 Mes_and_Sim (4176), London, Greater London, England
May 18, 2008
A Mes rate: 2007 bottle No. 009 thanks to Chad.
Opaque black, viscous and oily with a thin-ish but very well behaved tan head and lace. Loads of fun to pour, you can get it to do whatever you want it to. Incredible aroma of chicory, awesome coffee, big hoppage (however much Chad says it’s not enough) and some INCREDIBLE tarry malt. Rubbery as hell, the full car tyre, bready, woody, roasty and toasty with some slight ethanol but god I love it. Delicate hints of pepper and sourness right at the top really make it. A stunning smell. Flavour... oh, my, GOD. It’s rare these days for me to not know where to start but I really don’t. Awesome balance and finesse but it’s still HUGE. In fact the balance is pretty much spot on. Chad prefers it with the big hops but as far as I can tell, with age this has mellowed into something that is utterly sublime. Mellow is not quite the right word as this is far from restrained. Massive thick black coffee, awesomely rich, superb chocolate with some utterly outstanding hops that leave a hardcore resinous sting on the finish making this something really really special indeed. Utterly unreal balance of sweet coffee chocolate and bitter resinous hops round it all off. The rubbery notes are the best I have experienced. The stinging, tangy, bitter aftertaste is beyond my powers of description and the gorgeous hint of sourness coupled with the prickly sting from the alcohol is just a stunning experience. I’ve had probably half of the bottle now and I could still waffle on further. F**k me, what a beer. Chad you seriously kick ass mate. I owe ya one.
kseecs16 (513), Westmont, Illinois, USA
Aug 13, 2008 Cask at the Great Taste of the Midwest. Opaque bubbly tan head. Rich woody malt aroma. Creamy as you’d expect from the cask. Chocolately with nice roast coffee hints.
valpoaj (283), Valparaiso, Indiana, USA
Aug 12, 2008 First stop of the GTMW ’08 - on cask. Pours just a shade lighter than pure black, with a nice tan head. Aroma is beautiful...the melding of hops and dark, chocolate and caramel malts...some slight notes of coffee and dark fruits also became evident as I took this in...I can’t imagine any beer more destined to be on cask than a good imperial stout. Flavor is also beautiful, and much better than I expected it to be. I"m not sure what percentage of this is due to the fact this was on cask, but the hops did not overwhelm the stout characteristics...lots of chocolate, rich caramel malts, with a good dose of bittering hops to balance everything out. I kept noting a nice dark fruit accent lying in the background which was just amazing. Palate is great as well...smooth and velvety. Although I’m sad I haven’t yet tried this on regular tap / bottle, the cask version was downright phenomenal...one of handful of rare/hyped beers that exceeded my expectations...great beer Surly!
Brigadier (877), Chagrin Falls, Ohio, USA
Aug 11, 2008 Great Taste of the Midwest 2008
Rather than wait until 2:30 PM to slam it before racing off for another tapping I found this at the start in the Real Ale tent. Since I’m not sure how that changed things I would love to sit down with a regular pint at some point to compare. Unfortunately you don’t get that luxury at a five hour festival.
Aroma / Appearance - The deep black body had strands of lacing and a tan head that are typical of a high gravity imperial stout. Oak, black coffee, rich truffles and raspberries meld into a balanced mixture. Somehow still light on the senses that the hoppiness did not seem out of place I enjoyed this aroma greatly.
Flavor / Palate - The creamy full mouthfeel is just what you would expect from a world class imperial stout. The chocolately hoppy conversion soon fills the mouth with a rich coffee like texture. Better than the barrel aged version that was on tap last year I think this is an imperial stout best enjoyed before the hops begin to fade into the background.
General_Gao (2434), Iowa City, Iowa, USA
Aug 10, 2008 GTMW ’08. Cask. Poured an opaque black color with a soapy brown head. The aroma was of molasses, chocolate liqueur, light citrus, and a dash of soy. Full bodied, sweet, and syrupy. Chocolate dominated the flavor, but there were also hints of maple, citrus, and soy.
inkubus27 (93), USA
Aug 10, 2008 2008 Batch at GTMW. This was kindof fun, I tried this right after I had Dark Lord, I’m talking about 10 minutes. And I have to say that despite Darkness being an awesome imperial stout, it’s not even close to Dark Lord. Darkness has a very pronounced american hop aroma to it, which was really nice, but it lacked the insane amount of viscosity i was hoping for. Don’t get me wrong though, this was still pretty thick. The taste was very complex and had a good amount of hop bitterness to it to balance the malty sweetness. Overall it’s my number 2 imperial stout.
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