Harveys Imperial Stout

Brewed by Harveys
Style: Imperial Stout
Lewes, England

Bottle: 2000 vintage. I was suprised to see absolutly 0 head and carbination at all. The aromas were prunes/raisians/figs and the slightest touch of chocolate. The mouthfeel is THICK. It felt like cough syrup on the way down. And like a kid not wanting it, it tasted about as bad. The taste was prunes, woody, bitter chocolate, but I didn’t taste any coffee like people were saying.l I know I prefer lighter beers, but this stuff was just too much for me. I can taste a little nutty flavor, salty taste.feel, and having a sour/bitter end it was honestly just too strong for me to distinguish any other flavors. I didnt like it at all.

Rating # 500. 2001 vintage. Black coloured with no head. Aroma of dried figs with notes of cheese and liquorice. The flavour is dominated by liquorice with notes of dried fruits especially dried figs.

2001 vintage. Pours inky black with no head. Vinous aroma with dark fruit and a hint of chocolate. Rich oily mouthfeel. Flavor is vinous up front, with chocolate and a bit of coffee right behind, with a roasty finish. Agood complx impreial stout.

Very stout in smell and appearance. Headless-uniqure for a stout. This’ll make you think Guiness is light, being the heaviest beer I’ve had and looking like car oil. the only flavoring word i can think of is heavy. Perhaps its tarrish and painty feeling have something to do with its age. Had it again and it was even worse. I think something had to have happened to this beer to be so bad.

ྫ.2 oz bottle: $4.99 at Holiday Wine Cellar in Escondido, CA) 2000 vintage. So I gotta say, this is a strange beer, one that I didn’t expect based on the name of the beer, and it makes me think of a make-believe product called Sam Adams Triple Bock Lite. Pours absolutely pitch black, but without even a trace of carbonation or head, it looks like 5-year old motor oil drained out of a car. Strong soy sauce and deep, dark fruits, salty, very earthy, roasty, mildly bitter, with a moderate cherry sourness in the finish. Very thick and chewy mouthfeel, but sits heavy and lifeless as well. The earthy nose shows a lot of cherry, with sweet, rich, dark malts. A thick layer of sediment lines the bottom of the bottle. Given how Imperial Stouts seem to age over even just a year, this seems like it’s several years old, and oh, it is! I wonder how more recent bottlings taste...

2000 version. Perhaps a little past its prime. Dark black color, nearly eclipse like. No head. Aroma is dark chocolate, some lactic flavors. A medium to full bodied Imperial Stout. Malts are chocolate and coffee. Lots of lactic qualities as well. Lots of complex sweet and sour flavors are at interplay here. Its kind of flat, with very little carbonation, again I think its a little over the hill. But it has a nice smooth taste with a fairly noticeable alcohol bite at 9%. Mouthfeel is full and round. Finish is clean and smooth. Aftertaste is slight sweet with a touch of sourness.

Cask conditioned at the 32nd Cambridge Beer Festival, as "Harvey’s Double Extra Russian Stout". ABV was 9.5%. Gravity dispense. Pitch black colour, low head. LOVELY complex aroma, surprisingly fruity: Plums, cherries, oranges. Roastiness, oak and cigars too. Flavour is extremely roasty and bitter, but also elements of oak and dark fruits. Warming mouthfeel, as expected from a 9.5% ABV beer. The roasty and bitter aftertaste lasts "forever", making it difficult to move on to another beer. Belongs in the top division of beers.

2001 bottle, thanks Sham. Well guess what, it is 4 years old, has been sitting in my glass for almost an hour and I have a decent sheet of dark brown foam over it to remind me of the louder than most pop upon opening, call me lucky:) Nevertheless, few imperials score such a head and this one is as black as it gets, the kind of black that acts like a mirror, you can’t see 1mm through it. An easy 5. Aroma is highly vinous, interestingly balsamic and feels original in that aspect. I’ve had a few poor excuses of impies that had a lot of citric acidity, but this is tannic, fruity and corky like a fine red wine. Meaty molasses maltiness abund surrounding a slight milk chocolate sweetness. Alcohol appears more and more as it warms, through aniseseed and bubblegum flavors that remind of the finest liqueurs. I have no idea how those spicy cork notes manage to work well with the roastiness, but you have to taste it to believe it. Very complex. Oily palate proposes mostly low though well spread out carbonation and is probably the weakest link to me though I guess it would lose a lot of its charm with a belgian carbonation of a dark lord syrupyness. Delicious... Classic characteristics of imperial stouts meeting with a bière de garde.