Mikkeller, Black

Returned to Copenhagen, this time with kids and a visit to Tivoli Gardens. Purchased from the Mikkeller shop in Nørrebro's Torvehallerne market along with some canned IPAs. Boozy, lots of different stout flavours, very bitter. Paired with The OA.

De Molen, Hel & Verdoemenis Bruichladdich BA

Wax capped brilliance from De Molen. I'd have had no idea where Bruichladdich was had my old (Scottish) neighbour not eulogised about it here. I don't really drink spirits anymore if I can avoid it, but I used to enjoy Islay malts and barrel aged stouts are probably the closest I get to drinking whisky these days. Heavy peat nose leading to sweet chocolate, not too much else immediately discernable. Taste is heavy peat, a tang of fruit which then mellowed into choc/coffee. A medium bitter finish. Peaty throughout and always sweet on the lips.

Weird Beard, Double Perle

No frills impy from WB and all the better for it. Great balance, possibly on the sweet side, but never too much. Big coffee. I bought 2 of these and it would've been more had Manish not ran out (the swine).

Żywiec, Porter

Like the Kernel impy, but 500ml of it. Happy days. (This one brought back from the motherland by the folks. Dziękuję mumia!

Beavertown, 'Spresso

Yet another canned imperial from Beavertown. Quality brewing, but if I were being uncharitable, I might say it was a bit one dimensional. That said - the real stand out on this is the mouth feel. Wow: absolutely zero harshness, velvety and carbonation just right. Have you had one of those canned coffees? Basically that's what this is.

Beavertown, Heavy Water Cherry and Sea Salt

I've had the pleasure of drinking Beavertown's Heavy Water in a few of its incarnations, the 'regular', un-suffixed version, the barrel aged version thereof and now this one - brewed with sea salt and cour cherries apparently. It's excellent: thick, unctuous and creamy, aroma and taste ticking all impy boxes, cherry comes in mid-palate but only gently, some (very) small salt at the end. Finish mildly bitter (hops?) and not too dry. I paid £4.40 for this I think, which is about right.

Belleville Brewing Co, Nthº Portland

Black pour, cream/caramac coloured head. Decent aroma but weak. Fine carbonation. Stout flavoured: roasted, some berries/vinous, Cadbury's Fruit and Nut. Mouthfeel is light and the overall impression is quite thin. A relatively good first impy offering from local boys Belleville, let down by feeling like a stout half its strength (which some poeple may quite like I suppose).

Mikkeller, Black Hole

Barnstorming impy from Mikkeller. First had it on keg in Copenhagen. Mushroom, coffee and fruit nose, possibly some hops. Medium carbonation. Taste is coffee, only sight choc, some wood then hopping: citrus and pine. Super body with a long finish (both the roasted and hopped varieties). NB: not a DBIPA, this is certainly a stout. Very possibly one of the best impys out there, but at £10/11 (or more probably) for a 375ml bottle (you know who you are), it's bit of a piss take I'm afraid. Worth about £7 IMO.

De Molen, Heaven and Hell (Hemel & Hel)

I bought this in Amsterdam from De Bierkoning. It's my type of impy: 92 IBUs (c/o high alpha acid Apollo hops) according to Untappd. Barely carbonated, very thick, coffee and chocolate plus big crunchy hop bitterness. Liquorice as it warmed. No discernable vanilla - result! Really loved this. Bottled on 1.8.13, drank yesterday night with some Game of Thrones.

Anspach and Hobday, The Kickstarters

The Kickstarters stout porter from A+H. Minor gushing. High carbonation. Nice smell, bit like the Buxton Tsar. Coffee, choc, liquorice, burnt malts. Dry finish. Yeast soup for the last 3rd.

Buxton, Tsar Bomba III

This bottle was a finely judged birthday gift from my brother (currently living in Australia) - he'd had it before (at up the brewery itself) and had good things to say about it. It's a rather expensive bottle as I understand it, largely due, I suppose, to the complex aging process (see here). Unfortunately, my last stout with Brettanomyces didn't work out too well - and so I admit I was nervous about this one.

I was due to leave it down for a year or two (potentially to share with my bro on his return from Oz) but I was stuck for a night cap one night and then noticed that it said "drink fresh" on the bottle. Now, my knowledge of beers brewed with wild yeast strains is limited at best, but I understood that some of those sours can age in their bottles longer than stouts? This was bottled August 2013, so it was the best part of 2 years in the bottle already - hardly "fresh".

Plasters and germolene nose, bit of that pink dentist's mouthwash (nothing at all like a normal impy nose). Some of that in the up front taste, some woodchips. The brett (I think) was there mid-palate: sweaty. Then stout characteristics towards the end: touch of mint, liquorice, chocolate, soggy bark. Bitter choc finish. This drink made me realise that I am still a long way from fully appreciating soured beers but overall, I enjoyed drinking it. I wonder how this would compare to Burning Sky's Monolith (as I understand it: a dark sour rather than a soured dark.)

Thanks Kon for this!

Evil Twin,Yin

It seems that almost every imperial stout gets a 99 on Ratebeer these days. The more of them I try, the harder it gets to distinctly qualify on paper the differences between all these top rated beers. I would say though, that those differences, however subtle, are certainly there and worth mentioning, but, it seems to me, only really in comparison to other stouts in the same style.

I had this one after the other Evil Twin, the 'Christmas Eve In A New York Hotel Room' (*needs pithy comment re: name inserted here*). (Both purchased from Whole Foods Piccadilly - I was quite surprised to see them on the shelf actually and in the very reasonable sub £4 bracket.) Mellower I think than that one (less thick than a Kernel), a vaguely hoppyish nose (unlike, say, Wildebeest), some coffee. Mushroom. Initial sweetness, but only fleeting. Minerally, coca cola, coffee. Hop (I think) and burnt, coffee bitterness in the after. Booze. Not much to lose your shit about, but not much to argue with either.

De Struise, Delphine Cuvée

I hate Goose Island Bourbon County. I loved the Magic Rock Bourbon Bearded Lady. This one had me trepidatious: Black Albert (blog post pending) is a hallowed drink for me, almost shading the Kernel 1856. I took a guess that this'd be a sweeter version thereof, but had hopes that the chaps from Vleteren wouldn't let me down and make it something less Goose Island and more Magic Rock. I bought 3 bottles just to be sure and it was.....somewhere in the middle.

I mightn't buy this again, perhaps if I saw it on tap somewhere I'd be tempted. (Unless it was at a Craft Beer Co where I'd almost certainly have to mortgage my coat to drink a half. Stupid Craft Beer Co.)

Beavertown, Ger'onimo

Drunk April 12th, photographed June 18th. Best of the Beavertown BA's for me. Nice whiskey upfront on the nose, damp leaves/mineral water and some meat. Good booze on the taste, slight dryness (possibly the whiskey influence?) in the finish. A woody spice going on in this, possibly a little nutty? Decent untunctuous mouthfeel. Nice heavy body. My impy stout nemesis, the dreaded vanilla sweetness, crept in towards the end, but not too much thank goodness.

Partizan, Stout

Like Kernel, Partizan don't eff about with their beer nomenclature. I'm tickled by their simply calling this drink a 'stout'. (I'm sure other breweries would be tempted to add unnecessary prefixes in a bid to make it sound 'more exciting'.) Truth be told, I was excited to see the single word on a blue Partizan bottle rather than the 3 word 'FES' (I'll drink an FES but prefer my stouts less sweet and fizzy) - I'm not sure there's been one before?

A shade lighter in colour than your typical imperial stout. Taste was a satisfying blemd of the meat/choc/coffee/licorice (liquorice sp?) thing with a decent bitter finish. Just a fraction light (for me) of being a full blown imperial stout (this bottle was an 8.5%, I think the current stout is milder at 7% or so). I am absolutely fiending for their stout porter, doubt I'll get one though. We watched 12 Years A Slave when I had this. This film is not a date movie.

Dark Star, Imperial Stout

Sussex's Dark Star offer a mixed bag. I love Hophead and the wonderfully off balance nonsense of their Six Hop (bottle and cask), but Revelation (bottle, cask and keg) was so-so and this one didn't tick my impy boxes I'm afraid.

Whilst it committed the cardinal sin of being over-carbonated, I was reasonably into the English hop aroma (tinged with bananas possibly?) and the heavy bitterness. It was sweet but not syrupy and there was a little nail varnish remover in the finish too. A shame, as i really wanted to be into this.

De Molen, Rasputin

Impy stout from big boys De Molen. Rainwater and dried mushroom nose. Bitter aftertaste from the saaz hops (maybe), saves it from being too sweet.

Shepherd Neame, Double Stout

Double (?) stout from Shepherd Neame. Nose of coffee and mineral water and hops! Taste follows suit then adds a very dark malt, sweet chocolate and granola. It's almost like a porter with those hops. Solid mouthfeel with a good viscosity, ends on a sharp espresso bitterness. Aftertaste is a nice herbally residue on the teeth and gums, maybe a slight touch of mint and more bitterness. Bit of dryness too. A little watery towards the end of the drink and the mint made itself more and more noticeable which I'm afraid I didn't really like too much.

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).