Beer Valley Black Flag Imperial Stout

Brewed by Beer Valley Brewing Company
Style: Imperial Stout
Ontario, Oregon USA

From Skyview. Black color with no head. Big aroma of coffee, chocolate and lactose. First sip provides a huge hit of pine hops. Lots of roasted malt and bitter chocolate. Tasty.

[Bottle, thanks Skyview] Pours black with a tan head. Aroma is chocolate, some roasted malt and a good deal of hops. Up front in the taste is bitterness from the hops, which then gives way to a harsh roasted malt and a little coffee. Mouthfeel is too thin. Fairly long, deep roasted taste and bitter finish. This isn’t a bad beer at all, but the mouthfeel was too thin and the flavors didn’t meld together very well.

Poured from a 22 oz. bottle; watery black with a strangely milk hued thin cream on the surface. Burnt graham cracker, sweet vegetables, honey, and pit fruits in the aroma. Perfumey alcohol, chocolate, floral hops, and acrid coffee grounds in an overly bitter and hot flavor; palate is medium, quite warm, softly carbonated and highly astringent in the finishing pulse of sour, acidic dark roast. A calm, but brash and impish example; high in alpha acids and lacking in malt strength, with dreams to be a very stylish black-malted hoppy pale ale. Thanks for sharing, Bob!

22oz bottle. Glossy black pour with a thin creamy head of dark tan. Dark chocolate aroma with some mild roast. The flavor is a sharp bitter dark chocolate. Body is pretty nice. Creamy and smooth. Overall this is pretty standard impy stout, even if it is quality.

Nothing to get excited about on this one. The best part about this beer is the cool label. That’s as far as it goes for me. Tastes and smells like burnt coffee and alcohol. I want to say it tasted smokey, but it isn’t smoked. It’s got a taste of its own like nothing I’ve had before. The smokey flavor is the burnt coffee taste coming through the overpowering alcohol. Not a good beer, would not recommend to someone, save the money for a speedway.

Bomber. Pours very thickly from the bottle, black with orange at the extremities. It took a violent pour to get a tiny wisp of a tan head, but it lasted a long time. The aroma is wood, vanilla, alcohol, cold coffee, ash, and pine. The flavor is some coffee and chocolate at first, but then an aggressive piney bitterness takes over. Some sweet vanilla and earth tones float around in the middle as it continues to get bitter into the finish, which is dominated by caramel and pine. The aftertaste is very nutty. Not bad, but then again, I like hoppy imperial stouts.

Pours a black color with a brown head. Aroma is roasty, chocolate, toasty, and biscuit. Flavor is malty, roasty, chocolate, toasty, and a bitter hoppy finish.

22 ounce bottle purchased at the Covell Nugget in Davis, CA. Can’t say I have ever heard of these brewers. The bottle was priced $9.99, so it better not be shit. Aroma is awkward...there is a solvent and cidery quality to it. Almost smells like acetone. There is also some burnt anise present. Mildly transparent dark brown body with a decent tan head that has good staying-power. Fine, bubbly lacing. Starts burnt with just a flash of sweetness. A touch of coffee is there. Finishes with a ton of ashy, highly bitter, medicinal black patent malts. All of the hops impart aspirin flavors, which is a real turnoff. Not enjoyable at all. The finish dominates this beer, which really fails to show me any quality craftsmanship. Another big, flawed, imperial beer that is just not good.