Plum Flambé
Collective Arts Brewing

Appearance: Pours with a black as night body, eventually got to a finger of head but it weirdly delayed foaming up. Sadly it didn't stick around long nor left lace behind.

Smell: Unsurprisingly, plum is the dominant scent here and a little bit of chocolate malt in the background. The beer didn't really need a lot of warming to achieve potency which just causes the chocolate to catch up to the plum. The flambe part is missing here, this comes across as plum and stout.

Taste: Strange, it starts with sweet chocolate malt and plum with a hint of lemon and then acidic lemon comes out full bore in the middle of the beer before ending with a strong plum and mild burnt malt stout end.

Mouthfeel: I don't think I ever encountered a beer whose transitioning was such a high spike of something that really doesn't belong here (the lemon note) and manages to return to normalcy like nothing happened with no ill effects. It's like someone started a classical symphony, then the conductor pulled of a guitar, belted out some incomprehensible death metal, and then went back to the classical music without missing a beat, and while you were entertained, you still asked yourself "What the heck just happened?" Anyways, when I say no ill effects you'd think acidic lemon would carry into the aftertaste, but no. It's rich chocolate malt with a plum echo. That said, carbonation fell flat at the halfway mark. This is an odd beast.

Drinkability: This beers viscosity I would call heavy, but that lemon note in the middle does something to make it come across as medium body. However then the richness in the aftertaste leaves you double taking to "Wait..no yes, this is a heavy stout. It settles down well enough, but it's so jarring I'm left pondering when I would want to drink this. It's technically fine, but it's like a replica of the Mona Lisa, only you painted it with the head Gene Simmons without his makeup. You're left asking...why?

Final Thoughts: Rereading this review, I think I'm giving the lemon note a bit too much credit here as something awesome with all the rock comparisons, and that's not my intent. My intent is to show how jarring it is. This could have been a fine desert beer, but that note make it into some kind of light hearted, warming weather spring stout, thing that leaves me wondering if this was infected with something? Has this beer been on the shelf too long? The lower carbonation may imply the later, but the sour note implies the former, but the fact it recovers from that middle note so exceptionally well implies this is by design. This is by far the weirdest middle rating beer I've ever had, as it's by far, not boring and generic...it's just all over the place.

355 ml can served cold into a pint glass. Purchased from the brewery with a canning date of January 21, 2025.

Appearance - Near black in color with a finger plus of deep tan head. Better than expected head retention.

Smell - Plums and grapes. Wine-esque in aroma. Some caramel and molasses in the background.

Taste - Plums, quite sweet with some milk chocolate, a marshmallow esque flavor then returns to some tartness booziness and plums.

Mouthfeel - Full bodied and low carbonation. Big chewy body. Lots of warmth from the back of the throat.

Overall - Solid flavored imperial stout from Collective Arts that is a bit different with the plums featuring so prominently