bgburdman9 (823), Columbus, Ohio, USA
| 4 | Aroma | Appearance | Flavor | Palate | Overall | | 8/10 | 4/5 | 8/10 | 4/5 | 16/20 | Jan 7, 2009 Another old rating. Poured black with a brown head. Aroma had a lot of dark fruits, yeasty, chocolate, and some tobacco. Solid flavor and good but did not live up to the hype at the time. PhillyBeer2112 (2086), Orange Park, Florida, USA
| 4.1 | Aroma | Appearance | Flavor | Palate | Overall | | 9/10 | 4/5 | 8/10 | 2/5 | 18/20 | Jan 6, 2009 Poured a deep black, showing browns in the pour. Head was fizzy and brown. Aroma is big on chocolate, like a chocolate liqeur, so rummy and brandyish. Coffee too, with the rumminess makes for coffee liqeur. There’s also a big chocolate cupcake thing going on here. In the mouth it comes in pleasing with a low carbonation, alot of roast and chocolate, tingling coffee, plummy fruitiness skirting the edges. Finish is a bit fiery alcohol but its acceptable within the limits of 13% beers. You’d almost want a little more sweetness, less roasty astringency, to temper the alcohol. A little cherry starts to come through after awhile. MrBunn (1531), Western, Pennsylvania, USA
| 3.8 | Aroma | Appearance | Flavor | Palate | Overall | | 8/10 | 4/5 | 7/10 | 4/5 | 15/20 | Jan 6, 2009 Bottle. (Rating 1001... hopefully a great way to start the next millenium.) Pours a thick dark brown with just a little head that quickly dies and leaves just a few clusters of small bubbles skating around on the surface. Aromas are roasted malt... burnt coffee, a bit of molasses, alcohol, and dark fruit. Oddly, flavor is quite thin and fairly disappointing. Dark fruit, vanilla and roasted malt over an alcoholic body with little complexity or fullness. I didn’t see this coming and expected this to be mind-blowing. As is, I don’t know if I would pay this price for a six pack of the stuff, let alone one bottle. It seems to get better as I finish the glass, but I might just be a little woozy from the high ABV... drfabulous (1238), Columbia, Missouri, USA
| 4 | Aroma | Appearance | Flavor | Palate | Overall | | 8/10 | 4/5 | 8/10 | 4/5 | 16/20 | Jan 6, 2009 Great pour. All light brown sugar-ish head. Aroma of light sour and chocolate. Wow. Nice taste. A lot fuller and more mature than most Imperial Stouts of this style. There is the holy trinity of chocolate, roast, and coffee. But some nice hops that linger and some plum in there as well. Great beer. Beer2000 (1789), Kristiansand, Norway
| 4 | Aroma | Appearance | Flavor | Palate | Overall | | 8/10 | 5/5 | 7/10 | 4/5 | 16/20 | Jan 5, 2009 Bottled @ EBF 2008. Black body with a fine brown head. Aroma is dark, roasted malt, fruit, liquorices and a hint of alcohol. Flavor is sweet, roasted malt, coffee, chocolate, fruit, hops, a little bit of acidulous and a long bitter finish with warming alcohol. Quite heavy stuff. bp (456), Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
| 3.8 | Aroma | Appearance | Flavor | Palate | Overall | | 8/10 | 5/5 | 7/10 | 4/5 | 14/20 | Jan 4, 2009 Bottle: pours dark black with a thin, wispy, tan head, aroma of chocolate, dark fruits and a little coffee, taste is coffee, bitter chocolate, a little sour, fairly full mouthfeel, warming finish in the back of the throat. Not bad stuff but definitely not worth the price tag. BeerBelcher (940), Columbus, Ohio, USA
| 3.8 | Aroma | Appearance | Flavor | Palate | Overall | | 7/10 | 4/5 | 8/10 | 4/5 | 15/20 | Jan 4, 2009
A RIS? Huh, struck more as a Belgian quad than anything else. Obviously, like everyone else, I’d heard a ton about this beer before actually trying it. In fact, I’d even looked for this beer during a trip to Belgium a few months ago, albeit unsuccessfully.
This beer struck me as distinctly quad-like. Color was dark, head was minimal, aroma was faint (which I would blame on it being served far to cold at The Terminal), and flavor started with a touch of roastiness, but to me offered a lot of dried fruit, like raisins and dates, with maybe a touch of cognac flavor. Mouthfeel was pretty good.
I thought this beer was good, but not exactly up to the hype. I really enjoyed it, but I thought it honestly inferior to some more widely distributed Belgian beers such as Rochefort 10 or Achel 8 Brune. I would recommend, but I also wouldn’t recommend driving for hours or paying huge quantities of money to obtain it.
I had this on-tap, and served far too cold, at The Terminal, near the airport in Milwaukee. brewblackhole (1372), Muskego, Wisconsin, USA
| 4.3 | Aroma | Appearance | Flavor | Palate | Overall | | 9/10 | 5/5 | 8/10 | 4/5 | 17/20 | Jan 3, 2009 Aroma complex array of all kinds of nice stuff,high quality chocolate,hints of coffee,fruit esters are there,not powerful like American versions slightest hint that this might be potent ,all that complexity doesn’t quite come through in the taste,that dried fruit seems to take over ,and the alcohol becomes a little more evident as does the finishing bitterness. A bit overpriced for the delivery,may be pricing itself out of the US market
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