Late Afternoon
Finback Brewery - Glendale

 

To quote another review :” This is just a great beer. If you've had a better gingerbread cookie imperial stout, I'd love to hear about it, and then drink it and explain to you how you're wrong. Excellence”. I agree!

 

Had on tap. Matte midnight black, like the depths of the void itself, thin brown cap that fades over time. Vanilla and cinnamon create a cinnamon toast crunch aroma within the matrix of earth, char, dark chocolate, dark roast coffee, and the final note that stands out: gingerbread, very aromatic. Taste is a little more muddled, but takes on the same flavors, gingerbread absorbs the cinnamon toast crunch into itself, and the earthy roast is much stronger. Feel is chewy, but not heavy and not that thick, feel like my mind is having trouble getting around that given the heavy roast and earth tones that just don't anchor, but in this california heat is welcomed. More lighthearted. A fun "snacky" twist on the stout indeed

 

Very interesting approach to an Imperial Stout. The brown sugar, ginger, and cinnamon are quite different. I am used to intense chocolate, vanilla, oak and Bourbon in Barrel aged stouts. This is well done, but it’s not my preferred style for an imperial stout. Definitely worth checking out for an alternative style in an imperial stout.

Very nice imperial stout the cinnamon and vanilla are upfront and bring this dessert beer a very nice vibe. The taste is complex with a nice roastiness. The mouthfeel could be a little bit more thick but there is brown sugar in it so it's understandable

 

 

Added two new Finback beers in one day... I'm on a roll! Anyway, this one is an "imperial snacky stout" (great designation; I like it a lot more than 'pastry' stout because not every food product flavored stouts are based off of is a pastry, technically, but they're usually snacks or desserts of some kind) with ginger, brown sugar, vanilla, and cinnamon. Yeah, you got it... a gingerbread cookie-influenced stout. Very excited for this one.

Pour is a stereotypical terrifying big stout pour with a tar-black, motor oil-looking liquid toppling out of the can into my glass, building up a smooth-looking mocha-colored head that retains decently. Good legs here and quite nice overall appearance. The surface is covered with a thin sheet of froth, but it's not super dense or crowding. Some tiny specks of lace here and there. Overall, not a bad looking big stout at all. Quite nice, really.

The nose is fantastic... it's heavy on the ginger and dark chocolate-like elements with some spectacular assistance from the spices on hand. It actually smells like a gingerbread cookie (maybe even one with 75% cacao chips in it...?), and that's praise enough, I feel like, but it also smells like a great stout, and that's another impressive thing entirely. Some notes of figgy dark fruit and heady brown sugar really round this out. Honestly, this has the makings of one of the better flavored imperials I've had lately, and I've had a bunch.

Incredible flavor profile, too. They nailed this one. The ginger is strong but not so strong that it crowds out the intense, robust malt flavors. I'm surprised there's no actual cacao/chocolate in this one, as it so strongly resembles the flavors of something like an oatmeal raisin cookie to me, just with ginger/cinnamon in it as well. Light sweetness from the vanilla with plenty of charred and roasty grains to keep the stout fiend happy while the dessert-lover in all of us gets a sugar rush from the cookie-like aspects in play throughout each sip. The feel is superb too... it's not too thick but it's also by no means a light beer. I can't detect a single iota of the 10% ABV, which is dangerous, but also an objectively-impressive achievement. This is just a great beer. If you've had a better gingerbread cookie imperial stout, I'd love to hear about it, and then drink it and explain to you how you're wrong. Excellence.