Sweetwater Happy Ending Imperial Stout

Brewed by Sweetwater Brewing Company
Style: Imperial Stout
Atlanta, Georgia USA

Bottle. A black beer with a big brown head. The aroma and taste is light roasted, of chocolate, light chocolate, light coffee and wood. Medium body with a dry roasted finish.

(Bottle 35,5 cl) Courtesy of CaptainCougar. Pours completely opaque black with a dense and creamy, off-white head. Lightly burned malt aroma. Full body with burned, coffeish accents. A little fruitiness and even a slightly perfumy touch. Malt bitter finish with also some alcohol showing. 171107

Bottled. A pitch black beer with a lazing brown head. The aroma is sweet with strong notes of coffee and chocolate. The flavor is also sweet with strong notes of coffee and chocolate, but also with a slight acidity from the hard roasted malt and the coffee note, and hints of cocoa beans, leading to a dry roasted finish.

Jet black. Tightly condensed mocha froth clings gorgeously with each sip. Assertive but dull scents of caramelized molasses, blackcurrants, coffee, raisins, and port-soaked fruitcake. Hints of oxidation, medicine, and apricot. Soft, tight carbonation. Rather watery and limp. Lack of malt depth is immediately apparent, as hints of medicine, plums and molasses prevail. Malt is seemingly nonexistent due to the pervasive slickness and papery oxidation which further dulls the brightness. Minor notes of coarse roastiness slyly emerge to generate a touch of smokiness and a tarlike effect, but hardly salvage the limp body or compensate for the overt fruitiness. Malt soon slips into a dormant state and completely succumbs to the slick residuals. Finish is rather limp and dull, with harsh roast accents struggling to combat the overwhelming fruitiness. Hardly any malt is detectable, and the beer is fairly oxidized which doesn’t help things. Needs lots of work. Thanks to CaptainCougar for the bottle.

A more hoppy imperial stout than the others that I have been drinking as of late. Yum. But I am kind of curious as to if they (the brewery) were waiting to brew a stout for seven years and focused all of their energies and frustrations into making this imperial stout, why is it not better? The aroma is pale and hoppy with a touch of chocolate, but mostly crystal malt. The taste is very sweet hops and coffee, a small amount of bitter chocolate. Very drinkable, but ultimately, very average for imperial stouts. It is just not imperial stout-like. Very thin in the palate and in the overall body of the beer. The roasted grain is somewhat there, but not nearly as viscous as it could be, and the hops, well the hops are kind of there, but it almost tastes like the wrong kind of hops to use on this kind of beer, if that makes sense.

Bottle: Black in color, thing brown head, spritzy, dissipates rather quickly, spotty lacing.   Nose of sweet carob, roasted coffee beans, sugar, and cream.   Moderately hopped start, sweet roasted malts from start to finish.   Not all that robust, a little thin in body and also on the tongue.   Somewhat dry, a little chalky, with moderate milky sweetness.   Some dark pitted fruit aspect, but very light.   Slight soy, very slight.   Overall its decent, but simply isn’t that robust as most others in the style.   Tasty, but just not all there.   Thanks Larry for the bottle!

Name: Happy Ending
Date: September 01, 2004
Mode: Draft
Source: Taco Mac
Appearance: black, scant head
Aroma: light roasted aroma
Body: thin body
Flavor: roasted malt flavor with light bitterness, very simple, not much malt character other than the roasted, almost bland
Overall: a disapointing first big beer offering from Sweetwater

Name: Happy Ending
Date: January 28, 2006
Mode: atl cask fest
Aroma: sweet oaky aroma
Flavor: sweet bourbon chocolate roasted flavor, oak bitterness

Name: Happy Ending
Date: February 09, 2006
Source: Wild Wing, Marietta
Appearance: black
Aroma: roasted and earthy hop aroma
Flavor: lots of bitter roasted flavor, touch of sweet chocolate

Name: Happy Ending
Date: May 20, 2006
Mode: growler
Score: ii to iii
Body: the body has grown and turned to cream
Flavor: the hops and roasted flavor have gotten into a really nice balance
Overall: a huge improvement

Name: Happy Ending
Date: February 23, 2007
Mode: bottle
Source: Pop’s
Score: 3.7 to 4.0
Aroma: sweet chocolate and licorice aroma with a hint of alcohol
Flavor: sweet milk chocolate and roasted flavor, only a touch of roasted, only a light bitterness in the finish but mostly sweet
Overall: continues to progress from the original big bitter roast to the now sweet creamy milk chocolate, better every year

Name: Happy Ending
Date: March 02, 2008
Mode: draft
Source: taco mac
Score: 4.0 to 4.2
Appearance: black, creamy tan head
Aroma: roasted malt aroma with lots of sweet citrus hops
Flavor: rich milk chocolate malt flavor, nice milky sweetness really brings out the chocolate, touch of citrus for balance goes surprisingly well with the rich chocolate, light balancing bitterness does not detract from the rich malt

Name: Happy Ending
Date: March 05, 2008
Mode: bottle
Source: bullochs
Aroma: hop character in the aroma is almost over the top to the point of being a touch grassy
Body: body appears thinner in the bottle
Flavor: flavor is more roasted than chocolate, more of the citrus hops as well to the point of hop burps
Overall: needs age

Name: Happy Ending
Date: March 11, 2009
Mode: draft
Source: taco mac crabapple
Vintage: 2008
mellowing out nicely, citrus hops have faded enough to allow a rich and creamy dark chocolate character to emerge, touch of winey fruit and sherry,

Name: Happy Ending
Date: June 04, 2009
Mode: bottle
Source: Ale Atlanta
Vintage: 2008
big bitter dark chocolate, light winey sweetness, muddy

Aroma: 7/10; Appearance: 8/10; Flavor: 8/10; Palate: 9/10; Overall: 18/20
Rating: 4.2/5.0
Drinkability: 8/10
Score: ***+/4

Name: Happy Ending
Date: March 04, 2009
Mode: draft
Source: brewery
Vintage: 2009
Aroma: big citrus aroma is tuned in perfect with the roasted malt
Flavor: sweet roasty chocolate flavor works well with the big citrus
Overall: this batch is in perfect balance

Pours a opaque black colour with a medium tan head. Aroma first poured was extremely hoppy that moves into a roasty chocolate. Initial taste is chocolate and creamy. Finishing with a bitter hops and chocolate that has a good palate duration. Great head retention and very well balanced, really enjoyed this one from Sweetwater.