Youngblood's Imperial Porter
Dogwood Brewing Company

 

 

 

Form a 22oz bomber, "Brewmaster's Series #1"

Pours like motor oil. Deep opague brown with a quarter inch chocolate brown head. Aroma is smoky and bitter chocolate. Also creamy.

Taste matched the smell. Bitter rich chocolate and smoky. All this is balanced with a creaminess and sweetness you might associate with a milk stout. Big and bold. Roasted coffee underpinnings. Smokines lingers on the tongue. Extremely full bodied and tasty. Very drinkable for such a robust, flavorful beer.

A great job from a a brewery that had yet to impress me up till now. Hopefully all of their "big beer" series will be as good as this one.

This beer is packaged in a standard 22oz bomber. This is another beer brought to me by a friend from ATL swinging through.

Pours out a really nice almost black shade of brown, the head is the color of creamed coffee and although it rolls up nicely, it rather quickly recedes and leaves no lacing.

The smell has a heavy, creamed-coffee air to it. I can also pick up a roasted nut flavor and semi-sweet chocolate. Smells damn good.

I thought this was a really tasty beer. Dark fruits and a very tiny vinous presence was in the taste. The standard coffee and sweet chocolate flavors were here as well, and nicely robust. This beer is also a good deal sweeter than some other porters I’ve tried. Nicely thick and coating in mouthfeel, this beer is almost like a desert in a glass. The best beer I’ve had from Dogwood and makes me look forward to what else they are going to do in their “Brewmaster’s Series”

Thanks again John!

Pours dark black with a small, dark brown head.

Beautiful aroma, roasted chocolate, coffee and caramel. Really an appealing aroma.

Medium bodied and quite smooth. Lots of chocolate taste here as well as coffee and caramel flavors. There is also a light soy sauce flavor, not really sure where it comes from. It becomes slightly bitter and then leaves a nice roasted chocolate taste.

Now one of my top 3 porters. Delicious in every way and too easy to drink. Great job Dogwood, can't wait to see what's next.

This pours out an oily black body with a tasty looking dark brown head. There is some lace left around the glass as the head dies down to a swirling cap of bubbles. Sweet chocolate, roasted malts and a bit of coffee peaks later on in the second half of the bomber after is sat out. The taste was similar as dark chocolate and roasted malts came on strong. Coffee and a nice hop bitterness rounded out the taste for an overall great tasting porter. The body was almost full with a really creamy and smooth mouthfeel. This goes down very easy and I can see have a few of these in a night if they were available around here. Great brew I am glad I traded for 2 bottles, thanks to rajendra82 for the trade.

Had this on tap. Excellent beer. Not quite roasty enough for an imperial stout (after all, it’s an imperial porter), but a nice sweet chocolate with a tiny suggestion of soy sauce. Very dark with a thin, creamy dark chocolate milk foam head. Very mallty with a leafy hop lurking just underneath, mingling with the coffee. The palate has a bit of a heft, just on the edge of being chewy. Great big beer attempt for Dogwood.

The first offering in the highly anticipated Brewmaster’s Collection, and the first bottled above board high-gravity offering from Georgia, Youngblood’s Imperial Porter came in a sturdy brown 22 oz. bomber. The beer when poured into a goblet looked forbiddingly opaque extremely dark brown with a small foamy head that was almost as brown as the body on many porters. The head dissipated quite rapidly, and there was some lace left around. The aroma was an intoxicating mix of chocolate, coffee, and caramel. The taste was as advertised by the aroma, with sweet powdered cocoa, dark roasted coffee, and a bit of a vinous character. The mouthfeel was silky smooth with soft carbonation. It did seem a bit thin at first glance, but rounded up quite nicely with some roasted grain kicking in, as the beer warmed up. The alcohol content is not listed, but this beer had a nicely soothing warmth to it, so I am guessing it to be around 8% ABV. It is a very good start to the new series, and a good step up for the beloved local micro brewery. Get more from your beer indeed.

Youngblood's Imperial Porter, the first beer of the Brewmaster's Series from Dogwood Brewing Company. I picked up a case of this from Green's on Buford Highway on 8/5/04.

Poured a thick brownish black. Opaque, no light going through this puppy. Light tan head forms, and quickly departs for the edge of the glass.

The aroma is full of roastiness and robust malt flavors. Notes of coffee grounds and chocolate are fairly predominant, too. Slight hints of espresso and alcohol as the beer approaches room temperature.

Wow! That's a pretty hefty wallop to my mouth! The taste hits with a very rounded hop bitterness that is coated thickly in chocolate. Coffee and roasted malt flavors help carry the flavor along. Also some bready toast flavors hiding in the background. All of this leads up to very subtle alcohol notes interspersed with mocha and more chocolate flavor. Espresso and chocolate, mocha, chocolate, lots and lots of slightly differing chocolate flavors.

Fairly coating with each sip. Somewhat reminds me of Dark Lord, but not as sludgy and brutal. Very pleasant. Carbonation helps play the softer roasted flavors along the sides of the tongue, while skipping the deeper roasted notes across the back of the mouth. The finish is a bit drying, but not astringent - pushing the envelope a bit, maybe.

This is a fantastic beer, kudos to the brewers at Dogwood for this treat! I may find myself back at Green's sometime soon to buy another case!