Kiss Of Death
Sockeye Grill & Brewery

Draft at Sockeye. Inky black pour, flat. Woody, roasty, sweet aroma, boozy notes, chocolate syrup. Taste starts with a big dose of sweetness, chocolate, with alcohol heat rising up from the back. A little burn lingers. Sweet and boozy.

A - Jet black, minimal head. not surprising given the stratospheric ABV
S - molasses, then coffee
T - coffee, molasses, chocolate, licorice. Smoky. Alcohol is present but not nearly as boozy as you would expect at a blistering 14.4%. Below average sweetness.
M - smooth, medium body
O - Cellar for a year to let this one mature and mellow off. Basically a less complex version of BCBS.

a barrel aged imperial stout and a monster of a beer, these guys really do well with the big and barrel aged beers in my experience so far, and this was exceptional. not at all hot for how strong it measures out to be, there is a maturity and a smoothness to this that make it less extreme than it seems like it should be at this strength, and overall its really very good. dense and near black in the glass, pretty good head from the tap for what this is, mocha in color, short but thick and lasting. aroma here is barrel forward, with some strong oak and vanilla character, gorgeous with the obviously high roast in here, chocolate and coffee abound, less sweetness than a lot of these have at this level, and even an apparent english sort of yeast character, boozy but not shockingly so. big dark chocolate to the taste, almost a cocoa element, like hot cocoa with the way the alcohol warms this up going down, but this never really is very sweet to me. tons of roast, mellow from the barrel, hints of nice bourbon, cocoa nibs, and molasses. its also pretty appreciably bitter, even for the style, like past roasty to coffee bitter, intense and lingering. well refined for its enormity, wintery as can be, and something my dad enjoyed very much as well. appropriately named too, a few of this will certainly do you in! sockeye remains underrated to me, they do the ambitious stuff real well, despite very little hype or chatter from the nerds...

This imperial stout is a borderline barley wine. It definitely has the feel and look of a stout. The malt hides the 14.4 a bit but is a strong beer with great flavor.