Great Lakes Blackout Stout

Bottle. Black body with a big tan head. Big dry roast aroma. Moderate dark malt flavour, with notes of bitter hops, light boozey chocolate and a dry roast finish that lingers long into the aftertaste. Alcohol is barely noticable. Average to medium palate (3+). Pretty solid stout but still not something I could drink a lot of, the roast is just not a big turn on for me.

On draught @ brewpub. Pours an even black color with a small, tan head. Aroma is sweet, roasted, maybe a littly boozy. Taste is malty and roasty, with a big toffee character. Finish is bittersweet, and tasty. Makes you come back for more...

Enjoyed at Great Taste in Madison, WI. Pitch black with a tan head. Strong roasted flavors, not quite coffee-like though. The back of my tastebuds suggested an almost whiskey-like flavor? Spectacular specimen of a strong stout.

A decent prototypical imperial stout but I was expecting a bit more. Pours pitch black with a frothy brown head. Strong coffee and chocolate aroma with a bit of grain and oats. Nice and thick... really coats the palate. Biggest problem with the beer is that it doesn’t hide the alcohol at all... HUGE alcoholic kick. Very strong coffee flavor is nice but lacks balance and is overwhelmed a bit by the alcohol taste. I’d love to try this in a few years to see if it mellows down at all.

WOW! This baby is intense!! This falls right around the Stone RIS range and damn is it good! Aroma is roasty, coffee beans, chocolate, burnt toast, some oatmeal. Very nice!! Appearance is exactly how an impy stout should be...jet black, thick as used motor oil, chewy. Flavors were near perfect in balance between the roastyness of the grains, coffee grounds, bitter chocolate, and the good bitterness you’d expect from a great impy stout. Yes, this IS a great impy stout. Now, if they’d just start shipping this stuff out west we could all be happy! Thanks moejuck for sending this one!

Bottle. Pitch black coloured. Light brown dense head. Chocolate, caramel, light coffee, sweetness and heavy roast in the nose. Flavour as well has loads of coffee, roast and chocolate. Alcohol notes. Full bodied with nice balance. Smooth. Loads of roasty bitterness in the end. This beer really does it for me. Thanks to Mullman for the trade.

Motor oil and coffee, baby! As someone said below, there’s a slight knock on this one because the mouthfeel is a bit thin for an impy stout. But in my opinion, the balanced flavor compensates for this - an intensely rich and smooth roast that doesn’t go for the roundhouse kick to the head. Gotta love it. Fine example of the style, on a par with Siberian Night.

12 oz bottle acquired from Secret Santa


This is another prize from the Secret Santa box. It turned out to be pretty good - it is not an earth shattering imperial stout but at the same time it does all the right things to make it work. It’s also pretty affordable if you can get it locally which is another bonus. I might have to pick up some if the cellar thins too much over the winter.

Aroma / Appearance - Cherries, roasted malt, cocoa powder and anise tickle the nose with a bright airy aroma. The deep black body soaks up most light, letting only a trickle escape. This is not quite as dark as some imperial stouts but it can holds its own against most of them.

Flavor / Palate - Semisweet baker’s chocolate plays against a subtle maltiness at first. Soon afterwards a cherry bitterness laced with cocoa powder hits the throat. This is pretty dense as I was able to identify black licorice drops, plums and coffee fairly easily. There is more going on but I was unable to pinpoint it exactly. Overall it is well balanced with my only complaint being that the finish is a little hot.