Goose Island Night Stalker

Brewed by Goose Island Beer Company
Style: Imperial Stout
Chicago, Illinois USA

On tap at GI Clybourn 7/20/09. Pours jet black with thick mocha head. Coffee aroma dominates with citrus and pine undertones. Nice balanced sweetness with a mild better finish of roasted cocoa on the tongue. Medium bodied with the alcohol hidden well. Gets much better as it warms.

On tap @ FFF brewpub. Pours a thick looking black body with some nice intricate lacing from the brown head that fell to a thin ring. Big burnt and roasty nose with some cocoa powder, dark fruits, light hops, and some moderate alcohol vapors. Smells as thick as it looks. Super thick and heavy on the palate with a sticky mouth coating finish, the light carbonation makes it even heavier. The flavor is heavily roasty with lots of burnt malt and caramelized dark fruits. Coffee and chocolate syrup abound. Some hops to cut the sweetness but not what was once there apparently when you look at the earliest ratings from this. Overall it didn’t blow me away, it just got a bit too sweet fo me.

Draught at Heritage Liquor. Aroma has lots of malt, a little coffee and earth. Very low carbonation, which is fine. Thick and heavy palate. Rich flavor, a malt bomb, but some hops are there. You know from the flavor and palate that there is a lot of alcohol, but it is well hidden. Comparable to Expedition, but a little sweeter.

On tap at Heritage Liquor’s Beer Geek Xmas. Dark black and slightly carbonated pour with a great aroma of booze and chocolate. Flavor was more chocolate, vanilla, creamy and nice & noticeably hoppy on the finish. Very good, but not great.

7oz Tap @ Stub and Herbs. Pours motor oil black with no head. Aroma was a mix of chocolate, malts, roast and some unexpected citrus fruits. The first sip blew me away. So not what I expected out of a big stout like this. First off it felt like a gusher in my mouth. The flavors and carbonation just blew up in the mouth. Not in a bad way just unexpected. It was pointed out to me that there was a lot of mango in it, and they were right. There were also many of the traditional flavors that came though, just showing off the beers complexity. Again not at all what I expected, but a ggod brew I would like to try again.

So this is better than the BCS but still not great. Pour is pitch black with no head. Aroma is dried fruits and very unfortunately bananas. Flavor is sweet and palate is just strange for an imp stout, kind of limp almost. Overall, it would be better without the bananas profile.

On tap at Stub and Herbs for their Black Friday imperial stout special. Black pour. Tan head. Creamy mouthfeel. Good hop presense here. Licorice, dark fruit, vanilla, and piney hops. Really my kind of impy stout. Very good effort from Goose Island here!

Tap at the Happy Gnome. Pitch black pour with a decent tan head. Sweet aroma, reminds me of a cognac. Flavor is also like a liqueur with some chocolate notes. There is heavy alcohol presence in both the aroma and flavor as well. Excellent sipping beer to be treated like a whiskey or liqueur.