Sweetwater Happy Ending Imperial Stout

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

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.

(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

Bottle 12fl.oz. @ home.
[ Trade by GAManiac ]. Clear medium to dark black color with a large, frothy to creamy, good lacing, mostly lasting, light brown head. Aroma is light heavy malty, roasted, licorice, moderate to heavy hoppy, grass. Flavor is light heavy sweet and bitter with a long long duration, english licorice. Body is medium, texture is oily and creamy, carbonation is soft. [20090816]

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

Glad they changed the label on this one - that old one is...wow...holy shit...what can you say about that? Black body with a sparse dark brown head. Big roasty aroma with some chocolate and stinging alcohol. Fairly simple, burnt roast, peanut shells with a bit of alcohol and chocolate. Kind of watery as impies go. Bland, uninteresting, this ticks off a couple of the style’s requisite flavours but that’s all it does.

Black color. Quite intense aroma. Good body, good caramel-roasted malt mix, balanced, just the final is a bit thin. Not bad.

(Noogfest2) Black body with brown head. Aroma is medium sweet, grapefruit, chocolate. Taste is medium sweet, roast, chocolate, grapefruit. Smooth, medium-full body.

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.