Harveys Imperial Stout

(11.2 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.

Pitch black with ZERO head. Smells of alcohol and gasoline. Roast charactor does manage to break through after a good swirl. Harsh. This is going to be too hard to get down. kind of cough syrupish. Lots of alcohol burn. I sure hope this is a bad bottle.

2001 vintage. Viscous, pure opaque black with a thin, fine, dark brown head. Vinous, winey, dark fruit, and oxidized aroma. Very interesting with almost a barrel-aged chacteristc--from the strong, yet pleasant, oxidative flavor and an almost sour aroma. Deep, dark, chocolate malt flavors with dark caramel and intense bitterness from both the roasted malt and hops. Strong, warm alcohol profile with a dry finish. This was a good bottle--not all have been so. I have encountered some serious carbonation flaws .

Aroma:chocolate an d wine.... Appearance:dark black no head... Flavor:alcohol,chocolate and wine.... Not a good imperial stout..

Personal Milestone - This is my 100th rating (out of 1210) of an English beer. Purchased as a vintage 2000 bottle of A. le Coq Imperial Stout: This pours a thick, oily dark brown with a few sparse bubbles in lieu of a head. The aroma is dark, filled with roasted-but-sweet malts, old juicy fruits, a hint of chocolate, old coffee, and a whiff of alcohol. The flavor is heavily malty with touches of other flavors - bitter chocolate, strong coffee, anise, some earthy hops, molasses, and alcohol. This complex beer finishes on a sticky, bittersweet note. Very good.