Samuel Smiths Imperial Stout

Brewed by Samuel Smith
Style: Imperial Stout
Tadcaster, England

Bottle: Poured a opaque black beer with a medium dark brown head with minimal retention. Aroma is quite incredible and consists of pure black chocolate, roasted malt and some coffee. Taste is also quite a treat with the chocolate hitting first (without too much sweetness) and followed by the roasted malt and coffee to finish the whole thing. Very well balance with limited bitterness, which probably makes it one truly good dessert beer. Wow!!! Re-rate 2008: Body si bit thin but chocolate notes are still as sublime as ever. NOt really complex but realy well done nonetheless.

550ml Bottle – Gravity Room – Olympia, WA
Aroma – Deep dark roasted malts with hints of chocolate and coffee.
Appearance – Dark brown in color, clear with a thin head.
Flavor – Rich dark malts with hints of chocolate and coffee flavors this was pleasure to drink. Had such a rich flavor.
Palate – Dry Mouthfeel, great texture. This was a great beer and fun to drink.
Overall – Great flavor this was a great beer would love to try off the tap it can only be awesome.

500 mL bottle. Dark brown with creamy light tan head. Chocolate and roasty aroma. Thick creamy palate with a rich bitter chocolate taste and cofee notes in the smooth finish. Quite good.

First try 6/28/07. Black pour with a medium tan head and some lacing. Aroma is very nice. I picked up Chocolate, vanilla, light rum, and licorice. Flavors were even more complex. In addition to the aforementioned flavors, I also picked up a bit of smoke, cane sugar, and, dare I say, some overly ripe banana. Very refreshing to try a stout that doesn’t have intense coffee flavors. In fact, I picked up very little coffee at all. Good aroma, unique flavors and a smooth body give this brew a very good score in my book.

Dark alright but if you're very attentive I think you'll find a port colour hue around the edges. I found the stout very dry, flavoursome and long lasting on the palate. Solid beer bout I have to place it behind the Lion Stout just had before it.

Jeez - this is a beer for extremists! (At least if you plan downing more than one of them.) If the brewers had roasted the barley more, we’d be talking about cremation, man! This stout is as black (okay then - dark, dark brown) as a beer possibly can get. The aroma however has a surprisingly weak start, but as the beer warms up, you scent prunes, cigar box, strong coffee, midsummer bonfires - you name it! Good head in the start, but it disappears quickly. The flavour is dominated by (overly?) roasted barley, substantial bitterness, burnt sugar and heavily roasted coffee. Unlike some other raters, I find nothing smooth and creamy about it. I have some difficulty deciding how much of the bitterness is distributed between the hops and the roasted barley. Aftertaste lasts a week (okay - a little less). This is a sipping beer, must be excellent after dinner instead of a cup of espresso. The price of course is high (esp. in Norway), but then you don’t need more than one bottle.

1pint 2.7oz bottle, thanks to holdenn for the thing with the thing. pours pitch black with big tan head. nose is super sweet maraschino cherris, oaty, plums and green apples (actually reminds me of avery’s mephistoples). taste has a very nicely balance of bakers chocolate, coffee, candied dates, currants, and raisons. mouthfeel is smooth and creamy. alcohol well hidden. a great stout but could use more roasted barley.

Yet another fine brew from Sam Smith. Very dark...thick creamy head...coffee and chocolate...creamy bitterness with a mildly sweet finish...