Two Brothers Northwind Imperial Stout

Brewed by Two Brothers Brewing Company
Style: Imperial Stout
Warrenville, Illinois USA

Bottle at Monks Café, Wallingatan. Pitch black coloured with a medium sized brown head. Roasted aroma of cocoa powder, chocolate and dried fruits with notes of rye bread. Sweet and roasted flavour of chocolate, dried fruits and rye bread with notes of hops. Dry roasted finish.

Bottled at Monk’s Café Wallingatan, Stockholm. Viscous black, no head. Aroma of licorice and molasses. Full bodied with clean mouthfeel and oily malt. Roasty coffee wrapped in plastic, dipped in oily molasses and powdered with sugars. Sem pear esters come through. Warming but sticky.

The appearance is black tar with 1/3 puffy brown head. Lots of bubbles in the head. Dark as a bowling ball, even up close to the light. Bittersweet cocoa powder smell. Sweet caramels and stone fruits, like raisins and dates. Roasted coffee malts too. Complex and nice. The taste is roasted coffee malts, like a porter with a mild kick of alcohol. More raisins, sweet grapes and cocoa in the taste. Balanced between sweet and bitter, especially with warmth. Light toffee at the end. The mouth is thick and ashy, but with a buttery smooth finish. Oily but more ashy as it warms up. It’s pretty good. Very thick, though, so repeats might be a tough sell. Still, it’s a balanced, complex stout.

Had on tap at the brewpub. Chocolately, relatively light (for the style) and tasty. I could have done for more malt backbone, more roastiness, and substantially more body, but it isn’t a bad beer.

12oz bottle. Opaque black with a tan head. Mellow chocolate aroma. Quite smooth and creamy, this could be labeled as an Imperial Porter and no one would blink an eye. Other than that, I found this beer to be quite excellent. Easy drinking, the alcohol never overwhelms. There is some faint bitterness up front, but the thick chocolate flavors quickly cover that up, leaving a sweet chocolate syrup aftertaste. I can see how style Nazis might take offense, but this is still a greatly underrated beer.

I love imperial stouts. This will be a factor in exlaining my disappointmengt with this beer. The aroma is weak, roasted malts, coffee. The appearance is dark brown, thick, opaque, almost no head. The flavor is roasted malts, coffee, fruit, very enjoyable. The finish is bittered by roastyness, sone fruity sweetness remaining. Medium thick mouthfeel. Not bad, not great fior the style (which I normally love).

From a cask at the always crowded Blind Tiger. When are they going to expand? Even on a Wednesday the place is jammed. Northwind is not that imperial, but it is complex. Flavors of chocolate malt, grains, coffee, and a fair amount of wine too, which is a little weird. Good.

Draft at Blind Tiger. Pours a classic dark brown with little khaki head to speak of. Aroma has some malt, chocolate, and an offensive hint of lighter fluid. Must be a bad batch; there’s a semblance of a classic imperial stout in the background, but I mainly get paint and lighter fluid. This plain sucks. I’ll have to try it again because this must be tainted.