Oskar Blues Ten FIDY

I first tried this at GABF 2007 and loved it. Finally, cans made their way to Virginia late in 2008. This is thick and dark as oil, and my visiting parents gasped with amazement when I poured it. Thick and viscuous, this is a visual delight. It drinks with a strong and potent chewy licorice essence, and an underlying bitter chocolate thang. This is some good shite. (#3476, 11/2008)

12oz can from Whole Foods (Tampa, FL). Pours a viscous dark black color with thick and creamy tan head that settles slowly and laces the glass. Aroma is sweet and malty with strong notes of dark chocolate, slightly roasted notes, heavy cream, ripe dark fruit some floral hop notes. Flavor is roasted and malty with strong dark chocolate notes, ripe black cherries, sugar plums, coffee, toffee and sweet caramel. Generally full bodied with a pleasing phenol and coffee finish.

12oz can at home on January 9, 2009 from Yellow Store. Popped the top (sorry, no psshht), poured like dirty motor oil into my glass. GORGEOUS! Aaaaah... now I know why they call it 10W-50! Quite a head on this sucker, great shade of brown. This beer is solid. Not even a glow, a glare, a shimmer of any color at the bottom edge of the glass. Aroma is much like a thick and hearty stout, but not over-flavored like some imperial stouts can be. Simple, straightforward, and manly. Mouthfeel is pretty thick. You can definitely pull out cocoa, malt, and a little coffee from the flavor... and is rings a little of oats. A great, solid beer. LOVE the fact that OB does the can thing. So great. Especially when it’s so hard to find a good beer to take out on the lake or river when bottles are prohibited. I mean, not like I’ll be drinking this on the river while tubing in the mid-summer Texas heat, but I suppose it’s an option.

1/4/09 pint glass *first rated beer of 2009! looked like a can of oil, pouring into my glass. was not very carbonated, which led to a very thin chocolate milk looking head. looked great, but more like a desert. very dark chocolate aroma, with very subtle hints of malt. was not as smooth as i would have prefered and was pretty thick. would be better poured over vanilla ice cream, and you could catch a buzz while you drank it! over all it was just a little too intense for me. i enjoyed it, but luckily enough i only bought one.

Can, Blind Tasting. Oily surface, with a dark midnight color. Smokey porter aroma, coffee, chocolate, toasty malt, bitter. Bitter with a boozy red fruit syrup background to toasty chocolate and cocoa. Bitter aftertaste with burnt dark chocolate. Oily foamy palate. Great on tap as well, though I can’t find the tap rating...grr.

pours a jet black color with a rather large espresso brown head. Not as much nose as many other imp stouts that i have had. This one is smoother and not as rough as I was expecting. Bitter chocolate notes with some earthiness toward the end. There is a creaminess in the middle that really sticks out in this one and finishes with some mild coffee flavors and finally ends with a medium dose of bitterness at the end

Can. Motor oil pour without much of a head. Aroma of bitter malts and day old coffee. First taste is abrasive with strong malt bitterness but it smoothes out as you work through the drink. Pretty good stout.

Can. Pours a thick black with a small ruby tan head. Definitely looks like pouring a can of oil. Just a slight roasted malt some roasted coffee tone to the nose. Roasted coffee, and barley, some good chocolate. There is also some sweet component in there I cannot place, maybe the malted-milk balls. Some hidden hop bitterness hidden in there too. Mouth is very smooth, warming alcohol too. Really good IS, definitely will grown on you.