God Of Reason
Holy Mountain Brewing Company - Interbay Brewery + Taproom

500 mL bottle. Just shy of black. Smells of roasted malt, bready malt, caramel sweetness. Tastes of sweet caramel and toasted bread. Aggressive hop flavor. Ashy roasted malt cuts it and lingers into the finish. Just a little fruity. Medium heavy. Surprisingly aggressive. Nice.

No bottling date (released early-1/2021, so presumably bottled within a few days of the timeframe); consumed on 5/20/21

Pours a dense, deep black body topped with ¾ of a finger of almost creamy, mocha foam, fading steadily to a thin, silky layer of cap, a substantial, frothy collar, and thick rings/walls of taut, webby lacing circling around the walls of the glass.

Aroma impresses a flaky char upfront sporting a figgy interlude before bittersweet chocolate and vague aniseed develop; a deepening, almost smoky malt roast evolves over the middle, with wisps of raspberry/dark fruits into back end and a mineralic char rounding out the bouquet.

Taste opens with semi-smoky roast counterbalanced with wispy tones of vanilla fluff, in turn contrasted with a deepening ashy char; raw cacao and distant fig over the mid-palate emerge from a rounded roast profile leaving final impressions of a straightforward depth and soft, malty nuance.

Mouthfeel shows a firm yet velvety, medium body met with a fluffy, perfectly attenuated moderate-high carbonation; a charry spritz disperses and glides effortlessly across the mid-palate, bringing delicately crisp textures to a drying finish touched with soft, malty grit fading evenly with the swallow.

A tamely expanded profile, stunningly textured, brings nuance to the simplicity of roast, and an increasingly focused complexity to an effortlessly plush and traditional expression of malt.

Poured into a Fremont small snifter. urs a very dark mahogany brown, appearing nearly opaque black in the glass with a fine, two finger chocolate brown head with great retention and thick lacing. Looks great. Aroma of dark toasted malt, coffee, dark chocolate, lactose and dates. Flavor is dark toasted malt, espresso coffee, bakers chocolate and dark dried fruit. Lingering coffee and dark chocolate with light malt char. Medium bodied with very creamy body, great mouth feel. Wow, this is a beauty of a stout. The aftertaste is more like that of a high cacao chocolate bar than even some chocolate stouts I've had; really appealing. With the chocolate is coffee and vague dark fruit. Rich and decadent with a silky, thick mouth feel. I stopped getting Holy Mountain stouts because it involved long lines on the first morning it was offered; they are great, but just too time consuming. Now I remember what I have missed. This beauty showed up in bottle shops and I'm definitely going back for more. Really great.

A thick inky black head with a rich mocha coloured head. One glass retains a velvety foam cap for some time while the other dissipates down to just splotchy coverage pretty quick.

Nose is dry powdered bakers chocolate with almost lactose-like edges, though I don't think this was brewed with lactose. Some medium range malts underneath that I can't quite tease out, and some faint day old coffee.

Flavour is more expressive and rich, with notes of molasses-dipped figs and plum skins and dark chocolate. Unifies at the end really behind an almost/riesen like finish. Mildly burnt/char finish as well.

Not quite as rich as I'd looked for, but definitely in that direction. Nice pleasant lingering finish.

Dark brown appearance with a nice light brown head that dissipates quickly. Aroma is a slightly sweet and unusual dark fruit. Taste is also a slightly sweet with dark fruit and perhaps the unusual taste comes from the chocolate.