Blue Mountain Dark Hollow Artisanal Ale

Brewed by Blue Mountain Brewery
Style: Imperial Stout
Afton, Virginia USA

750mL bottle, batch 3. Pours pitch black with no light penetrating it. The bubbly one-finger tan head shows very good retention and leaves big clumps of lacing. The smell is dominated by bourbon with chocolate malts and burnt oak in the background. It’s mainly the bourbon really. The taste has the initial sweetness of dark chocolate malts and vanilla up front before giving way to the huge bourbon presence that lingers throughout the finish and between sips. There’s also a bit of yeast in the taste that gives it a bit of a Belgian Stout feel. Mouthfeel is medium bodied and maybe a little thin for the style with moderate carbonation. This is nice example of a BA stout and my understanding is that it was in the barrel longer than the previous two batches, thus the dominant bourbon character. Very good brew and a nice evening sipper.

Free bottle from dkachur. Thanks man. Dark black in color with a moderate brown head. Aroma is strong, but is mostly alcohol and bourbon. Flavor is roasted malt, some sweet notes such as chocolate. Some coffee also. Palate is a little weaker than I would like to see from an imperial stout. Definitely a good beer, but hard to stand up against some of the other imperial stouts out there.

Pour was a very nice thick black with a nice dark tan head. I really enjoyed pouring this one, the first glass anyway. Aroma was sweet coffee that was not strong and really did not add to the experience much. Flavor started out mostly bland but built up as it went adding coffee chocolate flavors to the tongue. It finished a bitter coffee finish that hung around the edges of my tongue. I really debated my palate score with this one. Originally I was thinking close to a 5, but as the aftertaste grew and hung around I was going more towards a 4. Thinking back on it shortly after, I realized there was really nothing else on the palate, just smoothness, but bland smoothness for the most part until the finish.

Nitro at Blue Mountain; very nice looking pour. Had the cascading effect with a nice creamy head. Aroma of choocolate, oak, roasted malt, oats with only a slight hint of alcohol/bourbon. Flavor of semisweet chocolate, oak, vanilla, cookie dough and touches of alcohol and bourbon. Smooth flavor, with the alcohol extremely well hidden. Really enjoyed the sweetness and the chocolate in this one; glad I was able to try this before leaving Virginia.

Draft sample at the brewery, nitro pour. Black with tan head. Nose is full-on sweet bourbon and milk chocolate. Flavor is more of the same-- very sweet bourbon, vanilla, chocolate, and some roasted malt flavor lurking underneath. The sweetness of this beer is not helped by the 10% abv nor the nitrogen tap. I think some hefty carbonation and spruce/pine hops flavors would have helped cut through the cloying sweetness. Nothing at all wrong here, just not my thing anymore.

7/20/08 - Draft sample at brewery. Batch 5. Pours black with chocolate head that’s a film of foam. Nose is all bourbon with mold roast. Nice mouthfeel with lots of chocolate and even more bourbon. Alcohol flavor and heat. Good BA stout, but the stout part is missing a bit. May do well with some age to even out.

This was a nice and well done IPS that had hints of roasted malts and vanilla and a nice chocolate taste to it,the bourbon flavor was not overwhelming which was good and it had a nice sweet finish overall not a bad IPS and i was lucky to get a hold of one of these.CHEERS!

Richmond Gathering. Batch #2, C&C 750 shared by dkachur. Black with a brown head. Baking chocolate nose, some dough and oaky vanilla. No bourbon, at least that I could detect. Bold chocolatey flavors, bitter yet refined, dry, powdery chocolate finish. Nice!