Victory Storm King Imperial Stout

Brewed by Victory Brewing Company
Style: Imperial Stout
Downingtown, Pennsylvania USA

Pours an inky black with almost no carbonation. Aroma is thick with roast and malt sweetness, though it smells drier than most imperial stouts. Some hints of coffee and toffee. Taste is of thick roast and is quite dry, perhaps too much so for the style. Quite bitter, lots of hop resin apparent on the tongue. The combination of super roast, super dry, and lots of hop bitterness is not that appealing to my palate. As it warms, more malt complexity is apparent, and it begins to remind me somewhat of Stone RIS (though not as good imo). Still, an overall quite enjoyable stout. It would be significantly better if it were not as dry. Decent offering.

Good beer but just ok impy. Smell is a layering of toffee, light hops, and light coffee. Taste is the same although more towards the hops. I think what I’m missing is the strong malt backbone but it still does have some roastiness to it. Mouthfeel leaves me flat, very mediocre for the style. Not bad but not very good, if it didn’t say stout, I would have guessed that it was a porter. 2008 12oz.

Bottle. Pours black with minimal head. Hints of coffe and choclate in the nose. Extremely smooth. A delicious hoppy flavor with a nice sweetness. Choclate and coffee flavors as well

More hop than I am used to in a RIS - roasty malt, spicey - very nice. CHocolate - Coffee - Nice creamy head - aftertaste is strong of coffee YUM

black, beautiful thick creamy lace leaving head. roasty malt nose with a some piney hop notes. deliciously thick creamy taste... hops up front, followed by a tidal wave of dark malty goodness and some alkyhole ta boot. yay

Rating from Notes from 1/15.09. 12 oz. bottle. Pitch Black with a tan head. Laces beautifully throughout. Aroma is of roasted malts and a bit of hops. Mouth feel is medium and maybe a little surprisingly light for an Impy. Big hops up front followed nicely with a strong malty backbone. Does get a tad boozy towards the finish but at 9% it’s not that noticeable. Overall a very, very, good take on the style, although at places it seems to almost swerve into IIPA territory. Which isn’t a bad thing at all. A great beer!

12oz bottle. Black with a medium tan head. Initial aromatic impression of hops, with some almost burnt black malt underneath. then some sweeter, saltier chocolate and light berry-fruit. First sip is quite hoppy, a bit salty and smokey in a meaty way, bitter as well. Initial burp tastes of hops. The flavor mellows as the beer warms. It becomes sweeter, with dark caramelized sugars, vanilla, light coffee, and a bitter piney finish. The mouthfeel is definitely light for the style, and in the medium range overall. This is honestly not quite like any imperial stout that I have had before. It drinks small, but has a good balance of flavors. There are more flavor and aroma hops than maybe any stout that I’ve had, but they work well to balance the typical malt sweetness of the style and make this really drinkable. I want to call this an IPA-foreign stout hybrid with way more alcohol that you think. I like it.

Both from bottle and from tap at Victory. Appearance is like motor oil. Smell is dark malt with some hops. Dark head which sticks around a minute or two. I have to say, I enjoyed this much more at the brewery when on tap. Much smoother and drinkable than from the bottle. It’s an excellent stout either way but if you can get it on tap, I’d recommend drinking it that way.