Left Hand Imperial Stout

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

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.

[Tap] Pours a opaque black color without any head. Aroma of heavy roasted malts, some light cocoa and alcohol. The taste, however, did not agree with me at all. Coffee and toffee are there in the flavor, but the alcoholic overtones really muddle whatever else is going on in there. Thin consistency, almost like it was watered down with liquor. Perhaps a bad tap or a really young keg, but I didn’t see much I liked here.

On Tap at Shallo’s. Pours relatively black with slight transparency near bottom and appealing tan 1/2 inch head. Nose is sweet malt, roastiness, slight milk chocolate. Taste is smoooth roasted nut, chocolate, excellent malt character to balance the slight hop and bitter roasty stout component. Dark, dried fruits of plum, fig and raisin become more pronounced as it warms...TASTY! Very well done, easy drinker.