La Barberie Stout Impériale

Brewed by La Barberie
Style: Imperial Stout
Québec City, Canada

Serve in Snifter

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Nearly opaque, prune body. Thick, rocky caramel topping. Primarily roasted malt, mocha, peanuts, coconut milk, and tangy chocolate in the aroma. Fairly airy, as well, with dabs of caramel, chalk, dried plums, and copper. Notable alcohol presence, considering the relatively low abv. Medium-bodied and quite airy. Truckloads of phenols and acidity immediately bury the charred malts. Cocoa and roasted malts try to penetrate the puckering acidic barrier, with little success. Some astringency from the black malts arises late, which does help to boost the caramel, but only clashes with the acidity while agitating the oxidation. Pretty bland and thin on the tongue at the finish, as the acidity wipes away much of flavors, leaving only a reduced trail of meaty malts, soy sauce, and subtle coffee in its wake. Being that this was bottled on Nov. ’03, it’s safe to say this is just poorly executed.

Odeur un peu faible pour une stout, plus choco que café. Belle mousse appétissante mais le goût est pas très impérial. Torréfaction plutôt douce, un peu acide, un peu sucré, manque d’amertume (aucune, en fait). Arrière goût collant et désagréable, acre. Pas villain pour une bière mais une mauvaus impérial stout. Pas vraiment une imperial stout, en fait.

On tap at La Barberie. Dark beer with a lasting brown head. Nice lacing. Aroma: coffee, roasted malt and dark fruits (?). Dry finish. Ok, I guess, but nothing special. Overall, a below average Imperial Stout. En pinte à La Barberie. Robe noire avec un collet brun persistant. Beau lacing. Arôme: café, malt rôti et fruits noirs (?). Finale sèche. Une bière correcte, sans plus. Une Impériale Stout en dessous de la moyenne.

500 ml bottle. Pours pitch black with a very long-lasting, beige-brown head. Smells like coffee and roasted grains. Tastes like roasted grains, roasted malt, burnt bread and coffee. Very strong, sharp bitterness, reminiscent of black coffee. Coffee taste is resilient, long-lasting. Full bodied and unctuous. A real imperial stout, however, it lacks a bit in complexity.

on tap at brewpub. silky black with a nice creamy beige head, good retention and lacing. dark roastinezss, dark fruits, booze, chocolate, medicine. soft nitro, medium to full body, decent medium long bittering resinous finish.

[4272-20120127] 500mL bottle. Roasty metallic aroma has a light candy fruit background. Black body with a medium-lasting brown head. Heavy fruit roast malt flavour has a long sweet roast aftertaste. Full body. Interesting, nice to sample. (7/3+/6/3/13) 3.2
(w/ jerc)

At 7.5 % it is not that strong for an Imperial Stout. The flavour, however, is quite strong. For me there is a lack of the complexity in this beer that one finds in really good Imperial Stouts. I taste burnt malt and not much else. Nevertheless a decent beer but there are a lot better Imperial Stouts out there.

Black with a large brown/beige creamy head. Aroma is coffee and chocolate. Full body with fizzy carbonation. Taste is bitter at first, with some coffee, finish is relatively similar with some bitterness staying in mouth for a while.

500ml bottle from Broue Ha Ha. Pours a dark black with a generous dark leathery colour head, appears creamy with nice small bubbles. Never thought I would say this about a beer but the first thing that comes to mind when I smell it is burnt leather. Not really a fan but interesting - also get some a strong sense of malt and licorice but not too much else. Thin but bitter, little one dimensional - licorice and alcohol overwhelm pretty much anything else. Not one of my favourite.

I’m going to give this one a five for appearance since I am reasonably certain it deserves it - jet black body, a nice big dark beige head, this is as good as it gets for a good ol’ stout. The aroma is polished boot leather, lots of sweetness in roasted barley, alas, a not so complex and possibly cloying experience awaits my lips. The flavour is harsh burnt beef jerky, very bitter and very strong. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing - the flavours are there and strong and they taste pretty good. But this is certainly a sipping beer, not a session one. As far as stouts go, it’s all right.

500ml bottle shared by jsprime. smokey dark straight forward impy stout. good but not great. drinkable anytime you feel like a big stout. clean. nice effort.