BrewDog Tokyo*

Brewed by BrewDog
Style: Imperial Stout
Fraserburgh, Aberdeenshire, Scotland

Bottle with DJMonarch, at GBBF 2009, 7th August 09. Pure black with no head. Intense alcohol note on the nose. So alcoholic it is hot to drink! Some meringue on the initial taste but any more than a sip is too much! Leaves a strong coffee aftertaste and maybe some of those cranberries. On balance, I don’t think the beer is a failure, but my palate is on this occasion.

[330ml bottle from brewery’s own website] Deep ruby, slight tan head, slight fizz. Strong and rather offputting burnt-wood bitterness to start; quite dry too. Fruitiness starts to grow (blackberry and raisin) and sweetness with it, hiding a huge liquorice punch behind that catches you rather off guard. Some port, coffee and smoke emerges as you head into a rather sweet and sticky finish. The alcohol is not evident but grows as you drink it; for a while it furs your tongue and makes you feel your face is starting to melt, before it subsides to leave a pleasantly warm, happy feeling inside (it never actually burns). So, don’t be put off by the unpleasant start; it’s a very complex and interesting beer, quite unlike any other beer I’ve yet tried, and the more I drank the more I enjoyed it. It’s not Brewdog’s best by a long shot though, and does feel rather unbalanced at times.

Sample at the SLC tasting 12/11/09
Appearance: Poured black with a off-white head
Aroma: Roasted malts, alcohol and dark fruits
Taste: Spicy with alcohol, smokey, fruits and hops
Overall a good sipping beer, would go good with a cigar on a cool night.

12 ounce bottle thanks big time to Andrew for bringing it over from Scotland! I bought it online vie BrewDog’s great website. I must say that I’m sort of divided on this one whether I thought it was really good or great. Pours a pure black color with a decent white bubbly head. The aroma is hot hell, sweet malty bursts are powerful. A very nice flavor, hot as you would expect, but very drinkable; sweet and massive malts, cocoa is omnipresent, rich oily dark fruits. Impressive and tasty. I’m going to think a bit about my rating some more. Either way, it was quite a treat.

Bottled@SBWF 2009
Dark brown color, small beige head. Woody, oaky aroma, some underlying berries. Very sweet, sticky, but same time smooth palate. Loads of caramel, kirschberry, some licorice. Certain Brewdog house flavor in the brew. Warming beer with lots of ageing potential.

Bottled 0.33L. Pale thin beige head. Dark reddish black colour. Soft taste with some alcohol hints. Soft fullfilled taste with hints of coffee and chocolate. Also some syrop and raisins in the taste. Mild hoppiness. Warming alcohol.

12 oz bottle courtesy darkguardian. Pours a strangely clear dark reddish brown color with a minimal tan film that leaves spots of lace behind on the glass. Looks pretty thin for an imperial stout. The aroma is very boozy and hot from straight up grain alcohol. Inhalaing further shows a cocoa malt base with hints of cranberries and earthy spices. The flavor shows the cocoa malt base upfront to go with the dark fruits and cranberries and caramelized sugar from all the alcohol. Pretty thin on the body for an imperial stout and burning hot and sugary from the extreme alcohol with a lengthy finish that turned me off from wanting to drink more. Not sure how this was rated so high as I could barely drink it since it was so boozy.

Porterfestival, Göteborg, 2009-11-14, Bottle, 18,2% - heavy stuff! AP: black with wee white head AR: sweet chocolate, bitter, cherry F: yeah - this is a stong a nice one 18,2% didn’t understand that before Rick told me! sweet chocolate, bitter, cherry coke