Imperial Stout
Nashoba Valley Brewery

 

Poured fromkeg into plastic cup. Look and taste fine. Drinkable. Not boozy, but not real distinctive.

 

 

 

 

Black pour as expected. Proper khaki colored head.

Smell is essentially appropriate for the style...a little char, mocha, and a touch of vanilla and dark fruit...but it's also a touch soapy and metallic. Aroma is not as strong as other imperial stouts,

Flavor is along the lines of the aroma, but again, not strong. Primarily mocha up front, but fades into a mild flavor profile of bakers chocoloate, coffee, and vanilla spice. Finishes thin.

Mouthfeel is fairly full and creamy up front but thinner on the finish.

Nashoba doesn't make great beers, heck they usually make poor ones, but I still have fun trying them, and I have to say this is one of their best, if not the best. It's easy drinking for an imperial stout. Its faults are fairly minor and the flavor is on point enough to enjoy... Not worth seeking out, but if you are at the winery/brewery looking to try some of their beers, I'd recommend this out of their lineup.

 

 

Poured from a 12oz bottle into a Sam Adams 'perfect' pint glass.

A: Nice dense dark tan head atop a black body. Imperial stouts almost always look good...

S: Aroma is roasted, dark, almost milky.

T: Nice, very dry and overly bitter. Lacking the complexity of the aroma.

M: Mouthfeel is good enough, nice carbonation.

D: The lack of balance to the bitterness is makes it hard to drink. Overall, it was on the right track, but it lost me with the unbalanced flavors.

pours an opaque black with minimal tan head that leaves some lacing despite being a tiny, tiny film.

nice, roasty aroma of caramel, coffee, toffee, milk chocolate, with some hops in behind that.

taste is roasty, as well, with cocoa powder, dark chocolate, dark brown sugar, burnt caramel, some toffee, some very little to no hop presence. pretty one-dimensional, but tasty.

almost medium bodied, with just a touch of carbonation. body reminds me of an Irish dry stout rather than an imperial.

drinks pretty well. a bit light in every category to compete with most acclaimed Imperial stouts. alcohol isn't a hindrance. would drink again, but would not go out of my way for. a decent beer that could use some work.

Poured 12oz bottle into to DFH etched bottom Snifter.

A - Pours a black as night that lets not light through even at the edges or bottom of the glass, classic motor oil stout, with a huge head that dissipates after a long time to a 1/8 in coating. Leaves a decent speckled lacing down the glass.

S - Smells more of dark sweet dried fruit than the typical roasted coffee of a typical imperial stout. Almost more like a Belgian Strong Dark Ale scent with an imperial stout appearance.

T - Tastes of dark sweet dried fruit almost a sourish taste. It might be in that batch but I had it around Christmas of 2009 and it had the same taste of almost a chocolate raspberry cheesecake... odd but pretty good in it's own way. Not very hot at all for 8.5%. I don't know if it's contaminated or just different.

M - Quite light on the palette for an imperial stout.

D - Quite drinkable for an Imperial Stout, don't know if I love it as much as I had it the first time. I was more impressed in getting a 8.5% ABV Imperial Stout 6-pack for under $10, but I guess you get what you pay for.

Picked this one up at the brewery. Not a huge imperial stout fan, but I enjoy one now and then. This beer is night black, and no light through it. Smell is decent. Initial taste is great, rich layered choclate bittering. Complex as it warms. I noticed that they have aged this in oak barrels before, not sure it that is what I am tasting, but it is not over the top. Finishes smooth and lighter. I had their summer stout, I think this is an amped up verion of that one. For you ba's out there who talk about rasputian and ten fiddy, you should visit the brewery for one of these. Solid

Pours a not quite black slick with an ample light mocha head. Thick lacing, lots of staying power.

Smells light black patent, some abv, some roasted malt. Maybe some espresso like aroma.

Hmm malt. Lots of delicous biscuit hops. The middle of this flavor is deep and delicious.

Awesomely balanced. Feels like lots of hops, but also lots of malt at the same time.

Impressed with the taste would love to have some more. Im onlt 10min away from the winery, but the cost makes it not something I will drink all the time.

12oz bottle from the brewery poured into goblet.

Very dark with no light coming through and light head

N: Nose has lots of chocolate and sweet malts and a touch of hops

T: Starts with lots of chocolate and coffee, some sweet malts but very slight, a touch of hops are prevelant, some oatmeal taste as well, it's got a sweet earthiness to it which is somewhat unique, a slight bitterness shines through

M: It has a velvet feel in the mouth as it slides around, very thick and smooth

F: A touch bitterness comes out in the end with the nice stout and oatmeal taste, coffee lingers on the back of the tongue, it has a sweet quality to start but gets drier as it fades and finishes really dry, its got a great smooth feeling in the mouth to go along with the great taste

Final thoughts: A great stout, it would be great if it was labelled as Oatmeal or Irish stout since it seems to have qualities of both, but listed as Imperial it makes me wonder since its lacking a lot in the hop category. However, this is the only real Nashoba beer that shines and makes me want more and more. I love this beer and will continue to buy it and save it since its just a winter beer.

I believe Pamola deserves some thanks for this beer via trade.

Appearance: Pours inky black, but with a faint, beige head that fades way to quickly. It appears thin and not as viscous as I would expect.

Smell: Heavy on the roasted malt and perhaps black patent. Hints of grease and bacon fat. A little light on the nose.

Taste: Flavors of deep roasted barley, char, gristle, bitter chocolate. Aftertaste of bitter and acidic coffee.

Mouthfeel: Way to thin for an imperial stout. Pours and drinks like an amber ale. Very little of the think and stickiness I would expect from an imperial stout.

Drinkability: It goes down easy and is very drinkable even if it misses on some of the other marks.

Overall a decent beer, but nothing I would seek out or buy on a regular basis. The are not far off the mark. A few tweaks here and there and I think they would have a great Imperial Stout. It reminds me of some of the "Imperial" stouts that were brewed in NC before the law was changed and they had to keep the ABV under 6%; this just has more alcohol.

This will be an interesting one. Nashoba Valley is about 10-15 minutes from my house, but this is probably the first from them I've had a real interest in trying.

Pours murky, oily black, Standard RIS appearance. Thin head looks like chocolate milk, dissipates quickly. Has a very yeasty smell, that and a little roasty, don't really get a sweet smell, or any of the other big stout characteristics.

Taste is pretty much all charcoaly dark burnt malt. Not too much in the way of other flavors. Little bit of chocolate malt towards the end. No hop kick. Seems a little on the lower end of the spectrum alcohol-wise for a RIS. Not my favorite taste from a stout, but not terrible either. Mouthfeel is a little wanting, not watery, but a little thin and lifeless. A lighter body than I like from this kind of beer. Could do with either a greater complexity in flavor or higher carbonation to make up for it. Simplicity is what does it in, I'm just looking for a little more. Drinkability is decent, a little too burnt for my tastes, and it suffers a bit there. Still, it's nice to support the local brewer, and if you don't go in expecting something grand and complex, it's a nice enough inoffensive stout.

This beer poured a black body with a thick pillowy dark tan, mocha type head.

Nose was dominated by a sweet milk chocolate, roasted coffee bean sort of dark malt smell. Lots of dark roasted, freshly cracked coffee or malt smells.

Taste is medium bodied with an immediate dark, burnt chimney brick sort of dark malt flavor. Very much like Otter Creek's Stovepipe porter. Not so much smokey, more of licking an old ash tray, sort of ,the fire's been there already, taste. Dark espresso beans, chopped coffee beans, sweet oatmeal stout type sweet milky chocolate. Hops are kept to mellow minimum with only enough to give his some balance. Ends with a lingering darkness and unfermented yeasty quality.

A nice smokey stout from Nashoba, not sure I'd call it a true imperial, I guess maybe the ABV does it, but you can barely taste it. It's definetly one of Nashoba's better beers, but it still has this yeasty flavor to it.

A: Incredibly dark with a super jet black appearance that was quiet beguiling and attracted much attention, for it had the darkest of head that I had ever seen. When immediately poured the cascading head that was slowly forming and settling down was the self same color as the rest of the body, namely pure black. Solid levels of carbonation and a very impressive imposing presentation at first that portrayed a dangerous sinister aspect to this Imperial Stout - building up its reputation long before I even got to drink it. The head eventually settled to a very dark cocoa brown ½” rim that had a decent consistency and staying power.

S: Activated charcoal that had a carboniferous bitterness to it. Roasted bitterness and fired malts. No sign of any vinous character as expected from the appearance.

T: Dark body broods but actually delivers a rather simplistic profile. Intense roasted malts mixed in with deep hop bitterness lend 90% of the character to this Imperial Stout. The taste profile starts with a little dry charcoal that was detectable in the nose, but it builds rapidly to give this one an intensely dry roasted bitterness in the lingering finish.

M: Drank much thinner than I expected for a beer that was allegedly 9.0%. Still, it had the deeply roasted bitterness hid the alcohol so well that it was barely detectable. Improved as it warmed.

D: Drinks well below its advertised strength and this is one dangerous aspect, for it is easy to forget that this is after all nearly a double digit Imperial Stout. It was a joy to imbibe but the intense roast bitterness would make this a hard one to live with in the longer term, it lacks a little smoothness.

Pours almost pitch black with a tan head that soon vanishes.

The smell is of roasted coffee, with a touch of smokiness. Licorice, chocolate, dark fruits (plums). Nice, complex aroma.

This doesn't taste like it smells. It is much too acidic. The acidity lingers throughout. The coffee character that was pleasant in the nose turns out to be like burnt coffee (that has been sitting around for a long time). Bitterness with some licorice sweetness. Some good flavors are in the back, but are virtually lost. The alcohol is well-covered.

The body is rather thin for the style. It barely makes medium-body.

I didn't like the acidic character and was not enjoyable. Smells nice, but that's about it.