Black Honey Imperial Elixir Stout
The Blue Ridge Brewing Co.

 

 

Served from tap into a snifter at the source! Poured pitch black with a half finger khaki colored head that subsided to a minimal amount quickly. Maintained excellent lacing throughout the glass. The aroma was comprised of sweet malt, roasted malt, dark chocolate, dark fruit, and honey. The flavor was of sweet malt, roasted malt, honey, dark fruit, and dark chocolate. It had a heavy feel on the palate with medium carbonation. Overall this was a pretty good brew. This is one of the more solid brews to come out of Blue Ridge in my opinion. Still not as good as their Barleywine, but definitely quite tasty. The flavor and aroma on this one were quite balanced and very pleasant. Enjoyed it so much the first snifter, I got another. I suggest you try this one if it is on when you stop by the brewpub.

Another stop on the 'catch up my review notes' express. Enjoyed this on tap back in March 2010 in a snifter. Very deep brown with some light reddish highlights. Loads of light tan head, lacing doesn't quite keep up.

Quite an appetizing nose, good balance of dark roast and chocolate/honey sweetness. Pretty nice thickish and slippery feel. Seems like they figured out a way to get some of the honey to not ferment, as that flavor definitely seems to come through. Jedi mind trick/power of suggestion with the name? Not sure, but it's pretty tasty regardless. Much like the nose, sweetness and roast are in good balance. A punch of bitterness sneaks up on you in the finish, lingering dry roasted malt follows.

Overall impression: Good stuff. Hopefully they make it again this winter.

My voyage to Greenville yesterday would have been pointless had I not gone for this one straight out of the gate. Served in an over running snifter to which I was able to get two glasses. This one was consumed on 02/27/2010.

The pour was huge, deep, dark brown in color when held up to the light you could just barely make out something coming through from the other side. Huge head on top, enormous tan colored and just immaculate retention. Sticky, thick and huge, this was just a beast of a beer. Aroma was full of chocolate, roasted malts, hints of sweet honey notes and a touch of molasses. Warming brought it up to a much sweeter and much more pronounced honey effect. Sweet and nice full bodied stout, there was a huge carbonation effect here, a bit too much as it needed to be more viscous and full to be able to really take full effect. Sweet chocolate and coffee notes blended with the honey very nicely and left a sweet, semi dry taste in the mouth. Light vanilla and molasses build in the finish, but the last flavor is roasted, chocolaty malts. No hint of the abv made it go down a touch to fast, but hey, I am not complaining.

Overall it was a damn good RIS, if I cold change two things I would have knocked the carbonation down a bit, made it a bit fuller and let the honey really come through as it was a little too hidden for me. Otherwise it was really very well presented and well rounded.