Bedtime Stories
Abomination Brewing Company

I will readily cop to having bought this one simply for the label. It certainly qualifies for The CANQuest (tm), but so do so many others that I now pass up because of the backlog. I think that I meant to drink this on/for Hallowe'en, but the night got away from me, I didn't get to it last night after the postponed Trick or Treat went off & time is now slipping away.

I appreciate the approved pic since I have over 1.1K of them to my credit, but it does not do the label justice. Yes, it is framed beautifully so that the name CAN easily be read, which is paramount, but we lose the perspective of who is reading these bedtime stories to the tucked-in three-eyed horned monster. The narrator is an homage to one of the ghouls from EC's "Tales From the Crypt" & it is his word balloon on the label. I have been a comic book buff(oon) since I was 3 y/o & my Pops bought me a used, coverless Archie comic at the long-defunct & sadly-missed Ye Olde Book Shoppe (YOBS) at its original location on N Prince St, just below W Orange St, here in Lancaster, PA in 1968. I was hooked & by the time that I was a teenager, I was hip to the EC horror comics of the 1950s that were a) highly collectible & b) spendy as all get-out, making them prohibitive to me. A company was doing bound B&W reprints in slipcovers, but those were also out of my budget until I joined the Navy. I got on an installment plan & bought the entire set over a ten (10)-month period! They remain in my collection, but I have read them to the point of memorization. A couple of years ago, a 5th grader at the ES up the street put me onto a modern, short-lived set from PapercutZ! OMFG.

From the CAN: "Imperial Milk Stout brewed with Graham Crackers & Marshmallows with Vanilla and Chocolate added."

Onward! Let's have a review, beginning with a Crack! of the vent followed by a slow, gentle C-Line Glug so as NOT to rouse any sleeping demons, monsters or other lurkers. I was fascinated by the pseudo-cascade which forced me to back down & stop as it formed a massive three-plus fingers of dense, foamy, rocky, deep-brown head with moderate retention that simply slowly dissipated back into the shadows as wisps. Color was Black/Opaque (SRM = 44) as black as an underway night when the weather decks are secured & only the bravest venture out. So black that not only was there ZERO light penetration, but it seemed to be sucking light out of the room! Something moved in that inky blackness - was it a tentacle?!? Eeek! Nose was super-sweet, which was scary to me in and of itself. It smelled like liquefied S'mores with the graham crackers really standing out, followed by the marshmallow & vanilla. I question their need to add chocolate since the malt should have imparted at least some chocolatiness. Hmm. At any rate, think a sweet dessert beer & you have the nose. Actually, it had my nose as something had reached out from the bottom of the glass to take 'hold of it! Eeek! Mouthfeel was big & full, like a dollop had been scooped into my mouth & onto my tongue! I just let it roll around, warming as it did so, allowing me precious time to think. Crap! Where did I put my copy of H. P. Lovecraft's "Everyday InCANtations"?!? My mouth was overcome with a rich chocolatiness as the graham crackers, marshmallows & vanilla abandoned me in my desperate moment of need! Help! None was forthCANming so I forged ahead on my own, bravely sinking deeper & deeper into the burbling depths. These Bedtime Stories are going to keep me awake tonight, I CAN just sense it! Finish evinced the return of the graham crackers, marshmallows & vanilla, but it was far, far too late. I was beyond help or saving. I was simply awash in sweetness. Gah! YMMV.

 

 

 

Abomination Bedtime Stories, 9.3% ABV. Pours black with a half-finger brown head. Nose is lactose, graham, vanilla/marshmallow, and chocolate. Taste follows with a slight sweetness and moderate bitterness. Graham aftertaste. Excellent smooth mouthfeel, overall excellent.

 

 

 

Poured from 16oz can into a dimpled mug.

Appearance: dark-brown hue, with an extremely murky body and a thin finger of fizzy brown foam atop. Color and murk are good, although a bigger and more persistent head would have been nice.

Smell: sweet, rich and roasty; there's a fair bit of chocolate here as well as a toasted malt character that might indeed be the graham crackers. Interesting.

Taste: roastiness and chocolate; sweet with plenty of bitterness. Not terrible, but for me, the flavors just don't mesh super well.

Mouthfeel: rich body with a good level of carbonation and a good, smooth creaminess.

Overall: this beer is kind of all over the map, and it doesn't really appeal to me. That said, it's not necessarily poorly crafted.

 

16 ounce can into snifter, canned in 4/2019. Pours hazy/cloudy/dense opaque dark brown/black color with a 1 finger fairly dense and fluffy dark tan head with solid retention, that reduces to a minimal spotty lace cap that lingers. Minimal spotty lacing clings on the glass, with a fair amount of streaming carbonation. Good appearance. Aromas of big milk/dark chocolate, cocoa, coffee, caramel, brown sugar, toffee, molasses, vanilla, cream, marshmallow, graham cracker, roasted nuts, toasted biscuit, and dark bread/crust; with lighter notes of licorice, dark fruit, smoke, char, herbal, grass, pepper, and yeast/roast/toasted earthiness. Damn nice aromas with great balance and complexity of dark/roast/bready malts, marshmallow, vanilla, chocolate, graham cracker, lactose, and light earthy hop/fruity yeast notes; with great strength. Taste of huge milk/dark chocolate, cocoa, coffee, caramel, brown sugar, toffee, molasses, vanilla, cream, marshmallow, graham cracker, roasted nuts, toasted biscuit, and dark bread/crust; with lighter notes of licorice, dark fruit, smoke, char, herbal, grass, pepper, and yeast/roast/toasted earthiness. Mild herbal, grassy, spicy hops; and roast/char bitterness on the finish. Lingering notes of milk/dark chocolate, cocoa, coffee, caramel, brown sugar, toffee, molasses, vanilla, cream, marshmallow, graham cracker, roasted nuts, toasted biscuit, dark bread/crust, dark fruit, smoke, char, herbal, grass, pepper, and yeast/roast/toasted earthiness on the finish for a while. Incredible complexity, robustness, and balance of dark/roast/bready malts, marshmallow, vanilla, chocolate, graham cracker, lactose, and light earthy hop/fruity yeast flavors; with a solid roast/hop bitter/sweet balance; and no cloying/acrid flavors after the finish. Lightly increasing dryness from lingering hop/roast bitterness. Light-medium carbonation and very full body; with a very smooth, creamy/silky/velvety/bready, and lightly slick/sticky/chalky mouthfeel that is fantastic. Mild increasing warmth of 9.3% after the finish. Overall this is a fantastic flavored imperial milk stout. All around fantastic complexity, robustness, and balance of dark/roast/bready malts, marshmallow, vanilla, chocolate, graham cracker, lactose, and light earthy hop/fruity yeast flavors; very smooth and dangerously easy to sip on for the big ABV, with the mildly bitter/drying finish; fantastically soft/silky feel. Amazing balance of super rich malts, lactose, and flavorings; with just enough earthy hops to balance sweetness. A highly enjoyable offering, and outstanding pastry stout style example.

 

Chocolate, marshmallow and graham cracker promises are how Abomination brewers sweet talk us into buying their imperial strength milk stout. In a world of pastry-this and smoothie-that, we're all a sucker for any diabetic shock of a beer.

Bedtime Stories begins with a very dark brown, just a hair's shade from true espresso black. As a lush and sandy froth builds on the stout the scent of coffee, cola, nuttiness, cocoa and a gentle campfire char adds a robust and roasty perfume to the nose. Caramel, cola and light toffee graces the palate with sweet maltiness before the arrival of s'mores.

As the dark ale unfolds on the middle palate, its sweetness turns over to roast with the taste of French pressed coffee, walnut, bittersweet chocolate and burnt toast. Trailing into a charred cola finish, the beer ends with a broad and woodsy bitterness and only modest hints of the s'mores flavor that was so highly anticipated.

Full but not dense or thick, the beer's milk stout presence is firm, bold and brewed reasonably well. It meets all the hallmark of the style without exceeding expectations at all. A long linger of cola and roasted grains persist in true imperial stout fashion, still void of many of the flavors promised.