Willimantic Mail Sack Stout

Formerly brewed at Willimantic Brewing Company
Style: Imperial Stout
Willimantic, Connecticut USA

Serve in Snifter

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This beer is an Imperial Stout by style, brewed with eight different malts and barley, and coming in at a mighty 8.8% abv. Imperial Stouts are big, robust, roasty, high octane brews that were brewed by British brewers in the 19th Century to be drank as a winter warmer in the brutally cold conditions of the Baltics and Russia. They are rich, decadent brews with intense aromas, flavors, and alcohol punch. Main Sack Stout is a stellar domestic example of this style, and one that would please even Ivan the Terrible. Mail Stack Stout is served in a 10oz brandy snifter and pours to an ink black color with a thick, dense, cinnamon colored head, with a soft carbonation. The nose on this beer is amazingly complex with a multitude of aromas. Dark chocolate, espresso coffee, piney hop aromas, licorice, and peppery waves of alcohol heat flood the nostrils. The palate is rich and decadent, with layers of complex malty and estery flavors. Dark chocolate, sweet malt, burnt currants, fig, licorice, espresso, and treacle flavors all lay heavy on the tongue. The consistancy of this beer is oily and viscous on the tongue as it slowly glides down. Mail Sack Stout finishes with more big complex flavors up front, then ends with a roasty, hoppy, soothing, warming burn that lingers. Once again, Willimantic Brewing has stunned me with one of the most impressive Imperial Stouts I have ever tasted.