Lost Abbey Serpents Stout

Brewed by Port Brewing/Lost Abbey
Style: Imperial Stout
San Marcos, California USA

750 mL. Pours an opaque black with a decent dark brown head. Okay lacing and retention. Aroma of roasted malt, dark chocolate, vanilla, oak, molasses, brown sugar, black licorice, heavy whipping cream. Taste is amazingly smooth with dark chocolate, raw cocoa, molasses, vanilla ice cream, espresso, black currant, and loads of whipped cream. Bitter, dry, raw cocoa finish with some sort of warming but no spicy alcohol bite. Easiest 11% I can imagine. Completely perfect in every way.

Bottle... Poured black with a light brown head. Oaky aroma with alcohol and sort of a medicinal character. Dry, silky palate that was also foamy and thick. Really strong taste of alcohol and strong hops and spiced whiskey flavors that were very warming. Coffee beans in the finish.

Pour was a very dark espresso color with a medium brown light fluffy head. Good lacing and head retention. Smells of very light coffee and dark chocolate powder. Taste is great, in my top 3 RISs (or so i am guessing). Lots of lightly roasted coffee and dark chocolate in the front, next comes the roasted barley, then washes away with a hot with alcohol syrupy end. Its hot, but not to where it damages the beer. Its a sipper, I would have liked a little more creaminess, but it does have the body that the complexity requires. Hands down my Favorite Lost Abbey beer to date.

The first thing I get from the aroma is finnish fruity alphabet candy, liquorice, fruits and coffee. The taste is coffee, liquorice and it finishes with cocoa powder and hop bitterness. Something in this reminds me of the left hand’s imperial stout but there is something very belgian working here wtih the american elements, the yeast seems to be the thing that shuffles the deck with this one. Not very roasty imperial stout, really interesting and unique, not to mention beautiful to look at.

bottle: Poured pitch black with a thin head in a tulip glass. Smelled of rasian and molasses. Taste was thick with coffee, roasted malts and brown sugar flavors. Alcohol content balance out the bitterness nicely. Overall: Smooth drinking enjoyment!

Botella. Picth black volour, fair head. sweet roasty maltiness with coffee, alcohol and chocolate in the aroma. Good filling mouthfeel. The flavour has a good roasted maltiness with chocolate, pleasant bitterness, dark fruits, some liquorice and a roasty sweet dark fruity pleasant finish.

#20 Bottle. [Papsoe grand American tasting] Average brown fin bubbled head that mostly diminished. Good display of lacework. Pitch black color. Aroma of coffee, bitter chocolate, dried fruit, wood, strong roasted malt, mild floral, and rye bread. Full bodied with a soft carbonation and mild alcoholic texture. Moderated sweet and bitter flavor. Lingering roasted malty finish. 8 / 3 / 8 / 4 / 16 = 3.9

Bottle, liquor store, Boston. Pitch black colour, tan head. Aroma of roasted malts, chocolate and dark fruits. Flavour has roasted malts, coffee cream, dark dried fruits. Very drinkable.