Eel River Ravens Eye Imperial Stout

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

Bottle: Pours a deep brown with ruby in the light (good amount of light gets through for am Imperial Stout) Has a creamy tan head. The aroma is fudgey, with good chocolate character and some coffee grinds in the background. Fluffy body. Fudgey taste with dense chocolate flavors. Milky chocolate character without being sweet. Roasted flavors with chocolate cookie dough and a mocha character. No evidence of alcohol, and it’s easy to put away a bomber. Straight forward, somewhat simple Stout, but tasty.

Bottle shared by EDA. Pretty nice aroma, sweet with molasses, tar, beets. Flavor is molassesy, very dry actually, a fair bit of roast. Easily drinkable and calm. Pretty solid, one of the more relaxed and downplayed IS’s. A nice change from the super-sweet Dark Lord style stouts.

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.

Bomber. Pours to a black body with a really tall and ultra creamy dark khaki head that looks rocky and has a nice lacing. The aroma is sweet milk chocolate syrup, crisp pale grains, and crisp chocolate grains. Some espresso coffee comes through. The flavor is chocolate malt and a seemingly organic graininess. Coffee and a dry roasted black patent malt. The palate is a bit thin but leaves a sticky coating dry feel.

Bottle..Aroma was mild roasted malt not much there. Black body with tan head moderate lacing. Good roasted malt and dry coco flavor. Easy on the palate. Good brew but nothing stood out for me with this one.

Nice light coffee-chocolate aroma. Head goes away too quickly. Coffee in the flavor but tastes thinned out.Doesn’t seem strong. Decent.

22 oz bottle, via TURDFERGUSON. Pours a dark brown colored body under a fine bubbled brown head that faded to a whispy film. The aroma is pretty roasty, but there’s a quite noticable diacetyl note that grabs my attention right away. Some chocolate, licorice, and light alcohol. The flavor is dominated by the roasted and burnt malt luckily and mostly hides the diacetyl. Finishes with a little too much astringency, heavy roast, chalk, coffee, and moderate alcohol. Mouthfeel is slightly oily in texture with a slightly sticky finish. Moderate soft carbonation. A little on the thinner side for an Imperial Stout. This was just an average to slightly below average beer, quite a disappointment given there seems to be alot of fans of this one.

Deep dark brown coloured body with a thinnish light brown head. Aroma of roasted malt, coffee, a ton of alcohol and a little bit oak. Medium-bodied; Strong coffee and roasted malt flavours with a bunch of oak, vanilla, some toffee and a touch of nuts. Aftertaste shows chocolate and graham crackers with a woodsy flavour and a bit of roasted malt - nice, but not horribly strong for the style! Overall, a good beer, but not as good as I expected. I sampled this 65 cL bottle purchased from Half Time in Poughkeepsie, New York on 11-June-2009, sampled at home in Washington on 25-July-2009.