Southern Tier Jah-va

Brewed by Southern Tier Brewing Company
Style: Imperial Stout
Lakewood, New York USA

Bottle. Dark brown pour wiht a slow forming, but large, tan head. Aromas are detectable from far away... thick coffee scents and dark chocolate are dominant. Closer inspection reveals a whisky-like alcohol presence and vanilla and cream. Flavor is thick with coffee (almost a burnt coffee taste) and has a vanilla sweetness to balance things out. Maybe it was just a great end to a long day, but this was excellent!

Bottle pours a clear deep black with a modest brown head. Strong sweet chocolate and cofee aroma. Flavors of tootsie roll, coffee and the bite of plenty of IBUs. Still quite sweet and tons of roasted flavor. Delicious.

Bottle. Pours black with a thick tan head that lasts (it has a much thicker, longer-lasting head than most other imperial stouts which is quite surprising for a 12% beer). Flavor of sweet roasted malt, alcohol, stale wheat grains. Flavor is sweet, with sweet roasted malt and only a hint of alcohol. Slightly hoppy finish. I don’t really get coffee here though. Decent impy and not very overpowering for such a strong beer. A little lacking in the flavor department but still a smooth drink.

Bottle and draft. Very dark thick pour with an off white head. Aroma is very rich, creamy coffee and espresso, almost dark chocolate like. Lots of sweetness like a latte. Flavor is so big. The creamiest riches smoothest coffee. Some alcohol but hidden really well. Like coffee cake and frosting.

Bottle from Januaryish 09 4 pours a less viscous/syrupy dark brown, black coffee like, with a frothy foamy tan head. 8 slightly oxiidized but in a good way dark chocolately rich malty light crisp hops light espresso but really not a strong coffee aroma, plesant alcohol 7 sweet cloying, again not as sticky syrupy as the others in the series, dark chocolate, hops, espresso, coffee mostly faded, lingering hops are nice 4 not as syrupy as before but just as sticky, low soft larger carbonation 14

Bomber. Nice rich-looking pour with a 1 cm dense dark chestnut head. A good deal of alcohol on the nose, dark chocolate, and, of course, coffee, but the aroma isn’t overtly coffee-ish. Nice creamy palate. The taste is dominated by a strong wall of bitter roasty coffee and some alcohol. The roastiness linger but seems aided by the alcohol. At first the alcohol didn’t seem so apparent, but as it warms it is now. Certainly a very nice brew, scores well in the secondary categories of appearance and palate, but was expecting more, particularly in the aroma category.

22oz bottle brewed Winter 2008 purchased at Spirits RB. As soon as I sniffed this beer I thought it was young, yup actually reading the bottle would have confirmed it. Lots of hops coming through on the aroma for an Impy Stout with notes of coffee, roasted malts, coffee, dark chocolate, burnt coffee beans and perhaps some more coffee. Pours an average shade of black with lots of visible carbonation and a small beige head. Slightly thin palate with lots of carbonation and well hidden alcohol for a 12% monster. Flavor is similar to the aroma coffee, raosted malts, slight chocolate and a bit of hops. Good beer but like most high school seniors still needs some serious age to hit it’s peak.

Bottle at Linwood Grill 6/29/06. Pour is oily black but thin and watery with an almost non existent head that I suppose is white. Nose is chocolate and sweetness with hints of black malt. Palate is sticky and oily. Flavor is chocolate and sweet, no coffee present at all. Flavors stay constant and are not impressive or acceptable.