Samuel Adams Imperial Stout

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

(Bottle, Stockholm Beer Festival, 26 Sep 2009) Black colour with frothy, pale brown head. Malty, roasted nose with notes of liquorice, dark chocolate and espresso. Malty, roasted taste with dark chocolate, liquorice and black coffee. Generous coffee/cocoa bitterness. Almost full body with a slightly oily texture. Some alcohol sweetness shining through. Very nice and tasty beer.

Bottle almost a year old now. Pours out a nice black topped with a small but very long lasting brown head. Aroma surprisingly very nice. Lots of sweet molasses, dark chocolate and some coffee. Taste more rick sweetness mostly chocolate and molasses. A light bitterness on the end. WOW I do have to say this is one of the better Samuel Adams brews I have had.

12oz bottle. Pours a black body with a finger-width, dark brown head that dissipates quickly and leaves a moderate lacing on the surface with a high amount of retention on the glass. A simple swirl easily rouses the head and leaves a veil of pretty lacing. Aroma is quite nice. Some hard roasted malts, licorice, plums, bittersweet chocolate, tootsie rolls, tobacco smoke, and just a touch of alcohol. Flavor is sweet and grainy up front with lots of chocolate. A good amount of roasted malts come in, but they don’t seem as hard as the aroma led me to expect, which is nice. The licorice and plum fruits come in with a light coffee before finishing sweet with plenty of chocolates and roasts. A light warming booze comes in as well before this dries and leaves a long aftertaste of chocolate, coffee, and lightly burnt roasts. Palate is medium bodied. Overall, a very impressive impy. Well balanced, rich and robust, and lots of flavor. I’ve been sitting on this for awhile and it seems to have come together nicely. Others have said it, but if this weren’t a Sam Adams, the ratings would be several points higher. Good one.

Bottle.
Pours a deep, rich black with a nice, thick creme brown head. Aroma is cigarette ash with chocolate powder and cocoa; a touch of chocolate syrup and leather in there as well. Flavor is big let-down; tart, sharp licorice molasses with stale coffee and over-ripened cherry ash. Finish is a bizarre sour wood and vegetable medley that simply doesn’t have a place in the beer. Mouthfeel is thick and coating. Other than the flavor, this beer is great.

Dark color with a moderate chocolaty head, light lacing, slightly thin. Rich aroma of roasted malts with tones of chocolate and hints of liquorice, fig and coffee. Flavor is sweet with lots of chocolate malts and figginess. Coffee tones, especially in the finish. A noticeable but not abrasive alcohol presence. Doesnt have a ton of complexity, beyond fig I cant find any dark fruit, but its not overpoweringly large like a lot of Imperial Stouts. Quite good though it doesnt have the extreme nature of a lot of the highest rated stouts, I would guess this would be rated a full half a point higher if there was a label of a microbrewery on the bottle.

Aroma on this beer is great. Some dates, molasses, and dark chocolate. Rather sweet aroma to the nose. It also looks great, pitch black with a dark brown head. However, the taste just didn’t match up. Has some nice dark roasted malts in the front, with a hint of dark chocolate. However, in the middle it got too much licorice for my palate, and by the end it had this awkward bitter finish that was almost sour. I would be pleased 90% of the way through and end with an involuntary cringe-like expression. Really ruined the beer for me. Mediocre attempt by Boston Brewers.

Sampled at Lundeen’s Brew Ha-Ha 2009. Poured a dense black color with a very large, creamy light brown head that lasted through the sampling. Aroma is was pretty pungent of roasted, burnt malt notes with sweet molasses and chocolate through in the back. Flavor had an strong sweetness with notes of dark fruit (dates), molasses, caramel, light hints of a coffee bitterness as well and a light sourness too it. Body is actually pretty light in my opinion with a thin creamy texture and very soft carbonation. Overall the beer looks awesome but just an okay offering by Sam.

Great pour almost pitch black with a compact tan head. Typical stout aroma, sweet, chocolate, malt. Mocha flavors as expected, with a whiskey like alcohol burn, very present in the long finish.