Smooth midnight black Imperial Stout with hefty 8.7% alcohol boozing stays rich and creamy. Hop-charred toasted oats reinforce roasted coffee bean bitterness, thickening black chocolate subsidy and tertiary cola-hazelnut-walnut conflux. Raw molasses, cocoa, and black licorice illusions deepen complexity.
Impeccable black-bodied stout brings sweet chocolate overtones to expresive espresso bittering, judicious vanilla creaminess and rich nutty bottom. Tertiary prune, golden raisin and black licorice illusions complement strong mocha malt pungency. Arguably the finest Imperial available.
Cascading fast-rising tan bubbles create proud lusty head above turbid brown body of creamy mocha-fueled dry stout. Toasted oats and roasted barley underscore responsive nutty coffee sourness, providing depth to latent overripe raisin assertion.
Quaffed on tap at Barcade in Brooklyn with then-Chelsea promoter Ron Carlson. Robust black-as-coal full body brings opulent roasted coffee ground bittering to sticky anise, dark chocolate, and cocoa bean embrace. Harsh wood-charred acridity exceeds charcoal, tobacco chaw, and raw molasses illusions. Liqueur-stained port notes linger behind java penetration. Carlson agreed, ‘bitter blaster would benefit from better counteractive residual sugaring.’
Roasted coffee dryness, sweet chocolate creaminess, and powdered cocoa bitterness sufficiently supplement smoked mocha-malt assertion to mineral-grained finish. But thick-bodied stout needs deeper black tar density supplementing moist dewy earthiness for true distinction.
Coarse hop-roasted char and seared wood bittering joust musty waft of pencil shavings, crayon, and clay. Coffee ground midst musters Blackstrap molasses, cola nut, cocoa, and vanilla illusions, but tertiary port-wined plum-fig-black cherry whir lost by sticky black licorice finish.
Rich ink black stout with sturdy 9% alcohol rush brings up-front black chocolate roast to coffee-burnt cappuccino nexus, leaving tar-like maple-molasses gunk along the way. Concealed oak-dried black cherry souring tempers murky oatmeal-walnut bottom. Only its phenol acridity mars perfection.
Sumptuously creamier version of Keegan’s Mothers Milk Stout pleats dry black chocolate frontage with brown-sugared vanilla sweetness and bitter hop-charred oats toasting. On tap, rich espresso theme (provided by Muddy Cup coffee) mildly embitters milk chocolate, black coffee, and tar-like molasses illusions further.
Opaque mahogany stout commences with black chocolate souring complementing coffee-roasted espresso, cocoa, and molasses bitterness. Black currant, bruised cherry, and black licorice coat wood-dried recess bracing mellow Merlot-port luster.
Hilariously named brown-bodied sienna-headed Imperial Stout’s unexpected tannic grape dryness and unripe black cherry tartness compensate for hesitant roasted coffee sourness and brief chocolate chalkiness. Maple molasses backdrop fades at oily finish, leaving watery iced coffee residue.
Aromatic mocha malt serenity, bitter java palate, and dried date-prune punctuation give exquisite beige-headed ruby-shaded jet black stout initial pomp. Toffee creaminess allows lingering molasses-lactose thicket, cinnamon-allspice reminder, and roasted coffee aftertaste to increase full-bodied assertion. Addictive stuff.
Deep brown Imperial embeds syrupy malt resin into rich barley-hop roast. Not nearly as heavy or mocha-like as better stouts, and thus, lacking a thorough finish and sturdy distinction. Brewery defunct: 2006.