Imperial Biscotti Break
Evil Twin Brewing

Black color. Thin, beige head. The rich aroma of roasted malt, coffee, almonds, and vanilla. Moderately sweet with some balancing, roasted bitterness. Good.

 

Black pour with a brown sugar head. Syrup lace fingers on the glass. Taste and smells like a sweet breakfast biscuit with a cup of strong bitter coffee. Not overly sweet. Thick, oily feel. A little too bitter for my taste.

Imperial Biscotti Break from Evil Twin Brewing. 16 fl oz can from Half Time. Ordered 12/01/26, received 20/01/26. $ 4.39 (After discount, shipping, and tax)/$ 0.274/fl oz. Reviewed 26/01/26, review 3683. Note that I use DD/MM/YY protocol.
Undated can. Stored at home at 40 degrees F. Served at 55.4 degrees F in a hand washed and dried Jester King snifter. The final temperature is 59.5 degrees F.
Appearance – 3.5 – Basically looks like every other Imperial stout with good lacing.
First pour – Amber Brown (SRM 18), hazy.
Body – Black (SRM 40), opaque. Under direct light, same. When rear-lite, same with light penetration at the edges, ruby.
Head – Average (Maximum 2.5 cm, aggressive center pour) Windsor Tan lightening to Caramel as it oxygenates, high density with short retention, falling to a 1.0 cm crown and cap. Broken thin line of lacing remains as the head collapses.
Lacing – Good. A couple of bands of near-microscopic to tiny bubbles, separated by thin columns and opposing thin stalactites/stalagmites.
Aroma – 3.5 – Little, some chocolate. No coffee, almond, or vanilla. No alcohol (11.5% ABV, as marked on the label).
Flavor – 3.5 – It begins with slight malt bitterness and weak chocolate. No coffee or vanilla, slight hint of almond. No hops. No alcohol. No dimethylsulfide or diacetyl. Moderate gastric warming. Ends slightly dry.
Palate – 3.5 – Medium: Watery trying to be creamy: Soft but lively carbonation.
Style: Follows the BA style description.
Final impression and summation: 3.5 Uncredited label art. Seems over-rated.

Scored three of these as part of a mix pack at Kroger. Poured from a pint can, dark brown almost black, totally opaque with no light passing through. Looks like used motor oil. Tight, dense, caramel colored head about 1/2” thick slowly dissipating to leave a ring and minor lacing on the glass.

Nose is chocolatey, slightly nutty, hint of vanilla, malty. More understated than I anticipated.

Taste is rich, chocolate malt with a slight breadiness, hint of vanilla and nutty notes. Not as sweet as I anticipated; mostly the malt sweetness with no cloying or saccharine overpowering flavor. Very slight bitterness to the finish to balance the malt. Not boozy at all.

Clean on the palate, not oily like some big stouts. Carbonation is just right; not too prickly with fine bubbles but not thin.

Overall this is great. Very drinkable. Dangerously so given the high ABV. Evil Twin delivers yet another win. Sadly I’ll have to pay full price next time. This exceptional beer is even better having scored it so cheaply. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to me!

From Beer Drop, dating off the edge of the can.

Pours pitch black over a finger of tan foam, retention and lacing are excellent.

Smell is coffee, roasted malt, dark chocolate and vanilla.

The taste is coffee, dark chocolate, vanilla, roasted malt, quite bitter at times but not without some mild sweetness. And not without some alcohol presence.

Full bodied, I would drink this again.

 

Tastyy

Poured stout black with a tan head that
was quickly growing until I slowed the pour.
The taste is all stout with a bit of sweetness that features vanilla and coffee over and above normal stouts. The almond is either beyond my ability to taste or I’m mistaking it for something else.
The feel is only slightly viscous, making this way too easy to drink.
OA, a very tasty imperial stout, sweet but just a little. I’d never turn one down if offered, but not sure I’d buy another. So many really good stouts, only one liver.

Pours a dark black with a medium sized dark caramel head on top. Not much of a smell just got a light roast of malts. Tastes like a normal stout, roasted malts. Was expecting more.

Don't really remember this beer. I should have by the rating I gave it and the fact I didn't have it that long ago. A beer I got from Tavour. I believe I had it late last year in the last quarter.
Just found another can. Pours a dark brown with almost no head. Aroma is mild chocolate & vanilla with some sweetness. Taste is coffee & chocolate with a pronounced sweet bitterness. BB 11-2024. Had 2-7-2026

 

 

16oz can purchased from the fridge as a single for $5.25. Says 23110 underneath the can, so could that mean the 110th day of 2023? If so, that would be April 20, 2023. If that's true, then this beer is just under 18 months old.

Look: VERY dark. This is probably one of the darkest beers I have had. It looks like it has a nice thickness to it also. There was a finger of dark tan colored head that reduced to a thin ring around the glass. There are small bubbles rising to the surface.

Smell: It smells intense! Initially, I got a lot of soy sauce but most of that seems to have blown off. There is still some, and that's alright. I also get like a chocolate coconut macaroon flavor, I guess that is similar to biscotti with the combination of the coffee and almond and vanilla extracts. There is coffee here too, for sure. I also get dark fruits like figs and dried cherries. It smells big and bold and I am bracing myself for the taste.

Taste: Oh, this is nice. I'm pleased that this has what is just the right amount of sweetness, in my opinion, to make this really enjoyable. And the sweetness is not so much where it makes the beer cloying or difficult to drink. The finish has a nice charcoally feel to it and it actually eventually gets the palate dry and wanting another sip. The flavors are what we expected from the nose: some soy sauce, coffee, chocolate, vanilla, and almond. I wish that I would get more of those sweet marzipan and amaretto flavors or aromas, but alas. Perhaps if the beer was fresher, then they would be more prominent.

Feel: Nice body - it's medium to full-bodied. The carbonation is soft and the beer has a nice think mouthfeel.

Overall: It's a world class Imperial Stout. All that being said, it is a bit difficult to drink a large volume of this. I know it's trendy, but why does this beer need to be packaged in a 16oz can? I will look forward to trying this again when it's fresher. And hopefully, it will be in a smaller package or I will share it with a friend.

 

 

Poured from a 1 pint can that I bought in Ohio.

L - Pitch black and oily-looking going into the glass. No light can get through the glass. Head is moderately thick and foamy initially, with a medium brown color. It maintains a thin sheet and heavy lacing, all made of teeny-tiny bubbles.

S - The usual imperial stout aromas of coffee, dark chocolate and burnt grains are here. There is also a nutty note and some vanilla, especially as the beer warms. The aromas are a bit restrained, without the massive, room-filling assertiveness of some examples.

T - The flavors are also fairly conventional for the style (which is to say they are delicious)--espresso, burnt grain, molasses, light prunes and a bit of smoke. Layered onto them are some vanilla and hazelnut notes.

F - Medium to heavy body with low, creamy carbonation. Strong hops bitterness combines with the acrid roasted grains, but they are smoothed out by the heavy, sweet-ish malt. Moderate alcohol presence, especially considering the 11.5% ABV.

O - This is a very nice imperial stout, but I expected more from the description on the can. Almond and vanilla are very subtle, and I don't get any biscuit or cookie character to go along with the Biscotti name. It's just not as interesting to me as the super-high BA rating led me to expect.

 

Bit of an oj Simpson for me, dark and bitter