Great Lakes Blackout Stout

4-pack, best by 07-03-07. Opaque black-brown with a large and sticky brown head that lasts. Aroma is campfire coffee, campfire wood, sticky campfire-burnt chocolate, and slight metallic hop. Flavor is espresso, smoked malt, fruity-menthol cough drop, and alcohol-espresso. Palate is sticky in a good way; somewhat smooth (although some fizzy CO2 flareups) and has some alcoholic tingle on the end. Faint alcohol warming finish is nice. Quality beer, but the overwhelming dry-smoked coffee aroma and alcoholic taste is a bit much after just half a bottle.

Pours a dark brown with rich brown head that fades quickly. Aroma is bitter chocolate, roasted malt, ahem "resin", and some floral hops and some alcohol. Taste is much the same with the alcohol pushing the other flavors to the side. I must admit, I expected more but this lacks the complexity of really good impy stout. Meh.

A thumper...pours almost black with very little head. Almost no carbonation. Strong coffee flavor with some smoky sweetness. High quality. Nice, but not one to drink all night. Bought in a 4-pack in Howland, Ohio.

12 oz bottle. Blind tasting side by side with Rasputin. Pours dark black… opaque except for a brownish-red glow around the edges when held up to light. No head. Smells and tastes overwhelmingly like bitter dark chocolate. Very nice.

Bottle courtesy of Jdoolin : Poured a deep black color stout with a nice foamy head with great retention and lacing. Aroma of chocolate and coffee malt is well balance with a medium hoppy finish. Taste is really well balance between chocolate malt, some dry roasted malt and a medium bitter finish. Body was quite full with some adequate carbonation. Overall, I thought this was well done and alcohol was not perceptible. I might have lack some complexity but it was still quite enjoyable.

Bottle. Pours a thick, murky brown.black with a nice-sized beige head. Aroma, as expected, is very malty, coffee, chocolate & banana. Flavor is deep and rich, with a very hearty malt backbone, some alcohol, coffee and some balancing hops. Quite tasty - I will look for this again.

Pours a dark, though not impenetrable brown with a dense tan head, thinning rapidly. The nose is thick with rich malt, heavy on the chocolate, light on the roast. Some perceptible alcohol, but in general so creamy and rich that it compliments, rather than distracts. Perhaps some cherry and some floral hops. The mouthfeel is really quite lovely. Not big and foamy and mouthfilling, but creamy and smooth body while low in the carbonation. Almost chewy. Really what I think a beer like this needs to be. The flavor is good, though honestly a bit of a let down. Big sweet malt, less chocolate, though present, much more forward roast, and definitely some fruit, mostly cherry. Alcohol is dominant. Strong floral hop presence with some resinous pine. A sweet roasty finish with a bitter alcoholic aftertaste. What would improve this beer? Less alcoholic heat, less roast, less hops. Not a lot less of each, but a bit less of at least 2 of those features, and this beer would be in very nice balance.

12oz. bottle - pours inky, opaque black with a small mocha head. Held directly up against a light it only reveals the faintest red hue at the edges of the glass. Aroma is primarily of roasted malt with coffee and chocolate filling in the holes. Smells great, but the flavour blows it away. Tonnes of burnt malt, chocolate, dark coffee, all leading towards a healthy bitter hoppy finish and an intensely long finish. Alcohol is somewhat present, but warming and unobstrusive. Yes, this is an awesome stout. Big and rich.