Harveys Imperial Stout

2003 vintage. Thick, dark viscous pour. No head whatsoever. Aroma is strong; cream, licorice, some milk. Flavor is quite unique. Stingy licorice, roasted toffee (?), some distant melodies of various fruits. Warm, sticky, cloying drink. Syrupy in texture. Something to try, for sure.

2003 vintage, the year I moved to London. Was described to me as resembling engine oil and as an almost qualified mechanic I must agree...Deep brownish almost black in colour with a very thin tan ring around the rim. Strong liquorice, coffee and roasted malt aroma reminicent of black liquorice pipe sweets. Cocoa and black coffee washes over the tongue and warms your belly on the way down. Has a malty and ever so slightly bitter swallow with notes of tobacco and an almost vinous quality. Fairly flat but still has enough character to pull it off...I’d gladly brave a Russian winter with a surplus of this, luckily I don’t have to as the local stocks it...Sorry Baboshka...

2001 vintage, 6 yrs old. Peeled off silver plastic wrapper, which left some paint on the bottle rim, which fell into beer when pouring. Must remember to wipe bottle rim before pouring. Corked. Cork looks fine and fits very tight in bottle. Small sour wisp when uncorking. Completely flat, aroma has faded to nothing, maybe a little bit of cardboard. Taste: Aaaargghhh. I spit it out and rinsed my mouth. Dry, acetic, bitter. It actually hurt my tongue. Let’s try again, but I’m going to hold it in my mouth longer. Aaaargghhh. Spit. Rinse. OK, I’m a moron. It didn’t get any better. Is there a rating lower than one for palate and taste?

Name: A. Le Coq Imperial Extra Double Stout
Date: April 21, 2003
Vintage: new batch of bottles
Aroma: slight tartness in the aroma
Flavor: only a hint of tartness in the flavor, but still kills it

Name: A. Le Coq Imperial Extra Double Stout
Date: April 15, 2002
Mode: Bottle
Source: Whole Foods Market, DC
Vintage: 2002
Appearance: Black, scant tan head
Aroma: sweet licorish aroma, hint of alcohol
Flavor: rich malt flavor, lots of licorish character, hint of roasted, touch of bitterness in the finish, very low carbination, overwhelming licorish flavor, but still a very tasty brew

Name: A. Le Coq Imperial Extra Double Stout
Date: November 16, 2002
Vintage: 2002
Score: i
Words: blind
Appearance: black, headless
Aroma: sour malt aroma
Body: buttery body
Flavor: dry and tart flavor, like a lambic crossed with a stout, hint of bitterness in the finish
Overall: after comparing to prior notes I’m either way off or I got a bad sampie for the blind tasting

Name: A. Le Coq Imperial Extra Double Stout
Date: January 26, 2003
Vintage: 2002
still the sour version, still the same original batch of 3 bottles, based on online reviews you get either a great or defective sample, risky

Name: A. Le Coq Imperial Extra Double Stout
Date: November 17, 2004
Vintage: 2002
Appearance: pours like oil
Aroma: sweet licorish aroma with lots of winey notes
Flavor: touch of tartness in the flavor, roasted character, lots of tannens like a oak barrel aged beer

Aroma: 5/10; Appearance: 3/10; Flavor: 2/10; Palate: 5/10;

This beer poured a nice dark brown color to it with nice laceing and decent head retention. It has smells of coco and roasted malt. As you drink it there is a mild flavor resembling jerkey and wood. There are some nice bitter flavors on the palate and a sweet woddy after taste.

Pours a motor oil black brew with a nonexistent head. The aroma was sweet, salty, shows soy sauce, alcohol, sour. The flavor is moderate, weird, kind of bad tasting, interesting for an imperial but just not up my alley.

Bottle marked 2003. Poured out like used motor oil with almost no head. This stuff was seriously opaque. The aroma was strongly oaky and smokey with baking coco and roasted malt there, too. The flavour was HUGE. Powerful oak and smokehouse flavours that are reminiscent of smoked jerky, with a decent hop prescence. The salty character of the beer reminds me of soy sauce. There are also notes of vinegar and bitter baking coco. Overall, this is some funky stuff and the flavour profile is pretty mix matched. The palate was a bit under carbonated, dead actually. This is one of those beers that let you know that beer CAN be made too intense. Not for the faint of heart.

2001 Bottle via Maria: This one has been lurking in my basement....it finaly trapped me into consuming it. "First of the day and the buggers got a damn cork!" Rumaged for corkscrew. Yeilds a used motor oil pour. No head...No carbonation..... "What have I done?"...."Triple Bock for Breakfast?" I thought as the strong nose of oak, sherry and sweet dark malts wafted accross the basement workbench on this hot, sticky humid Sunday Morning. I continued with my thought process....."This is going to leave it’s own mark upon my liver....I just know it." In the name of science, I continued the experiment. This baby is big....Godzilla big, Sweet malty with a touch of the smokehouse mixed about. Coffee appears after the intial shock of it all and leads you to a salty acidic coffee sitting in the pot for two day s and re-warmed finish. Glad that I was able to try it. Yet too much for the Dude. I’ll stick to oat sodas.