Lagunitas Imperial Stout

Brewed by Lagunitas Brewing Company
Style: Imperial Stout
Petaluma, California USA

THOUGHTS: Wow. This seemed way more like a barley wine than an imperial stout. Not a very good imperial stout, it would be an OK barley wine, but a nice beer if styles didn’t exist. But they do, so I guess it’s a so, so beer. Basically too easy to drink. There isn’t enough substance. TECHNICAL: Bottle. Poured a clear, dark brown that was nearly black in the glass with red highlights in the light and a small, light tan head that mostly diminished and left fair lacing. The aroma was moderate to heavy molasses and caramel malt with slight roasted and burnt malts and slight milk chocolate. There was also apple, cherry, light alcohol, chocolate syrup and that barley wine smell. The flavor was incredible, but very watered down. The initial flavor was sweet and lightly bitter; while the finish was really sweet and a little bitter with an average duration. There was chocolate syrup, dark fruit acai berries, hot cocoa mix then dark bitter chocolate, but finished bery watered down. The medium body was very light fort the style, felt like watery syrup that was sticky on the lips and had tingly carbonation and a very light alcoholic finish.

Not one of my favorite RIS. Taste of Coffee, chocolate, smoke, and dark fruit. Kinda dry for my taste. I would have thought Lagunitas would have a better RIS.

Bomber. Dark walnut body, opaque, topped with a small-but-persistent tan head. The well-malted aroma is dominated by dark fruits, but also has molasses and roasted caramel malts. Full body with almost no carbonation, yet a reasonable finish. Lots of dark fruit, dried fruit, cabernet, light notes of roastiness, sweet alcohol, toffee, acidic finish. Can’t really call it an imperial stout, but fruity and pleasant none-the-less.

Darker brown with a roasty, chocolatey aroma. Flavor is roasty with some coffee and chocolate, but quite bland. I’ve never understood how a brewery like this can’t make a better RIS.

Shared this one with my amigo last night before the STS9 show- poured a thick opaque black colour with no head. Very little carbonation, but left behind decent lacing. Aroma was of chocolate, toffee, coffee and smoke. Taste was very filling, with chocolate and wood on the palate."

Bomber from Liquor Depot (Tampa, FL). Pours a murky dark brown to black with thin tan head. Aroma is sweet, roasted and malty with notes of chocolate, ripe dark fruit, some hints of caramel and vanilla. Flavor is sweet and malty with notes of chocolate, molasses, ripe dark fruit, some hints of coffee and toffee toward finish. Generally medium body with a pleasing sweet and malty finish.

Bottle: A dark brown pour with a finger of tan head. Smells of roast and malty sweetness. Light cocoa. The flavor gets a little funky here... A sweet and artificial cocoa in the front with a underlying dark fruity and faded hops thing. Some of the roast and cocoa comes through in the end. Its like a weak strong ale collided with a baltic porter. Some marketing genius relized the only way to get rid of this stuff was to label it "Imperial Stout." What a trainwreck.

2009 Bottle - Pours dk brown with a tiny off white head...aroma is sweet dark malt, cocoa...flavous isn’t a IS by any stretch of the imagination, sweet charred wood, malt, smokey grain...mediocre brew, hard to classify...