Smuttynose Imperial Stout

Julios Spring Beer Festival. Murky dark brown puddle pour, topped with a head of creamy tan. Aroma is dominate by an extremely floral Cascade. Am I high, or too drunk? No. I distinctly remember this, but nobody else seems to. Then, in the mouth, this continues to develop with really sapping floral piney Cascade. I can’t get any dark malt character. Something must be wrong. Re-rate planned. This will do for now, as others seem to comment on the straightforward hop character of this beer. RERATE. Sample from bottle. I was actually pretty right from the original tasting and not impressed with the one-dimensionality of the hop character, both in flavor and aroma and this conflicting with the harshness of the alcohol and roast. Not balanced and not subtle enough to be enjoyable.

Smuttynose Imperial Stout is a terrific beer!!! Chocolate, coffee, licorice, full bodied awesome drinking experience. I’ve never had a bad Smutty. Big frothy head dark volcanic glass color. Excellent Imp. Stout!!!

This stout pours a deep black and is thick. There is no head and delicious aroma of roasted malt. The taste was not smooth. It was acidic like bitter coffee. There is a lingering bitterness and choclate flavors. This stout just didn’t grab me and want to come back for more.

Thanks to TannerTavernBoys for sharing this beer. Pours black with a quickly leaving dark brown head. Aroma has lots of piney hops and roasty char. There is also a hint of dark chocolate. The taste has a lot of toasted / charred malts. The finish is very heavy with pine hops and the char from malt carries over to the finish as well. A very nice imperial stout that is made for hopheads.

Bottle from a Smuttynose tasting at Charles Street Liquor in Beacon Hill, MA. Smuttynose employee talked like most people can’t handle a beer like this, rather annoying (send better representation!) Pours pure black and any light showing through, although slight, is a dark brown. Dark cream colored head, not too big but with good resilience. Smell is lighter than expected with a hint of fruit zest behind the roasted malts. The texture starts out thick and satisfying but yields to a bubbly carbonation alcohol burn at the back of the throat. The bottle at the tasting was a little warm so I wasn’t that shocked at the presence of alcohol. I had another bottle at home that was much colder, and while the alcohol soak was much less, a lot of the strong pungant malt and hop notes had subsided as well. For an imperial stout, this had too much of a vinegar tingle and not enough smooth malty mouthfeel for me. Maybe it was trying to be too hoppy?

smell instantantly the hop great really dark brown color with a good chocolate color head, when it enter your mouth its justs a burst of bitter coffee that come first and are more smooth at the end but very slightly

Aroma:Grapefruit hopy nose mixed with rosted malt aroma..... Appearance:Dark,huge brown head... Flavor:Strong,Alcohol,good bitterness,good rosted malt flavor,and cocoa at the final very good....

(on tap @ max’s)black body with a dark brown head.light roasted malt aroma.much of the same in the flavor.its kinda light and one sided.