Sampled at the 2008 Great American Beer Festival and on tap at Pizza Port a while back. By far the highlight of the Pro-Am table! Pitch black in color with some dark maroon head. Awesome roasty smoke and espresso aroma. Sweet flavors of more dark roasted espresso, molasses, black licorice and smoky caramel. Great thick and sticky body; really heavy, really strong, and really dark, just how I like ’em. I probably had 6 samplers of this stuff with jarspag. This beer belonged with the other big boys in the competition. Hats off here!

Draught at GABF 2008. Black - brown head. Burned, coffee, lots of coffee, espresso, high hoppy, vinous, alcoholic, smooth body, chocolate, caramel, brown sugar. Nice - lovely.

Pours a perfect pitch black with a thick, foamy, latte brown head. Huge coffee nose, with earth and leather behind it. Flavor is huge roasty coffee goodness. A bit of dark fruit comes around with the earthy notes. Smooth as silk and creamy as hell. One is enough, but that one is spectacular. This stuff is on par with any imperial stout I’ve had. If it were bottled, it would be legendary.

GABF 2008. Oily black pour, thick dark brown head. Heady aroma of French roast coffee beans, charred raisin bread, and a hard-to-pin-down vegetal quality that may simply be part of the whole coffee thing. Chewy, heavy mouthfeel, silky smooth. Explosive rich quality coffee bean flavour backed by shovels of burnt malt, bitter chocolate, and ending with an interesting herbal dry finish. Outstanding.

<i>Draft at GABF &#40;numerous samples&#41;</i>: Penetrable black. Tight beige head. Vinous nose consists of black licorice, dried plums, tar, and chocolate-covered espresso beans. Whispers of tar and burnt cookies. Soft and gooey on the palate with a liquefied toffee feel. Initially super silky with an early bite of espresso which is gently curtailed by a dense molasses and port-steeped plum core. Outstanding structure and restraint. Snap of char melds seamlessly with the lustrous espresso and smoky roast. Zippy metallic char beautifully neutralizes the high concentration of sugars. Vinous twang accompanies the slightly zingy, appetizing espresso-derived acid. Smoky snippets of roast illuminate the dark fruity esters as a dab of fruitcake emerges alongside lightly scorched toffee. Finishes wonderfully soft and cohesive with a snappy counterbalance of roast which lurks beneath a gooey trail of molasses and oily espresso. A beefy yet elegant rendition. Very solid all around.