Imperial Porter
Flying Bison Brewing Company

Pours quite dark but not black, with nutty tan highlights and almost no head. Good nose for a Baltic porter -- roasted malts, nutty demerara sugar and rum raisins. An especially welcome warming yeasty note rises along with the beer's temperature. On the palate, sweet and fruity through the mid-palate, with some slightly acidic notes creeping in. Nice roasted malt character in play, but any potential harsh bitterness is subsumed by the sweet malts. A warming, bitter finish completes things. Mouthfeel is a touch watery during the second half. Overall, this is an enjoyable Baltic porter -- it hits the right notes, has an appropriate weight and general mouthfeel. Good.

This is the first bottling (an R & D Prototype, at that) of Flying Bison's Royal Skycap Imperial Porter (heh -- just got the joke of the name there when I typed it out). It's an aged version of the batch they brewed last summer and revealed on cask at the Buffalo BrewFest in September. Served at cellar temperature, it appears as a dark mahogany beer, somewhat murky with a few cherry-cola highlights. A thin, finely-bubbled, light ecru head fades to a thin layer and a ring around the glass. Boozy rum-infused cherry cordial aroma predominates with some soft cocoa and slightly buttery toffee notes near the back. Alcoholic cherry flavors roam around the first 70% of the sip, along with some fusel-y bitterness. It's somewhat chocolatey, but besides the cherry candy flavors this is primarily a bitter tasting beer. My favorite aspect of the taste is a slightly nutty coffee flavor in the aftertaste. The mouthfeel is thinner than I expected; in fact, it's rather watery. It seems that a beer with "Imperial" in the name and a noticeable nearly 10% abv ought to be a bit heftier, not to mention a bit more robust in flavor. Not a bad beer, by any means, but I feel like there are a good number of regular old session porters out there with more exciting things going on. I only had a couple two-ounce samples at the festival last September, but I think it was a bit better back then, from the cask. Definitely worth a trying a bottle or two. I'll continue to age the remaining three bottles I've got in the cellar to see how it changes.

On cask today at the overcrowded Buffalo Brewfest,poured from the engine a near black with a foamy light brown head,deep brown sugar and dried fruit in the nose with a big hit of alcohol late.Quite boozy in my mind it overtook any other flavors from really being noticed there was a light charred note but it didnt make much impact anyking of dark fruit quality was reduced to nothing as well due to the alcohol burn.Needs some fine tuning in my mind right now its just to big for itself.

Pre-release, a week or so before adding to the carbonation and sending it out the door. Coca-cola colour, no lace or head, roast aroma, good mouthfeel. British Chocolate in the finish, chocolate malts.This may be a breakthrough beer for them, I hope so.