A Strange Tide
Abomination Brewing Company

From notes 3/3/2023.
Picked up a can at AJ’s.
Gorgeous pour of jet black with super plumy creamy tan head. Malty, oats and wheat backbone. Roasty coffee, milk chocolate noticeable but not aggressive. Nicely smooth and creamy with just a bit of carb briskness.
A really pleasant sipper. Enjoyed!

 

Pours black with two fingers of khaki foam. Aroma is roasty and toasty, with heavy nutty and bready malts underneath. Caramel and light toffee fill out the rest of the aroma. Flavor profile is toasty, roasty, nutty, bready, and caramely. Toffee and mild dark chocolate add some additional sweetness to the bitter malt start. Mouth feel is medium-thick with a smooth, light effervescence. Overall, a heavy roasty bomb that's light for it's ABV.

Served from a 16oz can. Reviewed from notes.

 

From an undated 16 oz. can sampled on March 12, 2023.

Attractive looking pour with its dark brown to jet black color and a modest, lingering tan head.

The aroma is all about roasted dark malts with a lower profile chocolate and vanilla, caramel, cellar musk, and earth. Pretty typical of the style.

About a full mouthfeel. Smooth and creamy too.

The taste is dark and roasted caramel all of the way with a lower vanilla profile. Creamy. Booze isn't so bad. Earthy ending. Basically a decently done Impy Stout.

L: Pours a thick, oily dark brown. Forms an espresso head, 1cm in depth. When held up to the light, it's an opaque chocolate. Decent lacing and good retention.

A: Coffee & roasted malts. Faint char and chocolate.

T: Classic imperial stout with coffee, roasted malts to start, followed by chocolate and hints of hickory and char. Burnt sugar. Smoky towards the finish.

F: Medium-to-full bodied. Moderate creaminess.

O: This is a very strong imperial stout that focuses on the more roasted, medicinal tastes. Lacking sweetness, in a good way. ABV is a tad below where it should be, but overall this is a great pick from Abomination.

 

Pours a dark color with a slight head and lacing
Aroma has roasted malt, coffee and chocolate hints
The taste follows the nose with a roasted malt, coffee and chocolate flavor
A medium bodied decently carbonated beer
A good Stout

 

16oz can. Poured out an opaque, jet-black color with a small, khaki-colored head of foam. It left minimal lacing on the glass. It smelled of roasted malt, coffee, chocolate, toffee and caramel. Nice coffee taste with roasted malt, rich chocolate and toffee.

Pours thick and jet black with a thin fizzy head that dissipates instantly with no lacing. Roasty, with a trace of chocolate on the tail. Taste follows nose. Very smooth almost slippery mouthful. Very enjoyable.

 

3d review. Having grown up tidal, had to try this imp stout.
a) Suitably thick, scum covered black body (for a strange tide).
s) Ample char, ash, smokey, above classic imperial stout aromas of malt, chocolate, coffee, wood.
t) Follow aroma, cocoa, burn smores, definite outdoor firepit, aromatic smoking wood. Along with a bit of the medicine cabinet, and blackened toast.
f) Full bodied, chalky, almost ashy, finishes the sweet into some bitter.
o) Original extra points. .

Moody, black & white, scratch board label art full of assorted fungi walking on water.
I like where they're going here.....
A tall, frothy tan head billows up above a pitch black beer, then slumps quickly leaving drapes of gauzy lace. It looks viscous and feels heavy in the glass.
The aroma is stoutish - some funky ISO alcohol wafts in beside the mild charred grain and sugar smells. I keep swirling and snuffing and still those medicinal alcohol notes make it difficult to appreciate the malt underneath but no blast of RIS-like aromas seem to be there to push through.
Flavor is nice - rich cocoa and campfire, sweet notes of molasses and bakers chocolate followed by firm hop bitterness that lingers with scorched sugar and black grain on the finish. No real complexity or fruity depth, just a heavy, roasted character.
Body is full - almost too full seeming a bit under fermented/ attenuated leaving it a little heavy and syrupy but not a bad IS and maybe better in 6-12 months.

 

Poured into a Fremont small snifter. Pours a very dark mahogany brown, appearing opaque in the glass with a quarter finger chocolate brown head that dissipates to patches with light lacing. Aroma of dark toasted malt with light char, cocoa, malted milk and coffee. Flavor dark toasted malt with moderate char, bakers chocolate, mild malted milk and coffee in the finish. Medium bodied with light to moderate creaminess. A traditional, roasty stout from Abomination, which often leans towards pastry and adjunct stouts. They do a great job with the latter and this shows a reason why, they have a great stout base recipe. The profile is somewhat reminiscent of an amped up foreign export stout, lots of smoky malt and coffee notes. A well made, straightforward toasty stout that is refreshing after all the flavored and barreled ones I've been drinking. Nice.