 StewardofGondor (1934), Washington Heights - Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA
Apr 27, 2008
Thick, oily black mass seeps into the snifter with a thick matter under a tan, iced khaki head. Aroma tells us of bittersweet chocolate, vanilla beans and mocha grinds. Licorice and blackberries emit a dark, fruity, aromatic tale. Flavor comes in thick and bitter. Unsweetened cocoa slabs, licorice port sauce and a coffee crust that’s parted from tiramisu ride on its coattails. Heavy mouthfeel tangibly thickens as it’s squeezed path the front teeth gap. Espresso soot and silk, dark chocolate and condensed café sludge sing long unto the night.
southamptonsam (51), New York, USA
Oct 6, 2008 Beautiful Imperial Stout. Lovely head, great body, smooth and balanced. I love Imperial Stouts and this is one of the best. It should also get an extra .2 of a point for its most aesthetic bottle.
explosivebeer (35), Washington, USA
Oct 3, 2008 This beer pours in a thick black viscous way, with a modest light-brown head, and a dense body. The aroma has a lot of chocolate, some alcohol, and a strong graininess to it. The body is thick with chocolate, caramel, malty sweetness, and a generous bitterness as well. It is very good but there is also something acrid about it. I’d like to try it again and see if that same characteristic is still present.
Ifyouinsist (6), , Devon, England
does not count  Sep 30, 2008 Black. Dark head, coarser than the God Jul, which it resembles, but with an added leaden bitterness bludgeoning the cloying sweetness into submission, resutling in a sort of car crash.Horrible taste, bitter aftertaste.
Alraomon (63), Charlottesville, Virginia, USA
Sep 28, 2008 A nice jetblack... like another IS I had the other night, the head is a sparkling brown, like brown sugar. Thick and creamy - both the pour and the head topping. The bottle itself is pretty sexy, to boot.
Chocolate aromas - more of a white chocolate. Vanilla notes, roasted malts. Something about it reminds of of "Kinder Surprise" (which you typically won’t find in the US, apparently - but a chocolate / white chocolate concoction).
Not as huge as some, but still very full flavoured. More subtleness to pick through, between iced coffee, a light and fine chocolate. Like the aroma, I find a little vanilla floating about in here. This is excellent.
Soft and creamy... very smooth. Absolutely spot on here, and an excellent example of what I like in a bigger style.
An excellent stout, and I’m certainly glad I picked up a couple of these on a roadtrip, as it’s not available here (but certainly something to try to get carried). A gentle sipper, but each taste is exquisite enough that it seems wasteful to drink it too quickly. Recommended drinking, here.
malrubius (455), USA
Sep 26, 2008 600 ml bottle in pint glass. Black with lasting dark brown head. (Waiting for it to warm up a little.) Mild roasted dark chocolate aroma. Roasted dark chocolate and dark fruit. Lingering fruity bitterness. Full body medium low carbo. Nice and satisfying but seems to lack complexity and has a strange tartness to the bitterness, possibly from oats. Not as good as the best Imperial Stouts like Yeti and Rasputin, but still good.
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