Sierra Nevada Narwhal Imperial Stout

Brewed by Sierra Nevada Brewing Company
Style: Imperial Stout
Chico, California USA

Serve in Snifter

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Black pour with small tan head. Aroma of roasted coffee, chocolate, malts and vanilla. Taste of milk chocolate, roasted coffee, caramel, vanilla, faint licorice and a hint of black cherry. Perfect carbonation, creamy mouthfeel and full bodied but still remaining crisp. Excellent beer!

Poured a murky deep brown with a solid tan head. Aroma of milk chocolate and soft toffee-ish malt. Medium creamy body, flavour of roasted caramel malt, chocolate and smooth coffee. Dry, bitter sweet cocoa end.

2012.Pours black with a smallish tan head - some lacing. Coffee, dark chocolate, black cherry with some earthiness . Full bodied, creamy and smooth this has an excellent mouthfeel. Taste is predominantly malts with some earthy and herbal hops. A hint of licorice on the finish. This was even better after waiting 7 months. May try to find some more to try after a year or more.

Bottle at home. Black with a brown head, no lacings. Aroma heavy malty (roasted, burnt, dark chocolate, coffee, licorice, notes of hones), medium hoppy. Flavor medium sweet, heavy bitter of dark malts and hops, light spicy of honey. Almost full body, quite flat. Uhm!!

Chilly up here in the mountains, so I figured I could turn on the central heating or crack open an imperial stout. I chose well. A High Altitude stout for high altitude. This brewer can’t put a foot wrong in my book. Everything they touch turns to gold. This one was an impenetrable teak with a lavish cappuccino head. Even the aroma made me feel warmer: Milo hot chocolate notes, espresso and nose-prickling white pepper. Creamy mouthfeel giving way to a phlegmy finish. Honeyed sweetness, vanilla, bitter espresso and some heat in the swallow. Effortlessly drinkable. A faultless imperial. (12 fl oz bottle from Leura Cellars. 2012 edition.)

Bottle. I opened this bottle and as soon as the aroma hit my nose I could tell this was going to be an epic beer!... It is Epic... an unbelievable beer! Thick and fulsome black body with a very thin brown head, Lovely syrupy crispy chocolate aroma, a very full on taste... layered with a sweet syrupy chocolate cake like taste upfront which evolves into a lovely cocoa middle and finishes with a crisp burnt chocolate finish. This beer is absolutely sublime! It is without doubt one of the best I have had from Sierra Nevada and beyond... definitely gets full marks!

Bottle. Inky viscous pour. Aroma is full roast, soy sauce, bitter chocolate and grassy hops. Dense palate, bitter roast, dark chocolate, some coffee, light anise, bitter hoppy finish. Outstanding.

0.355l bottle, vintage 2012. Pitch black with a small brown head. Massive coffee and chocolate aroma with cream, sour cherry and citrusy hops. Taste is really intensive with loads of coffee, chocolate and cocoa with sour cherry and citrusy hops. Creamy texture and big body. Amazing beer.

12oz bottle. Black pour with an averaged sized brown head. Aromas of roast, cocoa, some earthiness, and a little ashy. Tastes of cocoa, caramel, vanilla, chocolate, licorice and molasses. Overall alcohol well hidden.

Excellent nose with a hint of fruit over the rumble of roasted malt. In you face beer with loads of cocoa, coffee and caramel in the mouth. Long finish with a pleasing and intense bitterness closing in quite astringent pepper and spice. A very up front beer, full of flavour!