Dragonmead Imperial Stout

Brewed by Dragonmead Brewery
Style: Imperial Stout
Warren, Michigan USA

Draft... This beer rocks!... Pitch black ale with a small, frothy, light brown head. Good retention. The aroma is a rich marriage of cocoa, espresso and hickory smoke. The flavor mirrors the nose and is perfectly balanced. The malty sweetness is totally equaled by the dark roasted malt and English hop bitterness. Lightly acidic. Extremely heavy with an ultra-creamy mouthfeel and gentle carbonation. Finishes burnt and bitter. World class Impy Stout!

Poured a pitch black color with no head, just simply brown bubbles. Coffee, roasted malt, and figgy aroma. Taste of chocolate, coffee, and caramel with some alcohol as well. Very nice body and mouthfeel to this one.

Great looking beer brought to the table. Nice and dark with a caramel head on it. Slightly smokey taste with some dark burnt chocolate. Not as stout as the IP’s I like, but still pretty good.

Sampled from a day-old growler: Pours a mostly opaque black with a thin ring of lightly-lacing dark tan head. Bittersweet dark chocolatey, but fairly dry aroma has good complexity. Body starts with a sweet sticky dark caramel flavor turning more dry, earthy and roasty toward a slightly warming finish. Could use a little more body and complexity, but still quite nice.

Dark, but not the darkest, Imperial Stout. Roasty, malty aroma with huge coffee and strong cocoa. Full and thick, but not the biggest Imperial, either. The flavors produce more roasted malt and chocolate with light smoke notes and a bit of lactic tang. Tasty, but too one-dimensional for my liking.

Courtesy IBrew2or3. Growler. Pours pitch black, with a small, swirly light brown head. Smells of rich roasty chocolate, some light coffee, dark fruits and sweet malts. The flavor is pretty big burnt malts, roast, chocolate, and mild coffee. Some bitter hops are noticeable in the finish and aftertaste. Much bigger on the roast end than the chocolate end for this impy. Not a bad brew at all.

Cask at GTMW. Poured deep black with a creamy, well-retained cap of beige head. The aroma picked up dark chocolate and deep caramel on a rather weak nose with touches of coffee and vanilla sweetness following.. enjoyable, but it needed more power. The flavor had dark, semi-burnt chocolate and coffee at the core with dry coffee bitterness surrounding.. carried dry-roasted baker’s chocolate through the finish.. solid. Medium-bodied and quite dry on the palate with OK flow to it.. decent one.

Appears an inky black with a dark tan head that is unmistakable of the style. Smell is of chocolate cake, dark roasted malt, rich aged barrel aging. Taste is of chocolate richness, dark roasted malt, and a deep roasted taste that is in need of aging to be world class. Mouthfeel is roasty, bitter, and hitting the middle of the tongue before quickly dying out. Drinkability...dry and in need of age.