Imperial Stag Stout
Brickway Brewery & Distillery

Brickway Imperial Stag, 10.3% ABV. Pours dark brown with a nice two finger tan head. Aroma is coffee, vanilla, and vague spice. Taste is coffee and roast malt, with a moderate bitter close. Very good mouthfeel. Not picking up much spice taste and does not taste like a holiday. Overall excellent.

Heavy clove flavor. The beer is 10%, but it drinks like 7%. Tasty holiday beer for a style I don’t normally like.

 

I’m not getting a whole lot of the holiday spices. There is some nutmeg and cinnamon but it’s not overly pronounced. It’s fairly chocolaty with some dark fruit and roast. It’s not terrible, but there’s a metallic note that’s fairly strong.

 

Appearance - pours deep mahogany with big tan head with great retention. Sheets of lacing all around the glass.

Aroma - Picking up some plum, nutmeg, caramel, alcohol is well hidden hint of vanilla and cinnamon. Every now and then I get a slight metallic aroma.

Taste - Nutmeg, mild chocolate, toffee, vanilla alcohol is again well hidden. There is still the metallic taste.

Feel - Medium bodied, slightly creamy slightly warming from the alcohol with a slightly dry finish.

Overall - You can tell there is a pretty solid spiced stout but I keep picking up metallic aromas and tastes.

12 oz can poured into THULSA DOOM!!

Ya know, this is kinda interesting. It's got some really nice cedar red hues to it, but the nucleus is all stout. It's like a mix of quad and stout. The head is creamy and egg-foam yellow at about 1/2 finger. Lacing grips the sides of the chalice.

Aroma brings tons of spice up front (namely cinnamon and nutmeg) with some really great mouth-watering caramel that actually sticks to your nostrils and you smell it even after pulling the glass far away from your nose and the sniffing is done. Molasses. Candy Corn. Slight ash. Peppery Belgian yeast. I have never had a beer actually remain on my olfactory for 10 seconds after every sniff. This is incredible stuff. It's confectionery.

Flavor is plummy and full of molasses, with red grape skin and some very sweet caramel. Alcohol heat is well hidden. Slight coffee. Belgian yeast. Slight vanilla creme candy. This is a very sweet beer. Kind of red grape-like too. I get the Belgian angle, but it's not quite Belgian as it is Belgian Candi Sugar. A little chaotic like a run-away waffle cone truck.

Feel is creamy and medium-heavy. Carbonation burn and alcohol burn are apparent. Coffee-like dryness on the finish.

Overall, could use a little bit of a revamp but but if you like sweet beers you'll like this one. It reminds me a lot of Founder's Dirty Bastard with a slight darker Belgian twist. The aroma was definitely the best part, I'm still smelling it now as it has attached itself to my nostrils. Good aroma, the flavor department could use new management however. A fair but warming cold weather sipper.

On tap. Poured an opaque, jet-black color with a small, light brown head. It smelled of cinnamon, nutmeg and chocolate. Sweet chocolate flavor with a lot of nutmeg. The cinnamon was present, too.

Pours rather thin for the style, but with a remarkable, foamy, three-finger tan head that gives way to impressive lacing for the ABV and style.

The aroma is interesting, but not a stout. Vague coffee and vanilla notes with an odd metallic overtone.

This carries over to the palate, as the flavors are very muddled with a metallic overtone.

The mouthfeel is rather thin and lacking.

The biggest compliment I can give is that the ABV is actually well-hidden. Overall, not a drain pour, but not a repeat customer here.