I Must Break You
Saloon Door Brewing

Appearance: Pouring presents an utterly black body with no highlights to be seen, even before a strong light. A small, coarse, yet persistent tan head adorns the sable body. An unbroken sheet of finely beaded lacing adorns the glass wall.

Aroma: Bitter cocoa, anise, molasses, brown sugar, sweet alcohol, vanilla, and wood. Notable for its absence is charred malt, one of the keystones of Russian Imperial Stout.

Taste: The taste begins with charred malt, though this is more restrained than is typical for a Russian Imperial Stout. Soon after, sweet and spicy alcohol, molasses, brown sugar, bitter cocoa, anise, and wood take the stage. An interesting contrast to the aroma is that the brown sugar is more present than the molasses, in contrast to the aroma. The sweet alcohol offers a deep and lingering warmth, without any harshness. As the taste draws to a close, the charred malt has its moment, bringing the taste to a close, in companion with a flourish of herbal hops. This lingers on, with an undercurrent of slight sweetness,

Mouth feel: Quite full and soft, having a viscosity similar to that of whole milk. The carbonation is quite restrained.

Drinkability/notes: Wonderfully strong complex, this is best suited to a dark and cold winter's day. Nonetheless, it seems appropriate for a cool and rainy July Fourth in Central Texas.

Presentation: Packaged in a standard twelve-ounce aluminum can, served in a Duvel chalice.

Poured from a 12 oz can. Great appearance with decent head for such a high ABV beer. Nice stout aromas with deep roasted notes, chocolate, smoke and almost brandy-like alcohol. Flavors more like an old ale or doppelbock, emphasizing brown sugar, molasses and chocolate and some sweet, port-like alcohol instead of typical imperial stout character like charred grain and strong hops. Thick, silky body with low carbonation. Some hops bitterness, but lower than typical for style. Warming alcohol, but not hot, considering the ABV.
Because I like malty, sweet, high alcohol beers, I like this beer a lot. Those who are fans of highly roasted, highly hopped imperial stouts might be disappointed.

 

Aggressive pour from the can. Nitro beer. black with a dense, beautiful, upward cascading khaki head. dense cap of foam persists with nice lacing.
nose is roasted malt, hint of vanilla, char, coffee
taste follows. nice, roasty imperial stout. roast malts, char, ash, coffee, smokey
Smooth creamy body as to be expected for a nitro beer. I generally find nitro beers to be too flat, but this one doesn't seem that way, for whatever reason. Overall a good stout, even on nitro. Though I think i'd prefer traditional CO2.

Having this beer with CO2 now. It’s better that way. But that’s just my preference. A delicious imperial stout that stays nice and roasty and isn’t. Sugar bomb.

Aggressively poured from a nitro can into a snifter
Appearance – The beer pours a deep brown color with a cascading stream of brown nitro bubbles streaming up through the brew and producing a light colored head to form on the surface of the brew. The cascade lasts for ~ 20 s, in the end leaving a thick and persistent foam head on the top of the brew. Very slowly the head fades, leaving tons of streaky lace on the sides of the glass.
Smell – The aroma is strong of a toasted and roasted malt smell mixed with some dark chocolate and cocoa as well as a bit of caramel and brown sugar. Along with these aromas comes notes of coffee and some dark fruit smells of cherry and raisin. Other aromas of cola and some light earth and char mix in there as well, producing a rather dark aroma overall.
Taste – The taste begins as the nose would have suggested, with a rather strong roasted malt flavor mixed with notes of cocoa and a decently strong coffee taste. At the same time there is a rather strong presence of a sweet cola and brown sugar flavor, as well as some cherry and raisin. The cherry gets stronger as the taste advances, all while the roasty flavors dwindle a bit. At the same time the chocolate gets stronger, transitioning from a semi-sweet chocolate taste to that of a milk chocolate flavor. Some strong flavors of vanilla and some char also come more toward the end, leaving one with a rather smooth and sweet, but nice and roasty taste to linger on the tongue.
Mouthfeel – The body of the brew is creamy and smooth due to the nitro pour. The feel is great for all the dark toasty and roasty flavors, as well as the sweet, and makes for a very nice slow sipping brew.
Overall – A quite tasty and rich stout. The nitro pour does a fantastic job of allowing all the flavors to come through all while giving a nice silky mouthfeel. Decadent and well done.