but develops quite a bit. Strong molasses flavor in the beginning but that soon develops into roasted barley, coffee, a small bit of chocolate, vanilla, and a strange sweetness I can’t put my finger on (actually was a rather dissapointing part of this beer.) Finishes with a huge coffee bitterness that I don’t think was favorable. Overall... good, but an off flavor that made it less enjoyable.
JoeMcPhee (3692), Jackson Heights, New York, USA
Aug 23, 2008 Thanks to puzzl and/or EDA for this one... I can’t remember which of them actually gave this to me. Pitch black, sticky and oily pour topped by a thick dark brown head. Aroma is really intense, heavy roast, rich sweet cocoa and chocolate, light licorice and a very soft and surprisingly subtle oak/bourbon vanilla character as well. The aroma is really lovely, molasses, dates, brown sugar and rich cocoa/vanilla. Really lovely aroma that is rich and sweet. The flavour is equally intense, rich roast/cocoa with a lovely oaky sweetness that accents rather then dominating everything. Sweet and chewy with some light molasses and brown sugar. Even a hint of smokey roast. Really tasty impy stout.
grant (760), Martinez, California, USA
Aug 22, 2008 Dark, with thick, rich light brown head. Earthy, coffee-laden aroma, quite woody. Soft, sweet but bitter espresso bean flavor. Extremely roasty with a significantly bitter finish.
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