Holy Mackerel Mack in Black

Why does the bottle say malt beverage? I can tell you that didn’t really drive me to want to drink it. I must be missing something, either that or i should have waited when it was a bit colder to drink this baby. A little too sweet for my taste. Dark muddy black, nothing to see here- medium sized creamy tan head. Aroma was sweet with chocolate, pomme.Taste was sort of annoying with the sweetness. a bitunbalanced in my opinion. Anway, thanks kayla!

12 oz bottle. Pours a near black with a small beige head. Nose is chocolate, roast, Belgian yeast. Taste is chocolate, roasted barley, licorice, raisins, some subtle fruitiness sort of a cross between blueberries and pomegranate, hazelnuts and a little tiny bit of smoke. Body is medium, carbonation is moderate. This is quite tasty and better than expected!

12 ounce bottle purchased at Total Wine Pembroke Pines, FL for 2.79 Very good.

2008 bottle, shared with Rudolf. Deep black pour. Perfumy, pomegranite, roasted malt aroma. Taste is roasted malts, pomegrante syrupy. Not for me. Poor, poor mans Raspberry eisbock

Opaque black pour with a small, off-white head. Aroma of dark chocolate and coffee laced with fruit. Flavor is full of bittersweet chocolate and sugary roasted malt. Very little pomegranate to speak of, which is nice. Just a subtle fruity sweetness. Very good.

From a 12 oz 2008 bottle this brew pours a dark black with a frothy tan head. Aroma of chocolate, roasted malt, berry, licorice and a hint of coffee. Nice taste of berry, roast, chocolate and malt - slight alcohol taste. Very balanced and tasty beer. I enjoyed this unique offering quite a bit.

12oz bottle. Vintage 2008. Solid dark brown color, medium brown colored foam. Sweet aroma. Smells like chocolate malts, tart pomegranate, and lots of amaretto. Odd flavors. Lots of bitter tangy pom juice. Very deeply roasted barley flavors. Add coffee bitterness. Lots of toasted bread, chicory, burnt grains, some kind of coffee liquor essence. What a strange flavor, it would be spectacular to cook with. This beer is definitely not what I expected. It is very good. UNIQUE.

2008 Bottle Date; Sampled August 2009 This beer is served lightly chilled with a vigorous pour into my 25cl tulip glass. The head that forms is a bit bigger than a fat finger and is a nicely browned, dark tan color. The aroma smells of sweet dark chocolate, anise, coffee liquor, cocoa, some umami-driven savory notes (a hint of tamari), ample toasted bread crust notes, a touch of burnt acidity, browned crackers, fresh licorice chews as well as some alcoholic spiciness. The nose is quite a bit more interesting than I was expecting, it can be a touch sharp at times, but the complexity is definitely quite nice. It does seem to lose much of the complexity after a minute or so though and begins to pick up notes of lacquer, acrid burnt grain, and even a touch of acetone.

A prickly carbonation competes with a touch of viscousness in the body; while this is not overly rich for an Imperial Black Ale (whatever that is), it is definitely a sipping beer, it actually seems to have a fairly light body. There is a certain savoriness to the flavor here, but at times it can seem a touch too much like acetone. There is some acidity here from the roast character (and perhaps some tartness from the pomegranate), but there is also a substantial toasted, dark grain character, a dark malt sweetness (which combines with the roast to make me think of a coffee liquor), a roasted whole-grain cracker flavor, some smoked cocoa notes and perhaps even a touch of smoked peat saltiness. There is some solid chocolate character here. The finish has some phenols and fusels that linger on the palate a bit; a touch turpene in character, but with some clove character as well.

An interesting beer, not what I was expecting at all. This does have a fair amount of complexity to it at this point; at times this is a plus, but at others this beer just doesn’t seem to be able to hold everything together in a balanced fashion. Still this is interesting enough that I am quite happy to be sipping on this right now.