Harveys Imperial Stout

Opaque black to dark brown in color with a thin yet lingering light brown head. Aroma of smoked cherries. Complex roasted malt, smoke, chocolate, and wine-like flavors. No alcohol in the taste, but its warmth is evident after the swallow. An excellent example of the style, but the import pricetag on a 11.2 ounce bottle is more than a litle high at $5.49.

Poured from the bottle, very black, a think consistency (a bit like milk), no head at all. Aroma was quite vinegary, but sweet (like flowers). The flavour was a little vinegary again, a bit like a fortified wine. Very hard to compare against anything I have drunk before, a real experience!

Pours like used motor oil with almost no head. The aroma is much like Worcestershire sauce. It has a nice, thick mouthfeel and leaves a sticky coating. The flavor is bittersweet chocolate with soy and some floral notes. A good Russian Imperial, but certainly not accessible to those who don’t like this kind of thing.

2001 bottle: Pours a motor oil body. Not extremely thick but regardless it’s motor oil. Aroma is chocolate and alcohol. Flavor is the same, and it’s drowned in the alcohol, in effect killing it.

Bottle. Pours very oily thick with little head. The alcohol is noticable in the bittersweet soy sauce aroma. There is a detectable winey flavor after the initial robust wall of bittersweetness. Incredible thickness.

Bottle. Espressolike aroma; very concentrated. Notes of liqourice as well. Some sweetness and loads of roasted flavours.

Very roasty nose, quite vineous. Jet black body, with a nice tan head. Good roasty flavor, sweetness, and a nice acidic edge, quite complex. Very oily palate.

no head. poured thick and black. almost like port. sweet and bitter all together. plum and chocolate flavors. my first imperial stout was not a good one. almost cringed with every sip.