Samuel Smiths Imperial Stout

Brewed by Samuel Smith
Style: Imperial Stout
Tadcaster, England

Bottle - So I had this right after Speedway, which probably wasn’t the best idea. It pours nice--all deep and dark with a nice tan head. Everything else felt pretty muted. The smell was tough to get. There’s some chocolate in there, as well as some booze, but it’s hard to pull it out of the snifter. Taste is sweet and caramelly, with some light bitterness, some smoke, and some burnt, roasty flavors. They’re fine on their own, but they never dance together in concert to create a truly integrated taste. It’s smooth alright, and nicely carbonated, but it just felt a little blah.

This is a solid, delicious imperial stout. Pours pitch black as an imperial stout should, and offers that rich, oily palate to match. The flavor is complex with nuts, malt, brown sugar, chocolate, sweetness, and bitterness all playing together. Overall it’s a little too sweet for me but still very enjoyable. The alcohol isn’t noticeable, and it could be a little higher for more warmth, but overall this beer is a great imperial stout.

Pours a rich opaque black with a frothy brown head. Smooth sweet flavor of chocolate and coffee with a bitter and dry back end.

Pours a thick dark brown/black. Medium colored head, lacing sticks to the glass. Heavy licorce, coffee taste.

Bottle. Pours black with a dark tan head and plenty of lacing. Oily mouth feel with predominant taste of licorice. Other tastes include cherry, coffee and plum. Bitter after taste.

355ml dark brown bottle, as pictured. Pitch black, opaque colour - huge, creamy beige head with some lacing. A beauty. Intense aroma of sweet caramel, vanilla and perhaps some coffee. Mouth feel is oily, low carbonation, medium-bodied stout. Initially sweet flavour of licorice and dark chocolate. Roasted malts come to the fore as the beer goes down. Dry hoppy finish, coffee-ish after taste. A stout of medium complexity, but strong , individual character, sweeter than some (Guinness). As I’ve come to expect from Samuel Smith (whose various brews are firm favourites of ours when we go to London every year), this brew too is beautifully balanced and eminently drinkable. The alcohol is almost seamlessly integrated, making this beer dangerously sessionable. However, in my part of the world their bottled beers are quite expensive (a steep €3,.50 for the smallish 355ml ones), which will probably prevent me from drinking this in huge quantities. A shame!

Bottle: Black colored, coffee colored head, creamy as coffee foam. Molasse aroma, notes of smoke, port and coffee. Flavor is balanced beetween sourly and sweet, dark chocolate, cacao, raisins and sour cherries. Finish is smokey, bitter chocolate and hop bitterness. Good stuff.

355ml bottle. Pours a very dark brown - almost but not quite black - with a ruby hue and a frothy one finger tan coloured head that settled almost immediately to a ring of carbonation. Perfumey red wine and prune aromas along with liquorice and a hint of malt smokiness. Very flavourful profile. The sweetness dominates with dark, dried fruits, milk chocolate and a slight acidity. When the sweetness subsides, roasted malts and a dark chocolate bitterness take over with a touch of liquorice ending on dry, toasty bitter note. Overall, the finish is a bit shorter than expected, leaving some coffee on the aftertaste. The body is on the lighter side of full with medium carbonation and a dry mouthfeel. At 7% the alcohol isn’t at all noticeable.