McNeills Imperial Stout

Formerly brewed at McNeills Brewery
Style: Imperial Stout
Brattleboro, Vermont USA

Dark black body with a chocolate milk head. Burnt charcol flavor, kinda waxy also. Faint hop aroma to go with some chocoffee. A lill too boring in my mind.

Extreme Beer Fest 2004: Black with a huge lasting brown head. Deep roasted coffee aroma, full oily bold palate, ends bitter. Almost astringent. I'll need to try a whole one sometime when I'm not at a beer festival.

poured dark as all hell with the darkest head I've ever seen..very faint aroma with maybe some coffee and chocolate notes and an unusual hoppy presence...milky, chocolatey flavors laid upon an unsually thin palate..smooth but lacking an imperial body...big bitterness for an imperial stout and slightly roasty too. Coffee flavors reinforce the unusual hop bitterness. Interesting, but lacks the dark fruit, and dark chocolate flavors that you'd expect in an imperial

Big head and motor oil pour. Hoppy as a m*ther-f*er. Decent lacing throughout. Quite a hopped up Imperial Stout, but I like it. Keep it coming.

Sampled from 53 deg to 58 deg F.
Poured a deep black color, opaque, with a medium-sized light brown head (beautiful.) The aroma was too hoppy...major pine and citrus tones dominating over everything else...as the beer warmed some bitter chocolate and slightly sour tones came through. The flavor was a little more balanced..again, too much hops in the mix...pine, citrus, bitter chocolate, musty/earthy tones, and some intense roasted/smokey malt. The feel was medium consistency...very soft carbonation, medium dry finish.

Opaque black color with a medium brown head. Extreme hops aroma, with faint malt and roastiness. Very strong roasty bitter hops flavor, with some sweet malt, chocolate, and sour lactose. Fairly dry finish. Very good, but a little too hopy for my taste.

Extreme Beer Fest '04, Black with a thinck tan head.Roasted malt and chocolate aroma.Bitter/sweet malt charcater.

2003 bottle, fresh
Motor Oil pour, jet black, unfiltered, thick, dark tan roasty smelling head. Tons of roast, lots of coffee. Very good aroma. Opens up with a thick, oily very dry roasted barley flavor, some earthy/anise flavor and quite syrupy. Moderate amount of coffee, and a nice bitter hops kick. Quite complex with plenty of good malt sweetness. I was looking for the thinness that people had mentioned, didnt see it at all. Very good mouthfeel and stood up well as it warmed. Alcohol very well masked. More like a souped up version of a straight up Stout, but I thought it was a good take nonetheless. Thanks for the bottle OldGrowth.
Rerate Same vintage with Muzzlehatch. Seems to be aging perfectly. The resinous hops havent even mellowed that much, while the oily roast and chocolate show no signs of decline. Really decadent, but I love it. I’m a study in contradictions, I by all accounts should not like this beer.
Rerate yet again, same vintage Wow, this year is just sublime and still aging perfectly. No oxidation, wonderfully dry, but not too bitter (still nice and bitter though). Light chocolate, some light fruitiness, but not overly vinous. Thick, sumptuous mouthfeel too.
2005 bomber shared by SuIIy on 2/3/07
What a terrific beer, even with my palate shifting towards pale/lower abv and Belgian beers, I still couldn’t help but drool over this stuff. Elegantly attenuated, with very strong and dry, but not ashy or oily/stale roast notes and lots of dry vanilla. Dryness seems to be the key here, but it’s still got a wonderfully chewy, strong texture and tight carbonation. Light vinousness on the end adds further elegance while hints of cigar-like notes and dots of dry chocolate emerge as well. Still one of the best, IMHO.