Aldergrove Empirical Staught

Brewed by Steffans Aldergrove Brewery
Style: Foreign Stout
Marysville, Washington USA

Bottled. A pitch black beer with a huge dark brown head - seems over carbonated - is it an infection? The aroma has notes of chocolate, malt, roasted malt, and citrus fruits - infection? The flavor is sweet with strong notes of roasted malt, soy sauce, chocolate, and alcohol, leading to a dry roated and chocolate soy sauce finish. Thanks Papsoe for sharing.

Bottle 35,5 cl. Courtesy of scrizz. Pours an opaque black with a thick, light brown head with excellent retention and some lacework. Sweet hard roasted malt in the nose with some vanilla. Medium body, sweet vanilla and licorice - lots of vanilla actually. A little hard roast malt in the finish. 091109

35.5 cL bottle. Pours pitch black with a small chocolate brown head. Sweet, roasted and yeasty aroma. Spiced and roasted malt flavoured. Distinct liqourice touch. Bitter and roasted acidic touch. Ends dry and roasted with a lingering light liqourice touch.

Date: May 02, 2007
Mode: Bottle
Source: Tasting
Appearance: opaque dark brown, wispy beige head
Aroma: sweet milky roasted malt aroma
Body: creamy body
Flavor: rich roasted flavor, dry dark chocolate character, nice contained bitterness
Aroma: 6/10; Appearance: 7/10; Flavor: 7/10; Palate: 7/10; Overall: 13/20
Rating: 3.4/5.0
Drinkability: 7/10
Score: **+/4

Pretty damn black. Smokey, tarry, nutty aroma. Smooth, thick, oily body. Rich and decadent sweet chocolate, with accents of smoke, roast and charred roast beef. Massive flavour. Late alcohol, roasty sting, fairly dry. The intensity is brisk, the balance a bit off. The overall package is not spectacular, but this has some things going for it...it has a certain appeal though I could see some folks not liking this much at all.

Dark brown with a large deep beige head. Sweet aroma with burned malt, dark chocolate and coffee notes. Flavour had burned malt, dark bitter chocolate and hoppy notes. Finished bitter. Nice one.

Pitch black with a huge, nougat colored, creamy head. the aroma is wonderfully smooth like in an oatmeal stout kind of way, and it has nice notes of chocolate and roasted malt. The flavour is just as smooth, and it has a very nice balance between a deep, smooth oat-like feeling, the chocolate, the coffee and the light, roasted bitter finish. Yummi - thank you After4ever/tom for this nice surprise! 2074

Bottle. [thank you, after4ever]
Pours pitch black with a wonderful, creamy brown head. Wonderful exotic aroma. Tobacco, dark chocolate, coffee, vanilla, sugar, port and roasted malts. Quite high carbonation, relatively lively. Slightly oily in feel. Flavour is to the sweet side, with a light fruitiness to the roasted malts. Lots of sweet coffee, dark, mild chocolate. Finish is relatively bitter with a great aftertaste of roasted chocolate.