Samuel Smiths Imperial Stout

Brewed by Samuel Smith
Style: Imperial Stout
Tadcaster, England

It smells like a rattlesnake. Real creammy, exceptionally smooth. Very well-balanced. A slight, rather enjoyable alcohol burn at the finish.

Pours a deep dark brown-black with an inch of brown foam. Decent head retention, minimal lacing. Initially it appears very carbonated, you can even hear it fizz. Good warming espresso, currant, and alcohol in the aroma. Flavor - bitter chocolate, strong coffee, and burnt raisins. Toss in some currants. Toss in some alcohol. Toss in more bitter chocolate, strong coffee, and burnt raisins. Bold and bitter throughout. I don’t taste hops. It doesn’t need hops to be bitter. Alcoholic and bitter coffee aftertaste. Medium to full body, velvety smooth. Less carbonated than the initial fizz suggested, but still solid enough

Bottled 355ml. An extremely dark beer with a beautiful beige head. The aroma is of roasted malt with a surprising touch of apples. Seaweed, hazelnuts, figs, heather, banana and licorice. A slight peppery nose. Full bodied. Ginger, dark chocolate, figs, mocha, licorice and plums in the taste. A slight salty touch. Wonderful mouthfeel. An extemely complex beer with a hint of tar? .... Sweet finish with hints of molasses, licorice, dark chocolate and heather. Samuel Smith’s epitome beer. Wonderful!

(1998 Vintage) Pure black, thin beige head. Madeira, soy, vinegar and roasted in aroma. Sweet, chocolatey flavour with some notes of coffee and tar.

This is a standard by which all stouts should be mesured. Fabulous beer. Great colour. Great flavour. Truely a luxury beer.

Bottle (550ml). Had been put away for about 7 months. I admit up front, I love the Sam Smith beers (not the Organic), but this is the best - I dream of having it on cask! Wonderfully dark, nicely active, very strong flavours of apple, licorice, plums/prunes, chocolate, deeply roasted malts - the list goes on. Poured it half-cold, sipped it slowly, room temperature at the end --- bloody lovely, almost want to change my rating to 19/20

pours rich velvety with an almost cherry looking tinge to it. a lovely every day imp stout. soft choclate body and excellent depth.

Pours very dark with a big voluptuous tan head. The nose is very full with molasses, chocolate and definite portlike qualities. The first taste is smoky and rich. You have to let it warm up to taste the complexity and boy is it worth it. The palate is full from front to back with fruit and chocolate and smoke. My gosh this is good.