Eel River Ravens Eye Imperial Stout

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

This looked nice and syrupy coming out of the bottle. Very dark, brown highlights. Thin head. Nice, typical IS aroma of dark chocolate, dark roasted malt and light coffee. Palate is dark fruit, is oily, then I get the more typical coffee and then heavy chocolate malt. Alcohol is totally masked. Body is a bit on the light side, but overall this is a very nice beer.

Nose-caramel coffee, cream, sweet coffee. Body-opaque with a slight ring of bubbles and a patchy film of bubbles. Taste-high CO2, wasabi, medium PNW hops, good smooth mouthfeel. Good, but simple. Chocolate, coffee.

Black coloured with a beige ehad. Roasted aroma of dried fruits, vanilla and chocolate. Roasted flavour of dried fruits, chocolate and vanilla. Dry roasted finish.

Bottle. Pitch black pour with a light tan head. Chocolate malt aroma with some cherry and coffee notes. More coffee and chocolate in the flavor. The mouth feel seems somewhat thin but it seems to work well with the fruitiness of the flavor and the dry, somewhat bitter finish.

Dark, dark pour with great mocha head. Nose is a deep roasted chocolate malt with an espresso aroma mixed in. Flavor is rich with coffee, dark chocolate, roast and toffee. No ashy flavors, wish is surprising considering the roastyness on this beast. Hops are preseant, but certainly take a back seat. ABV really wasn’t that apparent to me as I was drinking....it was after. Great beer.

Bomber. Pours black as night with thin, but tight and resilient, tan head. Seriously I held this up to a lamp in a wine glass, and light didn’t even pass through the taper where the stem joins the glass. Some dark stuff. The aroma is molasses, baker’s chocolate, some pleasant roasty tones, and a faint hint of grill smoke. The flavor is a sort of ashy molasses up front, and melds into a mocha sweetness. Some earthy, woody, and ashy bitter notes come out toward the finish. Hop bitterness is minimal, but takes the form of an occasional lemon zest note. Pretty good. It’s smooth and graceful, but not aggressive like most imperial stouts.

Found this little gem at Ledger’s in Berkely. New Years Eve was as good a time as any to pop it open so I shared it with a few of the guys. The beer pours out a deep black hue, with a nice one-finger thick khaki head. Perhaps a more agressive pour would have resulted in a thicker head, but I was happy with what I got. First aromas I got were dark roasted malts, an impressive display of hops, a good dose of coffee and molasses. Mouthfeel was nice, but with the alcohol burn I’d prefer it to be better masked. Still, it’s nitpicky. Flavors were chocolate, roasted malts, coffee, molasses and just a touch ashy. If it were any more ashy I don’t think I would have enjoyed it nearly as much. Finishes a bit hot.

Bomber dragged back from Asheville. Heavy, sweet roast aroma - thick, sticky syrup and espresso beanage with lots of malt and a large dose of vodka-ish alcohol. Chocolate with dried fruits, plum, and light bourbon. Touch of vanilla. Opaque pitch pour with a super-thick, creamy and lacing dark brown rocky head. Intensely (!) bitter taste, heavy roast with espresso overtones. Sticky, extremely obese body, playful mouthfeel leading into a heavily roasted, extremely dry and bitter aftertaste. Loads and loads and loads of thick malt, with, again, heavy notes of chocolate and fruit. Alcohol is a bit too high in the mix, to the point of being off-putting. Salty with a touch of licorice. I have to disagree with a lot of the criticism here; this impy is slightly simplistic, but an extremely robust and muscular rendition, a real powerhouse!