Samuel Adams - Imperial Stout

Samuel Adams - Imperial Stout

Sam Adams imperial series has been taunting me for awhile now, I finally gave in and picked some up.

No stout hole test preformed, will have to retest... :-)

It pours great, my first impression is that this is going to be an excellent beer. It smells coffee chocolaty beery. Good head, but it's pretty white for an imperial stout. First sip - damn, it's a thin beer, sad. When I think imperial beer, I think of something thick with an in your face mouthfeel. This lacks that.

Second sip, it's tasty, excellent stout, no chalky taste, very smooth. It tastes kind of like Guiness without the nitro pour. The nine and something alcohol content is masked well... Maybe a little too well. I kind of like the journy you get with some beers as they warm. This one tastes pretty consistent from start to finish.

Good stout, but lacks some of the BAM I look for in an imperial stout. I'd put it in the same category as Elysian's dragonstooth stout. I'll probably pick up another 4 pack one of these days.

Samuel Adams Utopias

Samuel Adams Utopias 2005 # 06985

http://www.samueladams.com/world_of_beer.aspx

This was a birthday present to myself a couple years ago. Since I'm on vacation I decided to start new years celebrations a little early.

It smells like pure alcoholic sugar! I still can't believe this is a beer. It smells like brown sugar and pineapple with a vanilla caramel twist. It's heavy and thick, the sweet aftertaset lingers a bit. This beer is uncarbonated, one of the few that can get away with it, and tastes more like sherry than beer. It's very sweet, with surprisingly little alcohol bite considering it's a little over 25% (naturally fermented, not distilled!). I'm tasting so many things I can't pick them out. Molassas, vanilla, malt, caramel, not picking up any defined hop taste yet, but there is so much going on in this beer. It really redefines what beer can be, a truly groundbreaking beer experience. I'm at a loss for what else to say about it!