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Beautiful beer! Midnight black but not cloudy. Blood-ruby when held directly in front of sun and used as a prism. Tan head with larger bubbles than I’m used to seeing (what causes that?) This beer would be somewhat flat if not for an intentional hard pour near the end. Huge amount of sugar retention on the side of the glass might portend excessive sweetness… I hope not.
Huge chocolate coffee smell, almost like that coke/coffee drink that failed miserably.
First sip smacks you in the face with a giant hop hammer. I’m bleeding hops through my eyes ears and throat! Hopdeath!
Second flavor is the coffee, chocolate malty sweetness. Not excessive, and definitely controlled. I’m glad humanity has figured out that burning things make them taste better.
Third flavor is a biting acidity in the back of the throat. JUST like the ONLY flavor present in a young storm king.
Finally, you can feel the 10% abv warming all the way down your esophagus. Glory. Some beers are overpowered by their own abv and difficult to drink (for me at least), this one does a great job of maintaining the distinctive beerbooze flavor but balances it with enough other tastes to make it invigorating rather than painful. The overall effect of the harsh finish is to beg the lucky drinker for another sip, cleaning the lovehate away with another blast of hops and sweet coffee/coca-cola.
This beer is an improved storm king, and definitely not a lighter Speedway Stout as some have claimed. Relative to Storm King, there is a slight better use of hops, a larger ABV, and a much more complex malt character including a dominant coffee/chocolate flavor reminiscent of Speedway Stout. I highly recommend it if you can manage to find a bottle…
Be well,
Ben
P.S. I sent a bottle of this to Jeff. Also, in case you were wondering, this beer is billed as an Imperial Porter.
4 comments:
Wow I can't wait! I have a 2k4 storm king too and I just had a thought... Decadence + 2k4 Storm King side by side taste testing? That might make for a drunken evening, but an EXCELLENT evening. What you think?
P.S. sweet review and sweeter picture
ALSO, i had Victory Hop Devil on tap at the Idle this afternoon and it was awesome. WAY better than in the bottle. Get if you can sometime.
How do you send beer? I wanted to do it once, but did some very casual research and came to the conclusion that it was a horrible, horrible idea. I'd love to know how this is done!
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