Zero To Kimono
Casita Brewing Company

 

Pours a dark color with a nice tan head and lacing
Aroma has very generous strawberries cocoa and vanilla hints
The taste follows the nose with a well balanced intense strawberries, cocoa and vanilla flavor
A medium bodied well carbonated beer
A great Imperial Stout

Look: Pours a very dark chocolate brown with a nice frothy desert sand head that eventually melts to pencil thin ring around the glass and a seemingly almost oily lacing on the sides.
Smell and Taste: Sweetness from the lactose sugars but also tart resembling tart cherry with chocolate.
Feel: Just coming off drinking a brown ale the day before, this Imperial Stout feels thick and chewy. The 11.5% ABV is warming as it descends to the depths of your core. Fairly fat, lacking carbonation.
Overall: The tartness threw me a curve. Not one of my favorites but glad I tried it.

A: Pours an opaque yet still clear thick viscous jet black in color with light to moderate amounts of fine active carbonation rising along the edges of the glass and faint dark chestnut brown + dark garnet red + dark cola brown colored highlights. The beer has a two finger tall dense foamy dark tan head that reduces to a medium to large sized patch of very thin film covering a little more than 40% of the surface of the beer and a thin ring at the edges of the glass. Light amounts of lacing are observed.

S: Moderate to strong aromas of rich milk chocolate + vanilla + strawberry over the top of moderate aromas of roasted + chocolate + caramel malts with slightly heavier than moderate amounts of lactose sweetness.

T: Upfront there are moderate flavors of roasted + chocolate + caramel malts with slightly heavier than moderate amounts of lactose sweetness. That is followed by light to moderate flavors of cacao nibs + cocoa. Finally there are moderate to strong flavors of rich milk chocolate + vanilla + strawberry. No perceptible hop presence and light amounts of roasty bitterness which does not linger. Lingering flavors of sweet milk chocolate + strawberry in the finish.

M: Full bodied with moderate amounts of carbonation. Smooth, almost creamy.

O: Drinks pretty easily considering the strength with very well hidden alcohol though this beer is more of a slow sipper for dessert after dinner due to the sweetness. Initially I was not sure how I felt about the idea of strawberry in a vanilla milk chocolate stout but I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed the flavor combination.