Nephilim
Central State Brewing

From a tall can, this brew is utterly black. Thick, dark, and intense in thickness. The head is dark, nut-brown, and leaves a thick lace. Rich and dark aroma...roasted grain, licorice, and boozy. The taste is similar...flavorful, bitter, intense, and warming. Semi-dry, thick, and intense.

 

 

16 ounce can into snifter; no can dating, but is a recent release. Pours dense pitch black color with a 1-2 finger dense and rocky tan head with fantastic retention, that reduces to a nice cap that lingers. Nice dense spotty soapy lacing clings on the glass, with a fair amount of streaming carbonation. Fantastic appearance. Aromas of big milk/dark chocolate, cocoa, coffee, caramel, molasses, toffee, fudge, roasted nuts, toasted biscuit, and dark bread; with lighter notes of licorice, raisin, cherry, prune, fig, date, smoke, charcoal, leather, tobacco, herbal, wood, pepper, pine, and yeast/roast/toasted earthiness. Damn nice aromas with great balance and complexity of dark/black/roast/bready malts and light-moderate earthy hop/fruity yeast notes; with great strength. Taste of big milk/dark chocolate, cocoa, coffee, caramel, molasses, toffee, fudge, roasted nuts, toasted biscuit, and dark bread; with lighter notes of licorice, raisin, cherry, prune, fig, date, smoke, charcoal, leather, tobacco, herbal, wood, pepper, pine, and yeast/roast/toasted earthiness. Light-moderate pine, herbal, woody, grassy, peppery hops; and roast/charcoal bitterness on the finish. Lingering notes of milk/dark chocolate, cocoa, coffee, caramel, molasses, toffee, fudge, roasted nuts, toasted biscuit, dark bread, licorice, dark fruit, smoke, charcoal, leather, tobacco, herbal, wood, pepper, pine, and yeast/roast/toasted earthiness on the finish for a while. Awesome complexity, robustness, and balance of dark/black/roast/bready malts and light-moderate earthy hop/fruity yeast flavors; with a great hop/roast bitter/sweet balance; and no cloying, acrid, astringent flavors after the finish. Lightly increasing dryness from lingering hop/char bitterness. Medium carbonation and fairly full body; with a very smooth, creamy/silky/bready, and fairly sticky/chalky mouthfeel that is great. Minimal warming alcohol for 11.5% lingering after the finish. Overall this is an awesome Russian imperial stout. All around great complexity, robustness, and balance of dark/black/roast/bready malts and light-moderate earthy hop/fruity yeast flavors; very smooth and dangerously easy to sip on with the mellowly bitter/charred/drying finish. Very rich and well rounded English malt complexity; with balancing earthy hops against sweetness, and complementing fruity yeast complexity. A really enjoyable offering, and spot on style example. Definitely no wild yeast like they usually have.