Dark Hours
Lost Rhino Brewing Company

The perfect imperial stout. Wish they had it year round or available in cans/bottles outside Lost Rhino. Coffee, sweet, dark oak

Tastes of heavy amounts of oak, some light chocolate, and some dark red fruits much like an oak aged red wine.

 

 

A: This poured a pitch black with no head.
S: It smelled like chocolate and vanilla and oak and other deliciousness.
T: It tasted very rich and sweet, with a mix of chocolate and vanilla and sticky sugar. It had a clean and sweet aftertaste with a little alcohol warming.
M: It was very thick with a bit of carbonation. Nice full body.
D: This was a great brew. The scent and taste were well balanced and delicious. The body was solid, but the finish was a little hot, so it was better to sip. Age would probably help mellow. Fresh was still great. Highly recommended.

 

500 ml bottle received in trade with a bottling date of 12-21-15. Served in a goblet.

Pours dark brown in color, opaque in the glass, with just a ring of lacing.

Aroma: lots of wood (oak?) with sweet dark fruits, some whisky, and faint hints of coffee and vanilla.

Taste: follows the aroma but with even more alcohol presence. Lightly sweet with a neutral finish.

Mouthfeel: medium-full; Low carbonation. Semi-dry finish.

Overall: a notably oaky beer, almost to negative effect. Dark fruits, whicky. vanilla and coffee mix nicely with the oak, however, making it easy to recommend trying this if you like wood-aged stouts.

 

I'm really beginning to like Lost Rhino's specialty releases. For a lesser known Virginia brewery, they really do an excellent job with their Genius Loci series beers.

Dark hours is a solid pass at a BA stout. Pours a deep, dark brown with zero head and the tiniest bit of lacing. Nose suggests rich molasses and tobacco. Taste is dominated by the booze and a rich, roasty, malt character. Medium-body with a slight sugary stickiness on the finish.

Overall, 4.25. This is a beer I would certainly drink again, and for the price, it's one of the more affordable BA stouts I can find.

Very nice imperial stout. Lots of vanilla notes in the taste. Not too boozy given the ABV. This is probably my favorite Lost Rhino beer. Try it if you get the chance.

I don't know why the ratings on this aren't higher. This is absolutely one of the best non-adjunct BA stouts out there. It's very similar to BCBS, but you get more for less. The good news is that the less hype there is the more there is for me.

 

Deep brown in color with no head or lacing.

Smell is oak on oak with sweet dark fruit prominent, a bit of Bourbon, a bit of vanilla.

Taste is similar with oak dominating, followed by sweet dark fruit mixed with Bourbon, vanilla, and a very mild hop note

Mouthful is medium and a touch thin. Carbonation is low. Finish is dry and lingering.

A very oaky beer. The oak dominates almost to a negative. Once you get past that aspect, there is a dearth of dark fruit, sweetness, Bourbon, and vanilla. A sipper definitely. I would recommend trying it if you like oaky beers, if not I would not seek it out.

Thanks, Xenoreactive!

Pours a pitch-black color. The head is a bit over a finger high and lighter tan in shade. Retention isn't particularly impressive, but it's pretty good for a barrel-aged beer. Some minor streaks of lacing stick to the glass.

The aroma, though, is borderline intoxicating. A bit of that is due to how much the qualities seem to resemble Bourbon County. Vanilla dominates the nose, with some dark fruits, banana, oak, and even coconut showing up as well. Once it opens up, the darker qualities (so to speak) appear: dark chocolate, espresso, and roasted malt. There is a modicum of elegance here, but it's mostly a big, bold, complex bruiser. In a good way!

At first, oak flavors wash over the palate, slowly transitioning into coffee, caramel, brown sugar, and dark chocolate. The finish gradually becomes lighter and boozier, before ending with plenty of bourbon, vanilla, and dark fruit. Coffee/chocolate from the mid-taste are the last notes to linger on the aftertaste. The complexity of this beer is excellent, as are the assortment of flavors. The only real niggle is that the aforementioned complex flavors don't come together as a perfect, cohesive whole - it seems slightly out of balance in general. Still a wonderfully tasty barrel-aged beer in any respect, if a bit brutish and loud.

Here's where things are let down slightly: while it's decently thick, it's also somewhat rough in texture. The more it opens up, the more the oak tannins/alcohol appears, and the sharper it gets. I find it mildly harsh, but not overbearingly so. Carbonation is moderate; fairly high for a barrel-aged brew - it's also pretty drinkable for the style.

At first, I felt it was like a Bourbon County Jr. But then I realized writing that is merely patronizing this beer - it can stand up to the better barrel-aged stouts on the market quite easily while being a touch smaller to boot. With a bit more general finesse and a rounder mouthfeel (that, and maybe a bit more age as well), it would really be sent over the top. Still, Lost Rhino should definitely release this again; they really have something special going on here.

4.17/5: Big and beastly, but also deep as the abyss

Pours short of black, with a nice brown head of about a finger. Head lasts most of the pour, thickly at edges without too much lacing.

Nose is heavy on the aging notes, specifically vanilla. The light tingle of alcohol turns up the coconut notes, with a very dark roasted coffee note underneath. Later in the pour on a warmer beer, this turns a little chocolatey.

Taste starts a little sweet, again the barrel-aging notes being in the forefront. I little alcohol-infused molasses note up front, the beer settles into an alcohol infused dark chocolate candy kind of impression.

Decent body comes with a little slickness. The alcohol is sort of present throughout, and the beer's lasting presence is weak and leans toward the alcohol more than I'd like.

I enjoyed this beer a few times, and was surprised at the offering from this brewery. Maybe leans a little heavy on the barrel, but the base beer stands up okay as a balance, even if it doesn't force itself into the forefront.