Chaos Reigns
Double Mountain Brewery & Taproom

 

 

 

 

Very dark brown with attractive suds. Spritzy on the tongue with a dry finish. It makes me think there's a touch of Belgian yeast. Malty with a dry cocoa taste and very little sweetness. Some alcoholic heat. Smells primarily of alcohol.

Pleasant chocolate taste with a dark fig fruity and acidic tang. Moderately bitter, though not more than a typical big stout, it seems to me. Quite sippable but less notable than many others. From the 500 ml bottle purchased at New Seasons Market in Portland.

Interesting esters underneath, give this a Belgian character. Finishes with a rye-like astringency. I think this would be would be wicked if it spent some time in the barrel.

 

 

 

Chocolate, Molasses, Fig, Blackberry

A gorgeous pour: pitch black with a never-ending, creamy, coffee-colored head. Some cocoa in the nose and surprisingly clean. Creamy and viscous on the palate. As the label suggests, the beer throws down layers of baker's chocolate, molasses, fig and blackberry. It's all a bit syrupy sweet—and fudgie—but man do these flavors play well together. You can't really detect the 100+ IBUs, but there's a clean bitterness that rides through the experience. And things get borderline boozy too, with alcohol on the breath. This beer reigns hard, and I'm more than happy to submit to it.

--

As reviewed in BeerAdvocate magazine #100 (May 2015).

 

 

 

Edit: Let this warm up to get the full effect... This is really pretty good, but cold temps mask the complexities.

Mason jar fill from the River Room at Whole Foods... Pours pitch black with a foamy dark brown espresso looking 1" head... Decent draping of lace.

Smells hoppy and dark but fruity with some Belgian esters... Figs with cinnamon and brown sugar, interesting.. Not overly roasty, almost more sweet chocolate with a nutty component... A ton of stuff going on here in the aroma.

Flavor mirrors the palate with an added punch of coffee beans and a backing of hoppy bitterness that helps balance the maltiness..

The body is solid medium, but it has an oily slickness from a consistent small bubble carbonation.

Very interesting and perhaps the best big "Belgian stout" I've had before... I will buy bottles of this periodically. Pretty tasty and definitely not boring.

3.75/4.25/4/3.75/4

 

 

 

Poured into a Fremont small snifter. Pours a very dark mahogany brown, appearing opaque in the glass with a one finger light brown head with good retention and lots of lacing. Aroma of dark toasted malt, dark chocolate, hints of dark dried fruit and dark berries. Flavor is dark toasted malt with some char, dark chocolate, figs, a light fruity flavored yeast, dark berries, quite nice. Medium bodied with light creaminess. An interesting stout with a nice balance between rich lightly charred malt and lighter flavors from a Belgian stout style yeast. Nicely integrated and very enjoyable. The fruit flavors add complexity without the sourness that sometime accompanies fruit oriented stouts. Despite the giant hop bud on the label (and this brewery likes their hops), a mild hop bitterness in the finish. I liked this quite a bit and will get it again. This brewery has not ever let me down.