Eel River Ravens Eye Imperial Stout

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

(Bottle) Pours a dark brown body with an average tan head. Aroma of chocolate, vanilla, oatmeal, and roastiness. Flavor of hops, roasted malt, cocoa, and coffee.

22oz bottle shared courtesy of jasonmech77. Poured a dark, deep brown color with a smaller sized off white head. Aromas of roast, chocolate, latte, and caramel. Tastes of roast, espresso, chocolate, and a trace of dark fruits. Alcohol content well hidden. Not one of the top tier Imperial Stouts (more of a stout).

Imperial stouts have their detractors, people who think they don’t deserve the constant accolades they get through more often than not gathering the best score of a brewery’s range. Here is food, a weapon for such people. A sweet and absurdly simplistic beer which is just bigger and not necessarily better. It’s still tasty, which makes it hard to give it under a 2, but do that with a pale lager and you’ve got a low scorer. Not very dark at all. Sweet and chocolatey simplicity paired with timid roastiness which fails to balance. Generic soft bubbles, medium bodied at best and even slightly vegetal in the finish. Timid in every facet. I’m sorry, but I can hardly believe that this is among the best beer this brewery produces.

Bottle... Pours murky and pitch black with a small, creamy, light brown head. Good retention. The aroma is all about sweet chocolate, espresso and caramel with a mellow smoke phenol. Full-bodied and downright velvety-smooth with tingly carbonation. The flavor is sweet and of chocolate, espresso, caramel, ethanol and ethanal (acetaldehyde). Burnt, bitter notes enhance the malty sweetness instead of overpowering it. Chocolaty, pleasantly sweet finish. Cheers to CaptainCougar for floating this bomber in my direction!

Pours an opaque black with mahogany edges and a thin ring of dark tan head. Aroma of sweet dark caramel and milk chocolate with a hint of brown sugar. Body starts with a nice sweet roasty dark maltiness with a touch of dark fruits and a smooth, lingering roasted coffee finish. A nicely-balanced and enjoyable imperial stout with a hint of smoke in the distance.

Tap@Eel River. Rich and sweet, with some welcomed acidity and bitterness, oily, licoricy, roasted, long finish, good stuff.

Black colour with a light brown head. Malty, light roasted aroma with fruity, vanilla and alcohol sweet notes. Light roasted and chocolate sweet flavor. Alcohol sweet and light coffee bitter finish.

My Bottom Line:
Roasted and caramel malts hang on till the very end in this lean and clean Imperial Stout.

Further Personal Perceptions:
-A ring of foam surrounds the brown-tinged blackness.
-Carbonation is comfortable and increases drinkability.
-Alcohol is well concealed in the flavor profile.
-A shady soy spiciness roams within.
-I love Imperial Stouts just like any other style when it is well made, but this one fell short in its simplicity and lack of wealth.
-This is apparently nitroed when served on tap...this might account for the slender (less than voluptuous) mouthfeel when bottled?

Bottle.