Hearts Collide
Rainhard Brewing Co.

Jan 16 2025

At my lady Pamela's house; canned and chilled, 473mL in a pint glass. From my favourite LCBO at Tecumseh Mall in nearby Windsor. No date stamp or lot number. My 10th beer from the Toronto, Ontario brewery, and 1st for 2026. Audaciously adored by Sundae the cat..l

Review from notes. LCBO purchase for around $5CDN. Served very cold into a snifter.

Appearance - Dark brown, nearly black with a finger and a half of long lived tan head.

Smell - Vanilla and milk chocolate. Quite sweet aromatically with less roast than most comparables.

Taste - Fairly bitter with lots of dark chocolate. Vanilla is a very distant second here.

Mouthfeel - Thick and viscous. Creamy but not chewy. Full bodied with low carbonation and well hidden booze quotient.

Overall - A Sold stout that maybe doesn't meld chocolate and vanilla s well as some, it's still well crafted, eminently drinkable on a cold winter's night and tastes great weather it's ice cold or closing in on room temperature. Well worth a tipple or two.

I don't know. This ones tough for me. I didn't like it as much is a thought i would. I found it very chocolate and coffee forward. It was my 3rd Imperial stout of the night, so maybe i was over them by then.
Came in a can from LCBO
I'd give it another shot maybe, but think i prefer some of these other imperial stout beers that i have had recently.

 

 

 

Appearance: One of the darkest blacks I've come across. Even up to the light, it is not letting much of anything through as far as hues go. A decent enough single finger of chunky foam, a roasted sesame seed color. Medium dissipation, but with some erotic looking peekaboo nude nylon looking lace that I'd kill to see on the legs of my significant other (and nothing else).

Aromatics: A neat grape bubblegum like scent with lots of sweet malts and a little bit of chocolate - Glosette Raisins actually come to mind, with some added caramel toffee notes.

Taste: Starts with a really clean water before the sweet and bitter co-mingle on to the palate. They enter like two well endowed mud wrestlers flipping and flopping with each other in an embrace that is more sensuous than aggressive - and then Juan Valdez shows up covered in dark roast and somehow slips and gets tangled in the fray.

Mouth: Once you get past the glimpse of watery start it is actually somewhat syrupy and very warming on the throat. Very light carbonation keeps any creaminess tauntingly at arms length. With a slight whisper of the 9% seeping past the palate guards on the exhale.

Overall: A nice imperial stout. A little hard knuckled and street-wise, but indications that it actually comes from a more affluent neighborhood. Its luxury showing through its brash facade.

Pairing: I want to really draw out the boldness in the bitters with some added sweetness. But nothing that will destroy the existing flavours. So I'm going to suggest a rich and doughy beignet - generously coated with powdered sugar and a pinch of cinnamon.

 

Bottle: Poured a pitch-black color stout with a large dark foamy head with good retention and some lacing. Aroma of black chocolate and light dry roasted malt is OK. Taste is also a mix of dry roasted malt notes with some black chocolate notes and some faint coffee notes. Body is about average for style with good carbonation. Lacking a bit of character and complexity for the style.