What beer are you drinking now? #2264

4 year revisit. This was amazing. Thick dense black pour, amazing head retention/lacing. Aromas and flavors of huge dark chocolate, cocoa, coffee, caramel, molasses, toffee, roasted nuts, and toasted dark bread; with lighter notes of licorice, raisin, prune, cherry, fig, date, smoke, charcoal, leather, tobacco, wood, herbal, grass, pepper, pine, and yeast earthiness. Slight booze in the aromas as it warms. Light-moderate pine, herbal, woody, grassy, peppery hops; and roast/charcoal bitterness on the finish. Light-medium carbonation and very full body; very creamy, silky, velvety, bready malts; some sticky hops, chalky char/roast, and light slickness in the mouthfeel. Lightly increasing lingering hop/char bitter dryness; no cloying, acrid, astringency. Dangerously smooth, mildly increasing warmth of 11.8%. Spot on Russian Imperial stout as usual, just as amazing as I remember. Absolutely amazingly rich malt complexity, with balancing earthy hops against sweetness, and restrained fruity yeast complexity. 4.38


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Fantastic as usual. Aromas and flavors of big grapefruit, tangerine, lemon, peach, pineapple, apricot, mango, melon, citrus peel/rind, light pepper, and pine hops; with moderate toasted biscuit, light honeyed malt balance; and herbal, floral, grassy hop earthiness. Light-moderate pine, citrus peel/rind, herbal, floral, grassy, peppery bitterness on the finish. Medium carbonation/body, and fairly crisp finishing. Balanced creamy/bready/grainy malts and sticky hops in the mouthfeel. Some resins/rinds, light-moderate increasing bitter dryness, no astringency. Very juicy, vibrant, and fairly dank/earthy hop complexity; nice bready malt backbone, with minimal residual sweetness from lingering dryness. A top favorite harvest ale every year. Feels like Centennial/Amarillo this year, a bit more dank than last year. Used to have Simcoe in some previous years I believe.


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Tasting fantastic this year as usual. Flavors of big pumpkin, seeds, gingerbread, nutmeg, brown sugar, cinnamon, toasted pie crust, caramel, cocoa, light coffee, and herbal hops. Balanced herbal/roasted bitterness and cinnamon spiciness on the finish against sweetness. Medium-full bodied creaminess; with light chalky roast and spice stickiness. Lightly increasing lingering bitter/spicy/roasted dryness. No acrid/astringency. Very smooth, minimal warming 8.6%. While I do agree this is not really much of a stout on the roast spectrum; you still do get a nice amount of roasted qualities, with the classic Pumking flavors in the forefront. Definitely better than the original 8.6% batch, but not quite as good as the 10% ones. I love it anyways. Far easier to find this year than regular for me, unfortunately. But still a worthy substitute.


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Amazing NEDIPA as usual. Glad we finally got more in distro. Aromas and flavors of huge passion fruit, papaya, peach, pear, apricot, pineapple, mango, melon, guava, berry, tangerine, grapefruit, lemon/orange zest, and light pepper/pine hops; with moderate wheat, white bread dough malt sweetness; and herbal, floral, grassy hop earthiness. Light pine, citrus peel/rind, herbal, floral, grassy bitterness on the finish. Medium carbonation and medium-plus body. Very creamy/bready/grainy wheat/oats, and some sticky hops in the mouthfeel. Lightly increasing lingering bitter dryness, never astringent. Dangerously drinkable for the ABV. Minimal warmth of 9%. Very soft feel. Super juicy hops with some dankness; balanced malts, not overly sweet/heavy feeling for the ABV. Love all Ellison IPAs, but this is my favorite. Glad they are making it more often now.


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