Sierra Nevada, Narwhal

I still feel a bit daft buying imported US bottled beers: overpriced, out-of-date and over here: you can get just as fabulous and, more importantly, pingingly fresh UK brewed beers for a lot cheaper (in the vast majority of cases). Stouts I think get away with it, but of course a lot of US stouts come with those big fat hop profiles so I'm still not 100% convinced that even the dark beers are at their best.

This Narwhal from West Coast titans Sierra Nevada was very good though. Hops, booze and coffee nose. Taste was (iirc) bittering hops up front, followed by some gentle raisins, along with that impy stout staple of the mushroom/meaty/soy thing. Big coffee hit - dark and bitter. Yum. Minor cocoa. High-ish carbonation. "A stout for IPA lovers" my notes say. My favourite SN beer by a mile (although I haven't had any of their cans yet).