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Crate Digger Imperial Coffee Stout – ABV 8.3%

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Alphabet’s breakfast stout is packed with smooth and rich coffee and oats but balances chocolate and vanilla notes with a tangy, fruity imperial coffee stout finish.

Look: Pours jet black in the glass thick dark tan foamy head

Aroma: Roasted malt and a just a whiff of coffee.

Taste: Full bodied and smooth with the flavours of roasted malt, chocolate and coffee all in perfect balance.

Food Pairing: Try pairing with the meaty flavour of a shepherds pie, or some grilled mushrooms. 

Verdict: It does everything it says on the bottle, and does it all well. Perfect for a cold dark night in.

 

Bourbon Oktober Imperial Stout – ABV 9%

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Bourbon barrel-aged Russian Imperial Stout; roasted malt and a JD-style sweet finish – certainly beer to be savoured, perhaps with smoked meat or a barbecue.

Aroma: Pure Jack Daniels with just a hint of hops to remind you that it’s a beer.

Taste: It drinks super-smooth. To begin with you get roasted malt, with a sweet dark chocolate booziness to contrast the bitterness the hops, then as the hops begin to fade the Bourbon flavours take over to leave a beautiful aftertaste.

Food Pairing: This beer pairs well with flavours of the deep South. Try it with mesquite smoked barbecued meats, or a prawn jambalaya.

Verdict: It’s a Bourbon barrel-aged Russian Imperial Stout. Need we say more?

Double Stout – ABV 9%

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Malty with red fruits and berries and dark viscous treacle, Time and Tide Brewing’s Double Stout hides its alcohol dangerously well.

Look: T and T’s Double Stout pours an intense dark black with a small brown head

Aroma: Coffee, malts and dark chocolate.

Taste: The beer is big on roasted malt, with more subtle notes of forest berries, treacle and dark chocolate and a slightly creamy mouthfeel.

Verdict: This is a really well balanced Stout that hides its 9% alcohol very well.
Smooth and easy drinking.

Haken & Ogen Bourbon Jim Beam Barrel Aged Imperial Stout – ABV 10.7%

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Roughly translated to Hassle & Snags, this impy stout was aged in barrels for a year to be bursting with a boozy bourbon notes, malts, chocolate, and coffee.

Look: Pours black, opaque, hazy, with frothy brown foam head and medium carbonation.

Aroma: Chocolate, rich coffee, vanilla, burnt caramel and even some floral hints.

Taste:  Some roasted malts coming through behind dark chocolate, coffee, caramel, some dark fruits and more vanilla. Thick and full-bodied.

Verdict: Rich and boozy, drinking this certainly isn’t a Hassle.

Umbral Abyss Imperial Coffee Stout – ABV 11.5%

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This beer has its genesis in Black Oktober, amped to the max with brandy-soaked coffee beans to create a dark and brooding beast of an Imperial Stout. 

Look: Pitch black, with no head to speak of.

Aroma: Dark chocolate, liquorice and espresso.

Taste: The sweet intensity of coffee and chocolate is brought to a crescendo with the subtle notes of brandy, sat against a backbone of smooth roasted malt.

Verdict: Full-on, no-holds barred Imperial Stout that lovers of the style won’t fail to appreciate. 

White Stout – ABV – 7.2%

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Two hundred years ago, before the porter brewers commandeered “stout” to mean stout or strong porter, a stout beer was a strong beer. It did not have to be black. We have re-created the style using modern hops and a full malt body.

Tasting Notes: Maris Otter malt and Columbus hops combine to make a very drinkable strong ale. A fresh, full beginning gives way to a spicy, bittersweet finish. A pale body supports perfumy, spicy hop flavours and aromas. Intense bitterness is balanced by forest fruits and mango.

Black Boar Imperial Oatmeal Stout – ABV 10.2%

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One of the best stouts in Ireland if not beyond, the creamy oatmeal and rich roasted malts give off notes of dried fruit, caramel and vanilla.

Look: It begins with inky black pour and a light brown head.

Aroma: Chocolate roasted malt, cocoa and liquorice.

Taste: The mouthfeel is unctuous the oatmeal with the perfect level of carbonation, and the taste is a rich and complex blend of roasted malt, dark chocolate, dried fruit, caramel and vanilla.

Food pairing: Enjoy it with a few squares of good quality dark chocolate.

Verdict: This isn’t a beer that seeks to innovate; it’s just very, very good. And if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

Imperial Stout – ABV 8.9%

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Malts and coffee dominate but there’s a lovely background of freshly ground coffee beans and dark chocolate, plus sweet spiciness the Brambling Cross hops.

Look: Saltaire XS Imperial Stout pours dark brown in the glass, topped with a tan head.

Aroma: Rich roasts with dark chocolate and a hint of forest fruits.

Taste: It’s reminiscent of a hot Italian espresso made with freshly ground beans, rich and fruity – and there’s a subtle spiciness Brambling Cross hops added late in the boil.

Food Pairing: The roasted malts in this beer pair really nicely with chocolate. Try it with a nice thick slice of chocolate cake, and to add some creamy contrast a good dollop of whipped cream.

Verdict: The hops definitely take a backseat with this one; it’s definitely the malts that are driving this forward. And that’s a vehicle we’d be happy to ride in.

Schwarze 90 Imperial Stout – ABV 11.9%

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This bottom-fermented imperial stout isn’t billed as a dessert beer but it could be, with its gorgeous creamy chocolate mouthfeel and rich syrupy booziness.

Look: Very dark brown, hazy, with a small beige head and low carbonation.

Aroma: Malt, syrupy sugar and molasses, some coffee and cocoa. 

Taste: Super-sweet with chocolate dominance and a creamy velvety mouthfeel. Caramel, toffee and liquorice with some hints of dried fruit towards a crisp, bitter finish.

Verdict: Black (schwarze) velvet in a bottle.

Club of Slaughters Imperial Stout – ABV 8.8%

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Vegan-friendly Stout, with a Vegan-unfriendly name.

Wylam describe this beer as an “electro narcosis of peat smoke pitch, dark cocoa and oiled black cardamon, rib rattle into subtle bolt gusts of port wine and espresso pursued by a dark cherry red grape skin tartness”

That may be easy for them to say; but here’s what we think:

Look: Dark black, with a creamy brown head.

Aroma: Roasted malts, with hints of smoky spice.

Taste: Rich and complex, with smoke, coffee, chocolate, cinammon and cardamom.

Verdict: “It’s Stout Jim, but not as we know it”.