Viking Brewing Big Swede

Brewed by Viking Brewing Company
Style: Imperial Stout
Dallas, Wisconsin USA

12oz shorty bottle. Thick cocoa black-stained-glass red color. Nestle Quick aroma. Big,bold, roasty chocolate taste, while maintaining a smooth mouthfeel. Pretty solid Imperial Stout, albeit a touch watery. Lots of cocoa taste. Good stuff.

Pours dark brown to black with scant head. Aroma combines dark chocolate with an unpleasantly boozy character. Taste is like chocolate milk on the front, grain husks and dark fruit on the finish. Full bodied, very smooth, viscous mouthfeel.

Dark pour. Fruity and roasted aroma. Light fruit in the flavor along with a fruity belgian yeasty character. Light roasted and burnt malts also prevailed. Good brew.

Pours a dark brown/black color with a tiny beige head. Aromas of roasted malts, caramel, some molasses and a hint of vanilla and alcohol. Flavor is of big alcohol front that is followed by liquor/spirit berry flavor that mellows into nice roasted malts. Almost has a wine like finish/ aftertaste.Don’t seem like a stout.

12oz bottle 9/17/08 (Courtesy of Hopscotch during the CU/WVU throwdown). Pours black with a small tan ring. Aroma of coffee and roasted malt. The taste is of the same with some sour notes. This medium to full bodied brew is pretty light tasting but well balanced and tasty.

[Bottle] Pours an opaque black color with low carbonation and little head. Aroma of cocoa, burnt molasses and light amaretto. The taste is a little more complex, with dark malts setting the foundation. Caramel, dark fruit, brown sugar and light alcohol all make an appearance in here. The body was a little two thin, and the flavor was a little too sweet compared to my liking.

Pours a pitch black with a small beige head. Aroma is very sweet dark fruit, licorice and chocolate. Flavor is the same but more nutty with a good malt backbone and decent bitterness to balance it all out. Medium body, oily texture. Finishes initlally dry but then has a sweeter after taste that hangs around a while.

A big and reach beer with some mixed blessings; thin in body and very light on carbonation (even for an Imperial Stout), but with some nice flavor and drinkability. Pretty good. Color is (of course) black. Body is a bit thin. Carbonation is virtually non-existent; it looked like a glass of wine when I poured it into a tulip. Aroma was surprisingly robust to me given the thinness of body; it smelled to me a lot like bourbon. Flavor was definitely not bourbon-y; roasty with a lot of fruit notes that reminded me of raisins. Pretty good. I would recommend this. Very liquor/spirit like.