Beer and Comics » Imperial Stout

Bell’s Expedition Imperial Stout: better than exploding tires.

Brian — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 02:37:36 +0000

The low tonight is between -5 and +3 farenheit. Because I like beer, I needed to find a beer that keeps me warm in the cold. Turns out, Imperial Stouts are just the right thing for that. The epitome of a winter beer, if I do say so myself. So, I was interested in finding a reasonably priced Imperial Stout. My choices came down to Founders Breakfast Stout, which is a damn shame we’ve never reviewed; Great Divide Espresso Oak Aged Yeti Imperial Stout, which I’ve stupidly never tried; and Bell’s Expedition Stout, which is a stellar beer and usually over-priced. Today, however, I was able to find a great deal on the Bell’s Expedition, and as such am blogging it for our fine readership.

As you can see, this fine ale exhibits a strange characteristic for imperial stouts: it has head. This is certainly not a bad thing, just different. It’s quite thick, but fades pretty quickly.

The smell is comprised of lots of malt, chocolate, coffee, and alcohol. It’s really sweet, in both senses of the word.

The mouthfeel is full, with minimal carbonation bite. Very thick, coating the tongue and mouth wonderfully.

The taste is multi-faceted. There is a lot of sweetness up front, while there is plenty of bitterness as it moves back on the tongue. There are all sorts of flavors you could associate with this. Coffee, chocolate, and oats are all very prominent. There is a noticeable hint of alcohol in the flavor, which is really enjoyable.

Overall, this is a stellar beer, and I’m glad I finally got to review it for the site. While it’s not the greatest imperial stout ever, it’s a hell of a good one.

8.5/10

Thirsty Dog Siberian Night Imperial Stout

Ian! — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 04:41:35 +0000

So tonight is another “Brian and Ian hanging out and drinking beer” night. Which means that we’ve had a few things, but this is the first one we’ve decided to review. This is mostly because I bought it when I was in Ohio, and its not something I’ll be able to get again soon.

So when Brian poured us each a half glass, the first thing we noticed was the brown color in the pour, but how black it was in the glass. Brian was surprised about how much head there was. Maybe a bit much for an Imperial Stout, but whatever.

This is where it got weird. There was a nice roasty smell to it, with a hint of chocolate and some nice, sweet malty notes. Then we tasted it.

To be fair, Brian had it first. He wanted me to confirm that it tasted almost just like a porter we brewed once with some friends.

This is odd (and not so good) for a few reasons.

1 – An IMPERIAL stout compares to a porter we made?

2 – A commercial beer that compares to a homebrew made from extract?

3 – We burned the hell out of our porter when we made it. Did they burn this one too?

All in all, its not awful, actually not bad at all. We’re both willing to testify that our porter wasn’t the best beer we made, but also not the worst. However, I would expect more from something that someone is actually selling.

This is an Imperial Porter at best, and a sweet stout at worst. I’m not sure I’d buy it again, but I certainly wouldn’t avoid it either.

9/10 if they’d called it a standard porter.
6/10 for an Imperial Porter.
4/10 for attempting to be an Imperial Stout.

New Holland Night Tripper

Brian — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 22:51:59 +0000

WHOOOOOOOOOO! Damn this was good. A nice big deucer of a nice big imperial stout. As with the Goose Island Bourbon County Brandstout, i felt the malt profile was lacking a teeeeensy bit. However, the mouthfeel was brilliant, and this was a really fantastic offering. The strange thing was that the most prevalent flavor was that of alcohol. I was also lucky enough to try it on draft at Ashley’s in Ann Arbor, and once again, it was fantastic. I don’t know how limited a production run this will have, but pick one up. It is definitely worth the price of admission.

8.5/10