Lost Abbey Serpents Stout

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

Bottle at home. Pitch black coloured with a medium sized beige head. Roasted aroma dominated by dark chocolate with notes of hops, frsh grinded coffee, pine needles and vanilla. Roasted flavour of dark chocolate, fresh grinded coffee and hops with vinous notes and notes of pine needles. Dry roasted and hoppy finish. Well balanced.

Poured black with a medium sized brown head and brown oily legs. The aroma was nice and smooth with notes of smoke, chocolate, yeast and roasted malt. Bitter chocolate flavor with some sweet fruits. Lively mouthfeel. Semi-dry finish with a medium body. Very warming.

Deep black beer with a thick creamy dark brown head. The aroma is lightly oaky. Dark cocoa and a light herbal/earthy character as well. There is a light rumminess and some chocolate flavour on the back as well. Sweet chocolate syrup over some nice dried fruit flavour. It’s lightly boozy, but it isn’t terribly hot. Loads of rich dark malt and dark dried fruit complexity but without being very roasty. A touch of sweet burnt sugar on the back. Man, this stuff is damn tasty.

Excellent aroma that can be felt from 4-5 feet away. Nice thin head forms about 5 - 10 seconds after the pour. Flavor is very complex. Mixture of smokey sweetness (licorice, earth, and a nutty aspect that make it almost chewable) followed on by a wonderful dark chocolate finish that comes in late. This stout is by far my favorite. If you have the means, I highly recommend it. 2009 Vintage - Bomber. Pours dark black with a late-arriving finger or so of rusty brown head. Aroma is still awesome of mild coffee, cocoa chocolate, anise, and perhaps some dark fruit (a plum?). The flavor is flat outstanding. Matching the nose, it starts with the coffee, follows with the anise and plums, working in a roasted malt character along the way before settling into a "mix me with your Count Chocula instead of the milk" finish that actually just gave me a chill! Mouthfeel is excellent and fizzy (for a Impy Stout) and the booze is all felt in the warm burn going down the gullet, not in the palate. Still, my absolute favorite. For the price, there’s a lot of other crap out there that gets good press but doesn’t come close to the excellent balance and character that this beer has.

Bottle (with a shoutout to gorditoabd). Pours a thick and dark black/brown with a slowly forming and thin head. Aromas are wonderfully complex. I don’t know that I’ve had as much of a grapefruit/pineapple hops presence peek through over the normal stout aromas. This is definitely one of the more complex Impy’s I’ve sampled. Starts out with a bit of a hops driven citrus fruit punch, transitions to a licorice middle and then ends (like 30 seconds later) with a bitter chocolate finish that is freaking outstanding.

Extremely murky and dark. Lace cascades down the side of the glass with small bubbles. Sweet, milk chocolate nose is alluring. Chewy, creamy texture. Wonderfully rich, with elements of dark chocolate, sweetened milk, caramel, baked apples, pear skin and toasted raisins. Complementing bitterness. Baker’s chocolate lingers on the tongue. Alcohol is hidden very well, providing a mild yet cozy warmth. Notes of earth, chewy grass and fresh yeast followed.

Bottle from the Binny’s in Orland Park, IL: It pours a thick dark brown, almost looking black in the glass, capped by a small brown head that rapidly reduces to a film. No lace. It smells of hot wet coffee grounds, anise, bittersweet chocolate, and alcohol. A light fruitiness and pepper are added to the flavor, along with some more alcohol. Not bad.

Thanks to JoeMcPhee for sharing - dark ruby, nearly black - aroma of bittersweet chocolate, berries, brown sugar, espresso - quite sweet, with quite a bit of fruity character, which made me think this was more like a foreign stout - cocoa, espresso, vanilla, cream, blueberries - some spicy alcohol on the end - very full-flavored - the sweetness gets less intense the more of it you drink, but it was still on the high side for me - still quite nice, though.