Samuel Adams Imperial Stout

Brewed by Boston Beer Company
Style: Imperial Stout
Boston, Massachusetts USA

Deep black body with a short, chocolate brown head. Burnt malt and chocolate notes are strong with a moderate heavily roasted coffee bean presence. A bit of skunked, wet wood notes with some sour vanilla bark and herbal character. Kind of oily.

From a bottle poured black with almost no head. Very sweet malty flavor with a very quick finish.

This bottle has been sitting in my fridge for two months, revealing how much I have delayed trying it. Appeared dark brown, opaque, and with a small brown head. Aroma is quite interesting: sweet cream, molasses, and alcohol primarily. Flavor sticks with a sweet theme, adding roasts to form a sort of “toasted marshmellow meets crème brulee” flavor. The booziness does, however, creep up at the finish. Overall, this beer was OK, but towards the end of the bottle it DOES get annoyingly sweet. Additionally it is fair to say that this beer lacks the “X” factor for great Impy Stouts.

Black pour into thick, foamy brown head that quickly disspates into sticky lacings that melt down the glass. Aroma of roasted chocolate malt and dark roast coffee. Initial flavor of sweet malt and roasted dark chocolate that fades into a peppery finish with a creamy, buttery mouthfeel.

(Sample Date: 3/13/2009 Source:Other) Slight roast with some dark fruit hints in the aroma. Almost black with small dark tan head. Roasty with some woodiness. Moderate carbonation with dry roasty finish.

THOUGHTS: Not the best imperial stout, but a wonderful offering from sam Adams. Sort of a beginners impy stout that’s still enjoyable for a pro imperial stout drinker. Not much hops, but I didn’t mind. TECHNICAL: Bottle. Poured a dark brown that was opaque, black in the glass with and average light brown head that mostly diminished but kept a thin sheet and left excellent lacing. The aroma was moderate to heavy roasted, molasses, caramel, milk chocolate, mild coffee and bakers chocolate, hight hops, maple syrup, licorice, less cola, dark fruit and a little spice. The initial flavor was very sweet, very lightly acidic and slightly bitter; while the finish was very sweet and moderately bitter with a fairly long duration. There was lots of malt, some chocolate and coffee, chocolate syrup, some hops, molasses, dark fruit, a little cream and maple syrup. The full body was sort of oily, but also a little syrupy with fizzy carbonation and a light to moderate alcoholic and dry finish.

Opaque brown-black pour with a large, medium-brown head, sticky lace. Aroma has a lot of toffee and caramel, a bit of burnt smoke to it, too. Flavor is caramelly, heavily roasted, very toffee-like. The dark fruit side of the malts are there, but very dark, something like spiced plums. Full bodied, but cloying at times.

Pours an opaque black color with a medium khaki head that recedes steadily. Clingy patches of lacing on the glass. Aroma of toasted malt and coffee. Medium to full body, with flavors of dark chocolate, coffee and sweet malt. Some mildly bitter hops are present too. The finish is dry and roasty with coffee and muted chocolate left behind. A decent introductory type of Imperial Stout overall.