Great Lakes Blackout Stout

Brewed by Great Lakes Brewing Company
Style: Imperial Stout
Cleveland, Ohio USA

Bottle. Deep black body with medium high viscosity and a small, silky tan head. Aroma and flavor of espresso, raisin, premium dark chocolate, sweet caramel, and moderate roast. Significant residual sweetness, which is also apparent in the texture. Rich and complex sipper. This is a very nice imperial stout that I’m glad to have regular access to.

Big 20 oz glass of this stuff for $5 at Mad Mex. Pour is very nice, like used shovelhead oil. Very little head but the heads color is dark tan. A slight roasty vinegar aroma greets the nose. Very bitter and coarse. The alky content rears its head right off the bat. Flat with little or any detectable carbonation. Taste is your typical imp stout and I’m still not sure why this style is so desirable on this sight. So medicinal and infringing on the taste buds. Fusel and whiskeylike at times. Feel quite like Lion stout. Does anybody have a stick that I can scrape the tar off the back of my throat? Finish is lingering medicinal bitterness that keeps going and going, like the energizer bunny. My uvula is crying for a chaser of icewater.

12oz bottle poured into my Delirium tulip glass. Poured black with a nice 1/4" head that lasted about a minute or so. Very good amount of lacing on the side of the glass. A lot of stouts that contain coffee suffer from the "burnt coffee" smell. This beer has one of the more pleasant coffee aromas. Very pleasant chocolate smell with little alcohol noticed in the nose. Taste is a smooth coffee stout. Flavors are blended and evenly distributed. At first theres coffee, then theres a chocolate/slight hop taste in the middle. None of these jump out at you. It’s a nice flow from one to another. My only complaint here is that the mouthfeel is a little thinner than I like out of my stouts. But thats splitting hairs, this is a terrific stout. This offering doesn’t leave you with the mouth coating coffee aftertaste as well. Which makes this a highly sessionable offering. A very solid offering from a very solid brewery. A must try, even for non-stout fans.

12oz bottle. Pours dark but not pitch black with an ocean of brown head on top. Smell is milk chocolate and hops. Nice, deep, rich aroma. Taste is wonderfully creamy chocolate and malts, super smooth and delicious. This is one of the best Imperials and best beers period I’ve had. Very underrated. I need to try the barrel aged version of this. If it is better I’m in for a real treat.

very black. aroma is smoke, lots of smoke, and some coffee, with a little booze in the background. flavour is chocolate with a great sweet maltiness to it. excellent stout.

Black in color with medium brown head and very nice lacing. Faint chocolaty and roasty aroma. Amazing mix of chocolate, coffee, smoky and sweet cream flavors. Really well balanced and nothing too overwhelming.

Pours a dark brown with tan head. Aroma has a strong, but welll-balanced roast presence. Taste matches the aroma but the finish has a strong hops appeal. Suprisingly the aftertaste of the hops doesn’t linger too long. I like this one and didn’t even notice the high alcohol content. However, this one is only for stout lovers.

The aroma was strongly roasty with a grassy bittering and wafts of alcohol. The dark roast and espresso coffee presence was accentuated by dark fruits, raisins and prunes, coupled with chocolate and caramel. The beer poured pitch black into the glass with an tannish low head which laced the glass from top to bottom. The flavor was outstanding with strong dark roast, espresso coffee, dark chocolate and smooth malt sweetness to keep it all in check. Add in some grassy hop flavor and bittering and we have ourselves a winner. The dark fruits also made an appearance with raisin and prune flavors. The body was full and nearly viscous and with a moderate level of carbonation the beer was extremely creamy in the mouthfeel. The finish was just dry with lasting impressions of chocolate and espresso coffee long into the aftertaste. Alcohol was present in the aroma and really only present afterwards in the warming that occurred post consumption. A truly great beer! 12 ounce bottle.