t Smisje Catherine The Great Imperial Stout

[November 15, 2008]
Bottle shared with Tronraner and Muenster. Pours a dark red with a huge head. The nose has a funky Belgian quality to it with hints at coffee, licorice, and wood. This is weird. The mouthfeel is flat and strangely thin for 10% abv. A slightly medicinal iodine note is found in the finish and a sour candied flavor dominates. This isn’t very stout, but I thought it was quirky and decent.

(33cl bottle) Pours a cloudy brown body with a small beige head. Aroma of wood, ashes, mustiness, smoke, plum, and roasted coffee. Flavor of smoke, roasted malt, candi sugar, wood, and banana.

11.2oz bottle. My label is different than the one shown (I wish I had the horse label!). Poured a medium brown color with a huge sized (5 finger) off white head. Aromas of roast, smoke, spicy, earthy, and some dark fruits. Tastes of dark fruits, woody/earthy, spicy, and some what nutty. Alcohol content well hidden. Different profile for an Impy.

Bottle, complements of NachlamSie. Pours mahogany with fluffy beige head. The aroma is spicy yeast, walnut, chocolate, and some leather. The flavor is mild acidic coffee, walnuts, and a strange woody sourness. It finishes with a dry leatheriness. Quite interesting, though not at all what I was expecting.

330ml Bottle - Brown in colour and very pale for the style. Strong malt and alcohol aroma . Malty taste which is quite gassy and warming. Some fruity notes are noticeable. This is one to sip and certainly drinks its strength. Not bad but I was expecting more.

Pours deep copper to amber with tan head and some decent lacing. Wow, the aroma is here and there with sweet malts, roasted malts, solid earthiness, some musty dark fruitiness and alcohol heat. The taste like the nose has lots going on with light and dark fruity esters followed by some roasted malts that seem to move to burnt malts. By midway a solid note of earthiness wells up with a hop bitter bite and lingering roastiness into the finish.

Bottle from Knightly Spirits. Pours out a dark brown (more of a brown ale color) with a moderate light brown head. Aroma is of coffee and slight chocolate. Taste is of some strange earthy notes, mainly burnt wood. Coffee and some slight chocolate notes come through with a bit of a bitterness on the finish. Interesting effort.

Bottle. Very dark brown with a cream foam. Aromas are coffee malts with dark chocolate. Yeasty and peppery with decent bitterness and some sweet caramel. Flavours are bitter coffee with spices and yeast. Quite smooth. Good.