Clavock Imperial Stout
John Harvard's Brewery & Ale House

Appearence: Pours a dead black with an extemely frothy, yet quick dying brown head.

Smell: Strong chocolate and coffee aromas, with bittersweet nuttiness in the background. Balancing hops, and only a slight amount of alcohol.

Taste and Mouthfeel: The taste is mostly roasted and bittersweet chocolate notes. The hops balance everything, and leave a dry finish. But this beer is flat. Absolutely no carbonation, and that's killing it for me.

Drinkability and Overall: A fine tasting beer, but it's flat. No carbonation anywhere, which makes it tough to drink, especially the 1 Liter bottle.

Served from a John Harvard's growler into a dimple glass. The color is oil black with a ring of beige head and not much in the way of lacing, etc. The smell is very rich, with a strong molasses, chocolate in the flavor and very little in the way of hops. The taste matches the smell...molasses (blackstrap?) along with a nice fine, sweet chocolate flavor and as it warms in the mouth, a touch of a coffee bitterness and hopping comes through in the taste, but there's almost no alcohol to indicate the sheer size of this beer. Mouthfeel is oil-thick. As for drinkability, this is a fine one, and only the ABV keeps me from drinking quite a few of these.

Having not been out to John Harvard's in over a year and hearing such fantastic things about what Andrew Maxwell was doing with the beers here in Pittsburgh, I wanted to give it a try. Well, there were several fine beers there, but this was the gem. Of course, it cost a bit more than the typical beers, but at almost 24 degrees Plato that makes good sense! A fantastic mix of sweetness barely touched by hops that somehow isn't cloying or burning with alcohol makes this one I definitely would have again!