Eel River Ravens Eye Imperial Stout

Brewed by Eel River Brewing Company
Style: Imperial Stout
Fortuna, California USA

Very dark, cola looking and near black beer with a thin orange brown head. The aroma is sweet with some milk chocolate and prune. There is also some fresh cut wood. The taste has initially sweet milk chocolate and anise notes. In the finish, I got some light roasted coffee and lingering cocoa. The anise gets stronger the more you drink. Decent, but I would like a little more sweetness to balance the black licorice character, which quickly gets cloying.

Pours dark black with a short lived beige head. Smell is licorice, and chocolate. Taste is the same with licorice, chocolate and is lightly bitter. Medium to full body with light to medium carbonation. Solid, licorice heavy imperial stout overall.

Courtesy of tytoanderso via trade

Bottle: The aroma consists of chocolate, caramel, and moderate fruity notes. It pours a dark brown with some red highlights and a small beige head. The flavor starts with chocolate and caramel up front. There is some moderate fruitiness in the middle. The finish has some light roasted malt and minimal coffee. Medium-full bodied with a soft mouthfeel.

Pours black from bomber, forming nice size light brown head of foam. Aroma has notes of coffee, chocolate, raisin, apple, slight smoke, and a hint of earthy woodiness. Flavour was dominated by roasted malt, char, and espresso along with some dark chocolate in the finish. Overall the taste is slightly sweeter than expected, but very good overall. A tastey, well made impy stout beer.

This was kind of dull for an impy stout. A nice black body that had a thin brown head which lacked any real retention. Aroma was of some coffee notes and some chocolate notes. Flavor was similar only it seemed sweeter than anything else. There was a slight smoke note to it. Finish was too light.

Bottle from The Beer Authority, pours a deep amber color with a medium tan head. Sweet and malty, this beer seems more like a barley wine than a stout. Alcohol is masked well by the cloying malt character.

Picked up at Five Points Bottle Shop in Athens, Georgia. Nice silky pour. Off white chocolate head. Looks pretty good. Black opaque apperance. Pretty good looking stout. Alcohol aroma is noticeable. Nice sweet chocolate aroma. Very sweet aroma. Not extremely pugent, but pungent enough to get a decent impression of the aroma. Chocolate dominates the aroma. Well nuanced beer, in terms of flavor. You start off with the alcohol and then the sweet chocolate settles in followed and finished by a little coffee/wood taste. Flavors are a lot more mild than I was hoping for. Wish this beer made more of an impression, but that is not the case. Beer is a little too thin for me.

Bottle; poured a dark reddish/brown with a light brown head. Aroma was actually really good; booze, caramel, roasted malt, fruit, cocoa and molasses. I really liked the aroma. If only the flavor was as good! Not saying it is bad, but it just didn’t live up the nose. Pretty easy to drink, as the flavors were somewhat mellow and not hugely assertive.