Oskar Blues Ten FIDY

12 oz. can. Pours a black color with a frothy brown head, fair lacing. Aroma is heavy roasted malts, caramel, dark chocolate, lots of coffee, and a touch of pine hops. Flavor is sweet dark chocolate, coffee, a bitter hoppy finish, and a touch of alcohol. Full bodied, creamy on the tounge and the coffee sticks with you for a while.

Can: Poured almost like oil. Aroma of roasted malt, coffee, toffee. Taste: has characteristics found in the aroma but with a smooth stout dryness. Complimented with a small but rich sweet chocolate flavor. This is thick, smooth and dry with a slight alcohol taste. Nice

This one poured from the can a pitch black color that was completely opaque and as thick as motor oil. A big, foamy coffee head crowns the top that settles slowly and leaves sheets of lacing around the glass. This looks very enticing in the glass. The aroma is nice and roasty with dark chocolate and coffee dominating the nose. There is a hint of creaminess to go with some piney hops in the background also. The flavor is fantastic showing huge amount of dark and bitter sweet chocolate to go with the roasted coffee and bitter hops. Sweet chocolate malt and oatmeal push through to smooth out the bitterness. This one is so smooth it just begs for you to drink more. Full bodied with a thick, viscous mouthfeel, but still smooth on the palate. The finish is long and roasty with the chocolate sweetness left behind. This just an awesome imperial stout in every way and I can’t belive I waited this long to try it. I’ll be drinking more of this for sure. These guys definitely make the best beer in a can.

Black and dense pour with no head when pouring, but reveals itself while settling to be thin and chocolate colored. Strong smell of sweet fruits, raisins, plums, some chocolate. First swig hits me with a nice density, which is washed down the throat by great balancing bitterness. Flavors are dark chocolate, dark rum, and coffee bitterness. Alcohol is nice, not hot at all, and balanced well with the sweetness of the malts and hop bitterness. Outstanding.

pours pitch black with a chocolate milk colored head. smells of sweet sugar and malt, coffee, milk chocolate, alcohol and hops. Tastes of very sweet but malty with a slight funky after taste. whoa I’m realy tasteing cofee/cappacino and malt. Really the coffee flavor seeems dominant to me. Almost falls under a chocolate or another sweet stout in my opinion rather than an imperial.

Can. The top pops on the can and not bubble comes out. The pour is like watery syrup and glossy black. There is a thin ring of dark tan cream that tells me this baby has a nice malt bill. The aroma is very heavy on the chocolate but in a very pleasant way. There is also some roast, and maybe a touch of hop bitterness. The flavor is very rich, with lots of chocolate and coffee. Really a beautiful beer.

These are right up there with the beers from Surly in terms of things I enjoyed most from a can. The color of the pour is right on, although I found the level of carbonation to be a bit extreme and to compromise the quality of the beverage a bit. Notes of rum-soaked cherries and port blend with semisweet chocolate, oatmeal, and cocoa powder. There’s a viscous mouthfeel and a solid warming finish that shows it’s alcohol just a bit too well. Overall this is an excellent imperial stout, albeit one without all of the complexity of a Surly Darkness of FFF Dark Lord.

I am a big Imperial Stout fan and I felt this was lacking something. Don’t get me wrong, this is a very good beer, but missing that first rate dark malty flavor that would push this over a 4.0 rating.