Pours dark, dark brown out of the ceramic bottle and settles into the glass pitch black. The head is big and tan and lingers as a collar with good lacing. Initial smell is the sweetness of the chocolate malts with some licorice in there as well. There is certainly some roasted malt and coffee in the the nose as well. The taste is complex but a bit more roasty than the nose. The initial sweetness of the dark chocolate and some dark fruit is still evident before giving way to a roasted malt and burnt coffee leaving a definite bitterness in the finish. Mouthfeel is creamy with decent carbonation. Drinkability is not as high as it could be because of the big roasted character, bitterness and alcohol presence in the taste. Still, a very nice impy stout.

(bottle) Black body with a disappearing chocolate head. Burned coffee, chocolate, licorice aroma.Thick body, very smooth. Has lots of both sweetness and bitterness. Warming alcohol lingers.

On draft at Popeye, Tokyo, Japan. Opaque, almost no head. In aroma roasted malts, iodine, some cherries, very complex. Strong complex flavour, coffee dominates. Very long lasting bitter finish. I like IS a bit less bitter, but nevertheless this is a solid brew.

2007 Vintage Ceramic bottle. Nice black pour with a tan head. Aromas of caramel, coffee, toffee, malt, hops, and more. Very chocolate, coffee, and malt. Pretty good beer. I can’t believe it is 11.6%

Draught at Rogue Alehouse in North Beach, San Francisco. Aug 2008. Pours black with a thin, creamy head. Served in a hefty goblet, I can taste coffee and caramel in the roasted malt but also a fair bit of the alcohol, too much to rate this higher. Unbalanced, but delicious.