BrewDog Riptide

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

It didn’t pick up on the imperial aspect of this stout. It reminded me of a mild with the smooh malt body. In the English style, with low carbonation and a fairly thick palate. Chocolate, and some earth. Only a hint of smoke.

Bottled. Pours out in a dark brown colour with a low bubbly grey head. Roasted malts, dark chocolate and sweet licorice in the aroma. Medium to full-bodied with notes of burnt malts, salty licorice, dark chocolate and chalk. Burnt finish of coffee and dark chocolate. Definitely not bad but lacking depth.

Batch 002 bottle thanks to bu11zeye. Pours a black body with a quickly vanishing head that still leaves behind some lacing. Aroma has lotos of alcohol and chocolate. Taste is malty with light chocolate, bitter coffee and a bit of caramel. Mouthfeel is syrupy.

33cl bottle from ølbutikken dark brown, small thick smooth light brown head. aroma is dominated by chocolate and toffee. also some hops. flavor is sweet, slight chocolate, roasted grains, sligthly flowery probably from hops, much depper and complex than the aroma. ends quite roasted, malty sweet and hoppy. nice one. palate is thick and creamy. overall a great beer, except the aroma is not really letting you know what it is like.

Pours a very dark brown color with a medium khaki head that recedes steadily. Rings of lacing on the glass. Aroma of cocoa, mild coffee and malt. Medium, smooth body with flavors of sweet chocolate, coffee and malt. Mild hops in the background. The finish is sweet chocolate and toasted malt with a short chocolate malt aftertaste. Above average overall.

Nose is chocolate with a hint of coffee, ebony, red at the sides, small toffee head. Taste is bitter chocolate, some fine malt, reminds me of chocolate chip cookies. Very nicely balanced, medium bodied, pleasantly sweet. Great!

In short: A peaty and very dirty stout.
How: Bottle 330ml. Consumed relatively fresh, almost 1 year before best-before date.
The look: Black body topped by a few beige bubbles acting as a head
In long: Unusual nose of peat, leather bag, old shoes and such. No kidding. Really dirty nose, I didn’t mind it at all and found it intriguing. Taste is again intriguing but just not that good. Body is rather viscous and lifeless, like a watery tar or something. Carbonation is minimal. Some old black coffee approaching old coffee filter flavour. Chocolaty too but again the chocolate doesn’t come out as standard bitter black chocolate. More like earthy/peaty buttery chocolate without much bitterness. Pretty fucked up and far from clean but surely not uninteresting. Just as long as you don’t mind an imperial stout that is as clean as a Pilipino prostitute after a fleet American battleships left town.

Cask (gravity dispense) at Reading Beer Festival. The body is dark as pitch with only a few bubbles on the surface. Rather zestful and smoky aroma. In-depth flavour of dark chocolate and liquorice blended by dark fruits. Progressive bitterness with alcohol shining through. Dusty mouthfeel (sampled with Finn, 02.05.2008).