Seven Summits
Devils Backbone Brewing Company

Seven SummitsSeven Summits
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From:
Devils Backbone Brewing Company
 
Virginia, United States
Style:
American Imperial Stout
ABV:
10.5%
Score:
91
Avg:
4.07 | pDev: 6.39%
Reviews:
32
Ratings:
97
Status:
Retired
Rated:
Apr 11, 2017
Added:
Dec 30, 2015
Wants:
  3
Gots:
  15
A collaboration with Wicked Weed Brewing Company: Seven Summits (10.5% ABV; 20 IBU) an Imperial Stout brewed with ingredients inspired by the world’s famed Seven Summits. This complex brew includes Coconut (South America’s Aconcagua summit), Cocoa (Africa’s Kilimanjaro summit), Blue-green Algae (Antartica’s Vinson summit), American Oak (North America’s Denali summit), Pink Himalayan Sea Salt (Asia’s Everest summit), Black Rye Bread (Europe’s Elbrus summit) and Wattle seeds (Australia’s Mt. Kosciuszko summit.)
Recent ratings and reviews. | Log in to view more ratings + sorting options.
Ratings by EN27:
Photo of EN27
Rated by EN27 from North Carolina

4.25/5  rDev +4.4%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25

Feb 16, 2016
More User Ratings:
 
Rated: 4.5 by bmjivi221 from Virginia

Apr 11, 2017
 
Rated: 3.85 by mscudder from Georgia

Mar 12, 2017
 
Rated: 4.2 by khargro2 from Tennessee

Nov 01, 2016
Photo of lwcreasy
Reviewed by lwcreasy from Virginia

4.03/5  rDev -1%
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.5
Very close to black with a creamy tan head. Can't see through this one.

Into the nose: salted caramel, toffee, cocoa, nuttiness, and a boozy sweetness.

Flavor is pretty wild. SUPAsalty throughout. The nose develops a more brown-sugary character as it warms, and this carries through into the flavor. Pine nuts and almonds, maybe a hint of coconut, dark fruit, and booze (especially in the finish), all riding that zesty, poppy, crackling saltiness that is, on my tongue, the beer's main feature. Perhaps it is the onslaught of this sparkly salinity that lends the beer a quality that almost approaches smokiness. Yet a nutty-oatmealy quality appearing in the aftertaste means it's never overbearing.

Good bitterness. Chewy, full body. Warming. Sizzling.

Really, really cool beer. Great concept (worth some extra points, right??). An adventurous brew for adventurous drinkers. Devil's backbone is underrated and everything Wicked Weed touches is gold.
Sep 04, 2016
 
Rated: 3.88 by gratefulbeerhead from Indiana

Aug 09, 2016
 
Rated: 4 by waiting4lunch from Massachusetts

Jul 21, 2016
 
Rated: 4 by bigred89 from Maryland

Jul 17, 2016
 
Rated: 4.04 by 6thstreetbrewpub from District of Columbia

Jul 16, 2016
 
Rated: 4.1 by nmann08 from Virginia

Jun 26, 2016
 
Rated: 4.31 by AGB from District of Columbia

May 24, 2016
 
Rated: 4.09 by Rammed96 from Maryland

May 07, 2016
Photo of delta490
Reviewed by delta490 from Virginia

3.78/5  rDev -7.1%
look: 3.75 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 4 | overall: 3.75
For as many funky ingredients that this boasts, it's not bad but not ERMAHGERD. The aroma has a little coffee, oddly enough, and a nice grain mix going on. The taste is good to very good. It's hard to pinpoint any one quality but it is enjoyable to drink. The body is lighter weight which makes it easier to drink for as much alcohol as it packs. It's mostly smooth with just a little carbonation.
Apr 30, 2016
 
Rated: 3.83 by Jlang2012 from South Carolina

Apr 28, 2016
 
Rated: 4.09 by thewilliamhart from Virginia

Apr 27, 2016
 
Rated: 4.17 by Biggiekrock627 from Maryland

Apr 23, 2016
 
Rated: 4.11 by foghornleghorn22 from Virginia

Apr 21, 2016
 
Rated: 4.06 by tgatort from Florida

Apr 18, 2016
Photo of stakem
Reviewed by stakem from Pennsylvania

3.79/5  rDev -6.9%
look: 4 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 4 | overall: 3.75
12oz bottle into a tulip. The brew appears black in color with a mocha head.

This smells roasty with coffee, chocolate, earth and char.

The taste is roasty citrus, coffee, earth, char and mildly fruity with a combination of alcohol/hops with an additional warming alcohol burn towards the back.

This is medium in body with modest carbonation. Overall decent but not something I need to have more of.
Apr 08, 2016
Photo of Pantalones
Reviewed by Pantalones from Virginia

4.19/5  rDev +2.9%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25
Finally getting around to reviewing this one. Second bottle from the collaboration pack; bottling date is December 12th, 2015, so right around four months of age.

Pours very dark brown, almost black; definitely darker than, say, a soda. Once in the glass it's even darker, pretty much pitch black -- my little LED flashlight is helpless against this beer, even at the thinnest point of the glass not a speck of light gets through. Medium-thin head of light brown foam on top at first, which soon shrinks down to a thin cap over the surface of the beer with a thicker ring and some big bubbles around the edge. As the beer is drank, it's leaving a very nice thick layer of foam along the outside of the glass.

Smells really nice -- definite roasty "stouty" sorts of smells right away, with a very noticeable chocolatey sweetness in there too. Occasionally I get a whiff of it even from around a foot away. Nothing resembling hops (no surprise considering it's 10.5% ABV and only 20 IBUs!), pretty much all roasty and chocolatey so far. After several drinks I occasionally pick up on a bit of a woody/charred sort of thing, but the smell usually leans more toward the sweet/chocolatey side.

Taste is similar to the smell, but not as sweet; quick burst of semi-sweetish chocolatey flavor right away, followed by darker chocolate and loads of roasted/charred-ish malt flavors, maybe a hint of alcohol, some coffee-like roastiness that lingers for a bit after the first sip. A bit of a woodiness in there that I didn't catch in the smell, wonder what that is. After a few sips that lingering coffee-like flavor is sort of coming across as a blend of coffee and... some sort of toasty dry leaf kind of thing? Whatever that is, it's pretty nice. I remember not being overly impressed with this beer the first time I had it -- more of "yeah, this was pretty good, but not great" sort of thing -- but today it's coming across as being much better than I remember it. As the last third or so of the beer is warming up, I think I might be able to pick out just a hint of the coconut in there -- seems it was blending in with the chocolatey flavor and slight alcohol-sweetness (...which may be something else other than alcohol-sweetness, I'm not 100% sure) before.

Feel is very nice as well -- very smooth, thick, no noticeable "burn" or warming from the alcohol despite being in the double-digits (seriously, my mouth isn't even feeling a bit warm and I've already drank nearly a third of the glass at this point in the review -- a lot of high-ABV beers generate more noticeable warmth on a single sip!) I can sometimes *hear* bubbles fizzing in there when I take a drink but they certainly don't feel fizzy or prickly in my mouth at all.

Overall, after having both bottles, I think this might just be my favorite of the collaboration pack -- not sure what it was about the first time I had it (maybe just wasn't in much of a "big stout" mood that night?), but my feelings toward this beer have DRASTICALLY improved since then. I'm not entirely sure what all the various oddball ingredients add, but the presence of the cocoa is definitely noticeable and I'm guessing the woody elements I picked up on from time to time are probably the oak's contribution. Coconut probably blends in with the sweeter chocolatey flavors I'm guessing. No idea what wattle seeds are, but maybe they could be related to that toasted-dry-leafy sort of flavor I couldn't identify? The important part though is that this is a very tasty example of a big, sweetish, chocolatey Imperial Stout -- probably my favorite non-barrel-aged example of the style so far, now that I think about it.
Apr 07, 2016
Seven Summits from Devils Backbone Brewing Company
Beer rating: 91 out of 100 with 97 ratings