Foothills Sexual Chocolate Imperial Stout

Bottle, # 264/500: Courtesy of TheBeerCellar, thanks Matt. Opaque black pour with some ruby notes on the halo and a wispy tan head. Big dark malt, bakers chocolate, tobacco and dark fruit notes found in the nose...medium-full bodied mouth feel. Flavor has notes of mild dark chocolates and a big espresso kick to help smooth things out a bit and round this brew out. A solid brew but not outstanding.

Sampled at Hellbilly’s Hellraiser II Roasty malts and chocolate aroma. Black body with tan head. Flavor had a roasted chocolate vanilla. Some mild sweetness also present. Good impy stout, thanks Joshua.

Bottle 271/500 - Pours pitch black with a 1/8 inch caramel colored head. Super heavy lacing clings to the glass. Aroma of deep roasted malts, chocolate and coffee. First sip – the coffee really dominates with the chocolate coming through next followed by the rich malts. There are hints of vanilla and licorice. The whole thing really works as all the flavors blend beautifully together. Complex but not as complex nor as thick bodied as Dark Lord. Non the less, this is World Class

Bottle 432/500; Shared at the first, semi-annual Ratebeer-Tucson tasting!
Pours into my 25cl tulip glass with a one finger thick, brown tinged head despite a vigorous pour. This is simply very black in color and completely opaque. A huge roasted aroma is noticeable as I pour this beer and a more focused inspection of the aroma yields a nose that has a strong, dark malt accent, with lots of roast character and even a touch of sharp burnt aromas. Towards the finish it reminds me a bit of burnt prunes, so much so that it almost seems like it is getting oxidized; this seems a bit weird to me for a beer this big and this young, but it wasn’t bottle conditioned, still I think it is most likely an artifact of the rich malt and not oxidation.

This beer is quite thick feeling as it hits my tongue, quickly though there is a huge roast character that provides lots of burnt acidity to the beer and, which ultimately offsets the thickness and even goes to thinning the beer out a bit more than I would like in an Imperial Stout. A chip full of bean-dip helps to accentuate a sweetness in the beer that helps to accent a touch of chocolate flavor that was lacking in this beer previously (the aroma is fairly light on any chocolate notes though). As the beer warms up it loses the acrid, burnt, roast and acid notes; smoothing out a bit and becoming more mellow. The chocolate is a bit more pronounced now and though still sharp with lots of roast-bitterness, it is much more tasty than it was at first.

This is one of those beers that really needs to breath and warm up before being consumed. I had almost written this off; some savory food paired with it seems to have helped the flavor nuances a bit as well.

Thanks to JCB for giving me bottle 218/500. Dark brown pour with a medium head. Cocoa was the first impression in the aroma, with the sweet cream, espresso and dark malt there, but not quite as obvious.

Taste was chocolate and espresso with some figs and prunes. Mostly sweet, but had some grassy hops finishing it off. Rich and chewy. I probably should have saved this a while; it would’ve made a great winter warmer.