Ellezelloise Hercule Stout

A perfect beer -- in every sense. The aroma is elegant yet forceful; it feels like a divine syrup going down your throat; the taste is that of viscosity and a bit of daring fruitiness for a stout. The only belgium stout? Come on!!! Let's get more of these!!

This is a real monster of a stout. You can tell right off the aroma this is a Belgian stout, one of the finest I have tasted. Super rich, but very drinkable....the swing top cap is a marketing home run....nice hop flavor and very chocolately malty good.....One of the best stouts, period.

i thank ratebeer for this one - ive been reading about it for the last year, and now ive finally got around to drinking it. and it did not disappoint. fudgeen incredible rich toffee, asphalt and banana aromas, a bbbbig fat marmalade and charcoal flavour as you might get in ordinary stouts, but also richly spicy and somehow vegetablesque, like really good spinach. rummy and peppery finish fudgeen woah yeah i like it a LOT

Swing top comes off with a violent pop...instant aroma of red wine and blueberry pie, even before pouring. This looks amazing. Pours a little thinner than most imperials, with a creamy, lingering mocha head. The aroma is mezmerizing: more blueberry pie, cane sugar and yeast up front, with stouty, roasted malt, and a light bitterness lurking behind. Oh, how glorious. Dark, sweet fruit (berries and currants), doughy yeast. Definite Belgian malt presence, and an ample hop bitterness. I actually expected lower hop levels, but I’m not complaining. Silky and smooth texture, absolutely silky and smooth. When I imagined what I’d like a ’Belgian Imperial Stout’ to be, this almost perfectly hits the mark. Like a combination of Chimay Bleu and Old Rasputin. Simply phenomenal.

Black color, with lots of head, which faded almost immediately. Chocolate (or maybe licorice?) scent, the aroma of this beer made me happy, like I knew just from the smell that I was going to enjoy this. Smoked chocolate flavor to start off with. Most chocolate flavor in beer is that of dark chocolate, this is more of a lighter milk chocolate flavor, without being too sweet. There’s certainly notes to this that I’m not learned enough to pick up and describe, but there’s a lot going on here. You get the slight burning effect of the high alcohol without the alcohol taste. Nice and creamy. Not so thick as to be syrupy, but thick enough. What a fantastic beer.