Infinite Darkness
Oxbow Brewing Company

 

A wonderfully complex beer. Chocolate, coffee, all the usual suspects with the twist of apple brandy adding a woody and different profile. I expected a very sweet beer, but what I got was a dry and layered with brandy yes, faint apples, but lots of cherries and dark berries. Hops are earthy like Guinness, making for a deceptively easy drinking imperial brew. Watch out!

 

Pours very dark with a massive foamy head. Has a chocolate yeasty aroma. Flavor is dark chocolate, yeasty, a little spicy, interesting. Carbonation adds to a creamy texture. Overall an interesting concept - funky imperial stout.

2/28/22
12 oz bottle dated 2/20/20 - thanks Adam
4 rating

11.2 ounce bottle, bottled 01/26/21, label says 11% ABV. Thanks to Brutaltruth for this brew! Served in a snifter, the beer pours dark brown/black with about an inch or so tan head that stuck around a while. Good amount of lacing. The brew smells like dark fruit, candi sugar, cocoa, burnt/charred malt, clove and some dark bread. For the most part I think the taste is similar to the aroma, but with the addition of some earthiness, smoke, coffee and molasses. To me the dark fruit and clove stand out, but they don't overpower the other flavors. Mouthfeel/body is medium, it's a bit slick and has a good amount of soft carbonation. I liked this brew, worth trying if you like Belgian beers and stouts!

 

From the 375ml bottle in a snifter. This solid little brew pours a
nice coal black with touches of brown and a very nice head of
light brown foam that settles to a thick ring, thick layer, and
shows off some nice lacing. Rather light nose of subtleties on
this one; dark cocoa, light vanilla, dark fruit notes of black and
blueberry, a touch of char, subtle smoke, and black strap molasses.
Flavors follow and surpass the nose nicely with mellow semisweet
cocoa, blackberry notes, subtle cream, a touch of tobacco, black strap
molasses, char, brulee, touch of smoke, light vanilla, dark coffee touches,
and caramel. Nice mouth feel; medium full body, light soft carbonation,
smooth, lightly coating, and finishing lightly dry.

Of note, with warmth comes earthy malt notes that are very nice.

Overall, a solid little brew!

Cheers

 

 

L: Poured from a bottle to a snifter glass. Had a dark brown / almost black color and a thick, opaque consistency. There was a two inch , foamy, tan-colored, very long-lasting head. Not much lacing to speak of.

S: A decent, but not spectacular, aroma of chocolate, light fruit, malt, molasses, and caramel.

T: Tasted of a bit of light fruit (apples, in particular), a bit of chocolate (present, could've used more), a tinge of caramel (a subtle sweetness), some malt (present throughout), a little molasses, and some booze (brandy, especially). This is a flavr that needs a little bit of a boost with its ingredients. Not bad, though.

F: A fair amount of carbonation with a super smooth finish.Medium-bodied.

O: An uneven beer, but it has its good points. Worth a look.

Large beige head featuring a mixture of large and minute bubbles. It sticks around and leaves minor spots on the glass. The liquid is deep, dark brown where no light passes through the edge.

Clean cereal smell with plenty of cocoa, think Cocoa Pebbles. Mildly chalky. Attractive.

A solid American Imperial Stout. Far more dark chocolate than coffee on the taste. The body is richer than most Stouts. Neutral carbonation. No alcohol presence despite the 10.5% abv. The swallow has a touch of cream to the darker chocolate flavor. The aftertaste is more of the lingering darker chocolate. In short, this is an excellent Imperial without any variation to the style.

375ml bottle

Pours two fingers of silky tan head into my willi becher glass. Retention is very sturdy and I’ve hardly lost anything after a few minutes. Initial lacing looks questionable, but that may be the glass. Body is completely black, lots of bubbles are visible though. Looks really nice so far.

Nose is noticeably dry, you get the farmhouse aspect almost immediately. Well attenuated, but you also get some yeasty/malty Belgian sugars, reminiscent of candi sugars. Some yeasty spices, wheat, and roast as well. Some more sugar comes through a tad as it opens up and there are shades of a Belgian Dubbel; notes of perfume. This smells really nice, pretty balanced, aromatic, and relatively complex.

Flavor has a lot going on. Some sugar, a hint of esters, clove, bubblegum, and a little alcohol hit you. Finishes with a burnt campfire roast that is certainly too savory for me, not a fan of that. This is good, but it doesn’t come together perfectly.

Mouthfeel is really spot on for the style here. Carbonation is quite high. Body has a little weight to it, but drinks more towards the lighter farmhouse side, than the stouty side. Alcohol blends in with the rest of the beer after the first few sips and stays hidden well for the remainder of the beer. Bitterness is not really evident here and any savory notes manifest in the way of dryness. As far as overall sugar, it’s very well balanced, you get the Belgian sugars, but it is somewhat dry and well attenuated.

Drinkability is super high for a 10% beer with little adjuncts. I finished the glass before I was able to finish the review.

Appearance turned out ok, with some very lazy lacing, but given how amazingly the head stuck around, I’m definitely thinking this glass is the issue. I will cut this a very big break because it looked really nice overall.

The campfire taste settled down a little bit, but some tart notes did start to come through which were a little abrasive in their own right – not an infection. Overall a pretty darn good beer, balanced, flavorful, and has depth. If the flavor had been more akin to my personal preferences this would have been a slam dunk.

500ml bottle. Poured out an opaque, jet-black color with a small, brown head of bubbly foam. It smelled of roasted malt, brandy, oak, vanilla and toffee. Sweet molasses, chocolate and brandy taste with prominent oak and vanilla notes. A smooth finishing beer.

Poured on draft at the brewery.

Pours a dark cola brown color with a finger of khaki head. The head leaves some nice sticky lacing as it settles into a thick blanket enveloping the beer.

The aroma brings loads of roasted malts and chocolate, followed by some milder notes of apple brandy and figs. The back end has some subtle coffee and caramel notes.

The apple brandy really comes out in the flavor. There's also plenty of roasted malts, chocolate, and dark fruits. Some mild oak and fruity esters.

The feel is medium-full bodied with moderate carbonation. Creamy, yet a touch syrupy. Definitely some alcohol warming here.

Overall, a very good imperial stout that honestly drinks more like a Belgian dark ale than an imperial stout. It's very fruity and acidic, with the roasted malts taking a passenger seat to the fruity esters and yeast. Still, it's a nice beer worth trying.

Really too sour and too flat to be anything more than a hint of tastes and flavors (grapes, berries, a little caramel), which are just disguised by unappealing flavor and feel.

Bottle bought in 2014, drank 06.19.2019

Look - poured a dark brown with a slight reddish translucent hue, no head at all.

Smell - not really anything.

Taste - a slight bit of charcoal, and a very slight hint of the apple brandy barrel, but other than that, this was largely a nondescript stout that improved and had a slight alcohol burn as it warmed.

Feel - a rather nice medium mouthfeel.

Overall - this beer didn't live up to my expectations, but I also can't say I didn't enjoy it either, was just hoping for more. I had hoped that the aging process would have done something more to it, but it either didn't, or it wasn't there to begin with; I don't think it had anything to lose by it. Not a bad beer, but not one I'd jump in line to buy again.