Darkest Hour
Deep Ellum Brewing Company

L: Pours obsidian in color with a one-finger espresso head.
S: Smell rich of roasted malts, sweet dark fruits like fig, & a fair amount of hops.
T: Certainly follows the nose, has a nice malty sweetness hop bite balance.
F: Medium-full bodied, thick, coarse mouthfeel.
O: Super boozy stout that must be tried, cheers!

 

Pours a murky ebony with with a sliver of mocha colored head. Zero head retention & lacing

S: Dark fruit, sourmash, kind of fades a bit

T: Follows the nose, barrel dryness as well, a little leafy hop, as well & a touch of Baker's Chocolate up front. Figs, Dark Cherry, much dryness, just a kiss or three of Bourbon & a little dark chocolate as this warms& a touch of red grape. Finishes with much dark fruit, a little oak, a kiss of Bourbon & a little vanilla

MF: Fairly chewy, subtle carbonation, warming

A nice take on this style , pretty darn drinkable

 

 

 

 

Got it from the brewery, 21/12/17
Smell: sour, smell of dark fruits and roasted malt.
Taste: a bit sour, a lot of fruitiness. Probably this came from the port barrel they aged the beer in. Excellent taste!

 

 

 

So the brewery's site indicates this is a 13% abv. release, yet the bottle label indicates it is 11%. Why the inconsistency there?
This looks fine, smells like bourbon barrel and roasted chocolate/malts.
Taste is largely barrel and toasted bitter bourbon and malts. Flavors rich cocoa that may have been in the nose are lost all but now. Fair for what it is, I'm sipping it, but the end result seems lacking to me,especially so given that I've already been sampling several other acclaimed bourbon barrel imp. stouts over the holidays.
Feels medium-thick and a tad sticky. End taste is a charry hop/ dry feel.
For me this suffers from lack of sweet notes of dark fruits, chocolate and even enjoyable malts. I'm still sipping it to see if that remains the case.

As far as imperial stouts go - this a fairly good representative of the genre.

Pours a deep black with tan foam, resolves with good residual lacing and minimal effervescence.
Smells is predominantly roasted malts, cocoa, espresso. Taste is sweet malts forward, some coffee, cocoa, hint of leather and smoke with transition to bitter hops mid taste and a rather bland finish.
Mouthfeel is medium, scant effervescence, not syrupy but a rather bitter aftertaste.

Overall, not bad - but something missing that would make this beer stellar. Aging in bourbon barrels? throw in some chillis? Mid note on is not good - I wouldn't seek this stout out and given its price point here in Texas - I feel rather gypped.

 

 

 

I’ve had this local Deep Ellum Imperial Stout many times. It is good but not the best that Deep Ellum has to offer.

(L) The color is dark brown almost black with a two inch thick light brown head

(A) The aroma is roasted malts, chocolate and coffee.

(T) The taste is sweet malts, chocolate, coffee, perhaps a bit too sweet, but overall pretty good.

(F) Velvety mouth feel but there’s a hint of the alcohol. I like it, but it is not top notch.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I find it funny a brewery in Texas based a beer on winter solstice. We celebrate solstice in AK while here in Texas it's just another day.
This is a good effort by Deep Ellum to replicate Anchorage Brewing Co's brew by the same name (Gabe was brewing this style at Midnight Sun long before DE was open).
Pours a nice dark, almost black, color. Smells of caramel and brown sugar. Nice head but fades fast. Taste is an explosion of caramel, molasses and hints of coffee. I love this brew! However after living in Alaska off and on for the past 20 years I'm a bit spoiled.
I highly recommend this brew though

Darkest Hour comes in at 11% for the 2015 batch. Just, btw...

 

 

 

 

Strange Belgian influence runs rampant in this otherwise subpar imperial stout. Has a basic dark malt and chocolate malt backbone with overly sweet candi sugar. No yeast or hop presence.

Too sweet. Imbalanced. Not real intricate.

C+

On tap @ world of beer...Nice smooth dark as night beer ; sweet taste with a nice smooth mouth feel . Nice long finish, went very well W/ my Chimay Burger ..!! You must try this if you see it .!! Very Nice beer .!!

 

 

Had on tap. Nice coffee, chocolate, booze, malt, and candi sugar in the taste, with a touch of belgian yeast. Don't hate that at all. Little light and dry for a double stout. Smell is same as taste without belgian influences. Makes sense if you live in texas, so hot here!