Pike XXXXX Stout

Brewed by Pike Pub & Brewery
Style: Stout
Seattle, Washington USA

Inky black. Medium hefted chocolate milk foam sits for length before settling to a hairline skim and crumbly edging. Lacing is thick and all over the place making a mess of blobby sheeting across the glass. In a word for appearance - pinnacle! Aroma is tarry and roasted with heavy black malt dryness with some dark chocolate scuffing. Taste is bold, rich, and gradually building across a wonderful, medium to heavy roastyness of black malt. Chocolate intercedes into the middle areas, then the fun begins with one fantastic drying length and character. Slight molasses tang sweetens the pot for a stint, notes of burnt/charred edges creep in there while the chocolate gets supurbly darkened, heavy, and dry with a solid smack of bitterness thrown in. A very solid smack! That’s some of the most bitter dark chocolate I’ve ever encountered in a stout. It’s awesome! The body of this beer is quite nice. Full, round, roasted and textured as so with a substantial girth of roasty malt all the while maintaining a heavenly smoothness. Its just sweet enough on the underside for most of its length, gliding the roasted stuff along the path to the finish where the dark bitter chcoalte takes over and does its thing. An excellent drinker as well as being damn tasty. What more could you ask except for more. And at 6% this blows the sessionable competition away as far as other big stouts that taste like this are concerned. Not that I don’t miss a little kick like those found in most Impy’s or Dbl’s, these Foreign/Export stouts are just too damn tasty and drinkable not to be in the same league as some of those big boys. Most are loaded in the ABV dept. This on the other hand says drink up and enjoy! And enjoy, and enjoy...

2005-2006 release. Thanks Chuck. The beer pours to a very dark brown/black body with a tan head. The aroma is smoky coffee and light soap. The flavor is smokey chocolate, dry black malt. Dry, medium-light body.

Thanks Chuck for the sample. Has a pleasant roasty aroma to it. Deep black color with a tan head. Pretty weak flavor, very slightly bitter. Also thin body and texture. Maybe we got a bad bottle, because this seems like XX instead of XXXXX.

05-06 vintage Pours a pure black color w/ a thick brown small bubbled head w/ some thick lacing. Smells farily mild a dark roast malt w/ hints of coffee & smoke a bit light. Palate is very light, not very viscous. Flavor is lightly smoky and coffee dry roast malt, too light. Possibly starting to show infection as the beer was much smaller in palate than it should have been.

On tap at Pike: A large black almost imperial stout. Looks great, lovely texture, tastes of chocolate.

Poured thick and dark from a 2005- 2006 bottle into an engligh pint glass. It had a beautiful brownish-tan head that didn’t last as long as I’d like, but it rebuilds upon agitation. This one had a BIG roasted malt flavor, but still remained approachable. I sensed a little astringency in the back end, but nothing major.

’05-’06 bottle. Pours to a black body with a foamy tan head. Chocolate, grahm cracker and some prune in the aroma. Nice flavor! Milky coffee is a foundation to cherry and light roast. Above-average viscosity in the mouthfeel. Finishes with tart acidity over chocolate grahm cracker. Well done!

Thanks to acertain for this. Bottle. Aroma smokey dark roast malts a hint of anise and coffee. Poured almost jet black really nice dark tan head. Flavor was good the smoke didn’t dominate but really gave way to strong coffee. Palate was good although I thought a tinge on the watery side. Overall this was a really nice brew.