Redfish Blackalicious Imperial Stout

Formerly brewed at Redfish New Orleans Brewhouse
Style: Imperial Stout
Boulder, Colorado USA

sampled on tap at the 5th Boulder Strong Ale Fest. pours dark brown. nose was loaded with baker’s chocolate. taste was all baker’s chocolate. pretty boring impy.

Draught at Redfish. Head is brown, mostly diminishing. Body is dark brown to black. Aroma is moderately malty (roasted/burnt grain, chocolate, husks), lightly hoppy (resin), lightly yeasty (dough), with light notes of vanilla, blackberry, and chalk. Flavor is moderately to heavily sweet, lightly acidic, lightly bitter. Finish is lightly to moderately sweet, lightly acidic, moderately bitter. Medium to full body, velvety texture, lively carbonation. A few problems in the nose (which is ultimately kind of boring aside from those issues) surprisingly doesn’t prevent the mouth experience from being pleasant. Nice balance, fairly clean, and a velvety texture made it more fun to drink than sniff. Needs work, but is drinkable as-is. Not very imperial.

Draft: Molasses brown. Buoyant big-bubbled head disappears into a thin ring. Muted nose of plums, nougat, chocolate taffy and stewed peaches. Slightly metallic. Feisty carbonation is quite loose and prickly and produces an acidic bite before depositing a fuzzy blanket of foam. Overtly soggy, fruity, and dirtily yeasty initially, with a gentle note of roasted barley. Poorly structured malt frame is terribly vague and undefined. Dry snap of roast merely coarsens the flabby malt spine. Chalky with an insignificant touch of burnt cookies. Hops compound the acidic char with some unrefined citric qualities. No malt lushness to counteract the overwhelming graininess. Finishes wet with whispers of brash char, cakey yeast and muddled malts. Served way too cold, to begin with. It took me 20+ minutes to get this to the proper temperature. Not that it helped any. Just far too muddled, poorly attenuated/flabby, dirty, and acidic.