Left Hand Imperial Stout

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

An almost black colored beer, with a thick dark beige head. It disappears quickly. The aroma of dark fruits with chocolate and several sweets. The taste of sweet dark fruits with gentle chocolate. It’s a bit burning with notes of alcohol. The aftertaste is sweet with bitter and notes of fruits. Overall a bit to sweet with some salty notes.

This oversweet, chocolaty stout is very much at the "dessert" end of the IS scale. The first sips were divine but it became cloying by the end of the bottle. One for the sweet-toothed. Looked fine - Black hole of Calcutta black with a thick inch of creamy head. The aroma was unusually fruity for a stout - almost more akin to a Belgian ale than an imperial. Faint toffee notes, charcoal, grape bubble gum, vinyl and Parma Violet candies. Velvety mouthfeel - very nice. Under-attenuated flavours - liquid brown sugars, molasses, grape bubble gum again. So sweet that I expected to see candy sugar on the list of ingredients. Alcohol is well integrated - does not taste like a 10% abv beer. Reasonable bitterness and a warming finish. Vaguely reminiscent of Pauwel’s Kwak in its sugary intensity. Too much for me - I like a drier imperial stout. ( 355ml bottle from IBS, Perth. BB 08/04/10)

On tap at the brewery in Longmont on 7/16/09. Pours very dark brown, okay head. Only had a mild chocolate aroma on the nose (my nosebuds may have been tired at this point). Great sweetness with an incredible finish of chocolate and caramel. Not extremely complex, but a very solid straight up imperial stout that gets its chocolate across. (also better than the oaked version).

Bottle. The aroma of milk chocolate is the strength of this beer. Flat and boring stout.

Deep black beer with a thin white head. Fast fading to leave a dusting of lace. The nose is fairly boozy with a bit of soft cocoa and a hint of lightly salty maltiness. The flavour is lightly dry with a lingering cocoaish/molasses sweetness. The booziness is fairly distracting, but there is a nice leanness to the cocoa notes. It’s not really bad, but it’s not a great example of the style. Light roast and a touch of black licorice. As it warms up the beer improves a bit with the sweetness of the body helping to combat the peppery booziness a bit. Lingering faint chocolate and ethanol.

Dark black pour witha camel colored head. Smells like roasted chocolate malt. Lots of chocolate flavor and slightly sweet and nutty notes too. Hides the 10% ABV really well.

Bottle, Beer Ritz, Leeds. This promised much but somwhow fell a little short of the podium. Reddish brown tinged black pour with a fading tan head. Aroma was a knockout on first sniff. Lovely chocolate hit mixed with oodles of dark fruit. All looking good, yet the flavour lets it down sadly...somewhat booze laden and a wee bit sweet for my taste. Chocolate heavy and not quite the taste sensation I was hoping for. Drinkable, but you’d darn well hope so for a deep seas worth.

Bottle, bottled 09/19/07. Aroma of coffee, burnt peanut butter, fruit caramel chocolates, butterscotch. Aroma quite roasted with a strong bitterness seemingly from the roasted malt, some sherry notes. Tasty stuff.