Left Hand Imperial Stout

Brewed by Left Hand Brewing Co.
Style: Imperial Stout
Longmont, Colorado USA

April 2006 - As a centerpiece of my "beer score" from Texas, this is kinda disappointing. Beer poured not all that dark...light shone through with reddish highlights and a little half inch head that dissipated very quickly. The flavor was mostly sweetness from the alcohol, which from my perspective is what separates the men from the boys in this style. If they can’t get enough else going on, the alcohol taste dominates and that’s what you have here. The opposite observation as eaglefan538, this got a little better as it warmed...it didn’t get sweeter, but the roasted malts (I didn’t detect much coffee at all in this one) and chocolate came out a bit more, but still not enough. Not sickly sweet, so I won’t kill it, but nothing special.

Bottle from stock (Quaffs). Black, creamy thin head. Nice aromas of sweet alcohol, prunes. Smooth taste, lightly sparkling with a sweet, soft roasted finish

Pours black, with a smallish light brown head. Smells of roasted malts, some noticeable dark fruits, molasses, and very mild chocolate. The flavor is pretty sweet, medium bodied, with a fruity essence about it. The roast, malt, and light chocolate are there but more in the finish while the dark fruits are quite up front after the initial sip. Another aspect in the finish was a prevalant hop character that made the finish a little bitter. Maybe a touch to aggressive with the hops as they should only be lightly noticeable in an impy in my opinion, or maybe thats just my preference. Anyways, a decent impy, but nothing special.

Bottle. Near black with a ruby tinge and a slight tan head. Aroma of roasted malt, rum and citrus hops. Flavour of dark fruit and coffee, followed by a very bitter finish and grapefruit hoppiness which didn’t complement one another particularly well. Ok.

Pours a pitch black with amber highlights, no head but a small ring of foam. Aroma is brown sugar, chocolate, and alcohol. Tastes of figs, fancy molasses, alcohol and dates. Astringent hops and a dry finish, lightly fruity with no real roastiness to speak of. Thin body, not nearly creamy. Very tasty, but missing most of the things I like about a good stout.

22 oz bomber. Pours jet black with a creamy, beige head that settles to a thin cap at the surface. The nose is a sweet, roasted malt front with notes of chocolate cake and light prunes. Alcohol is just barely detectable at the finish. Medium to full-bodied and oily with a sweet, roasted finish and just a touch of hop bitterness. The flavor on this impy definitely swings toward the sweet side of the spectrum: dark roasted malt, chocolate and sweet, dark fruit front the profile, with just a enough hop bitterness, at the finish, to keep it from being overly sweet. Fairly straight-forward and quite drinkable, this is a pretty tasty brew. It’s certainly not as complex as some examples of the style, but sometimes all I want is a big, sweet, smooth stout to take the chills off of a winter night. This beer fills that bill quite nicely.

Big sweet coffee icecream nose, dark chocolate. Pours black with a brown head. Very smooth on the palate. Very solid imperial stout, the hops in the finish shows it can age (although still a bit hot), the malts are roasty and release an exciting assortment of flavors for such a young beer. Coffee and vanilla up front, dark chocolate flowing in the finish, a flavor stuck between bakers chocolate and chocolate covered raisins, fading to a bitter cocoa powder flavor in the aftertaste. Great beer that is sure to age well.

[Rerate 5/20/08] Pours near black, tinge of red, with a medium frothy fine brown head, some yeasties as well. Great aroma of chocolate, lots of vanilla beans, rye bread, and some coffee beans, very pleasant. Strong sweet very rich chocolate syrup flavor, deeply roasted coffee malts, very very dark and very very sweet. Somewhat vinous. Sweet but bitter mocha/licorice finish. Sparkly palate, light and quite creamy/syrupy. Pretty good, but not very refined for a style that really requires it. Ill give it another go after a year in the cellar.... a dessert beer for sure