Out of season review!

Wooo! That's the sound I make when I pull out my treasured pack of Zweigles dogs from the freezer, fire up whatever grill we happen to be using and get set to enjoy my so-called weekend. Seeing as I work in the glorious world of retail, I don't really get a weekend, but this will have to do. Moving past self-pity alley, I reach into my fridge and snare my quarry, a can of Oskar Blues Tenfiddy imperial stout.

A CAN?!?!!!!!1! You gasp, *facepalming* like seasoned internet pro. "Stouts don't come in cans! They come in casks, barrels, coffins, bottles, viking long ships and, occasionally, growlers! Putting a stout in a can, Guinness notwithstanding, is heresy! Well, for you folks not familar with the Oskar Blues story, I will direct you here. For the rest, you know a canned stout can (ha!) still be quite excellent and this beer is no exception.

Tenfiddy doesn't so much pour as ooze from the can like some Lovecraftian horror from beyond. It brollops , glags and brfls its way into your wholly unprepared glass. It is the space between the stars, the growling maw of blackness ready to consume all light so unlucky to cross its path. It also leaves a very slight, brownish head that's not very horrific at all. In fact, it's perfectly adequate as far as stouts go.

How can something so unspeakably dark and brooding taste? Well, in truth, not as fantastically evil as its appearance would suggest. There are the usual notes of coffee and chocolate combined with the slightly caramel nose found in many stouts. Simply put, it's a stock imperial stout, an a young one at that. The alcohol is rather present and even goes so far to to throw off the balance of the rest of the flavors. This nerfs the more subtle flavors even after the beer has been brought up to appropriate stout serving temperature. A dark-roasted coffee taste emerges as the predominant flavor in this beer, which makes it a fun beer to sip, but little else.

When the clowns have all taken off their face paint and driven home in their late-model clown cars, this brew will stand as a fine reminder of a perfectly mediocre stout. If you're into that alcohol bite, go ahead and give it a try. For the more patient drinkers, perhaps you can buy a six of this and age it to different times in the hopes of finally finding the magic formula to make this a more enjoyable experience that I have had. It shows some promise, but as of now, it underdelivers.