Brasserie Dieu Du Ciel - Péché Mortel (Imperial Stout Au Cafe)

The brewery says: "Péché Mortel (French for "Mortal Sin") is an intensely black and dense beer with very pronounced roasted flavours. Fair trade coffee is infused during the brewing process, intensifying the bitterness of the beer and giving it a powerful coffee taste. Péché mortel is brewed to be savored; we invite you to drink it in moderation.

This stout style, high in alcohol and bitterness in order to favour preservation, was historically brewed to support the long and arduous voyage necessary to export the beer from England to Russia. The word Imperial comes from the fact that the beer was specially brewed for the Russian tsar’s court."

Dieu Du Ciel is a microbrewery in Quebec, Canada. I honestly don't know what the range of their distribution is like here in the States, but I can say they are distributed by the Shelton Brothers, which means it's probably pretty limited  to the east coast. The beer itself has been classified as an imperial stout, and it's 9.5% ABV.

Appearance: This is a great looking stout. It's pitch black, with a thick tan head that sticks around for awhile and then leaves some dense webbed lacing on the sides of the glass.

Smell: The coffee note is huge here, and along with the espresso flavor is a bit of leather, and char, all coming from the roasted malt.

Taste: The depth of scents in the beer are also present in the taste, even if the exact notes aren't replicated. Coffee is huge and at the forefromt, but less forward than that are also hints of what seem to me like nuttiness, coconut, and a bitterness that is so roasty that it almost approaches sourness.

Mouthfeel: It's actually lighter than I expect, but there is sufficient body here. It's creamy and smooth, with light carbonation and a dry finish.

Overall: This was really delicious. Even though I'm not a regular coffee drinker, I'm really liking coffee stouts, especially if they are balanced and also manage to present a range of other flavors. Péché Mortel has this going for it; the coffee is certainly dominant but not overpowering. I'll be happy if I get to continue drinking stouts of this caliber into the winter months!

4.5/5

Founders - Breakfast Stout

Breakfast Stout, according to Founders, is "The coffee lover’s consummate beer. Brewed with an abundance of flaked oats, bitter and imported chocolates, and Sumatra and Kona coffee, this stout has an intense fresh-roasted java nose topped with a frothy, cinnamon-colored head that goes forever."

It's 8.3% ABV and available during the fall and winter in the Founders distribution network, which includes most of the Midwest and East Coast. There are rumors and rumblings about Founders bringing some of their offerings out to California, and we have in the last year seen a few kegs make their way out here. There's still no concrete word about if we'll see regular distribution of either kegs or bottles, but we have our fingers crossed! My bottle today is a late 2011 bottling that I received in a trade.

Appearance: Dark opaque brown, practically black, with a mocha-colored thin head that recedes to a small layer of foam of the same color without leaving much lacing on the glass.

Smell: A huge wave of sharp, bitter coffee, particularly espresso. There is also a hint of smokiness, and overall the scent is strong and black and not very sweet at all.

Taste: More massive espresso flavor, but a bit of milk chocolate creaminess rounds out the palate. There is no burn from the alcohol, which is nice. Like the nose, the flavor is predominately that of fresh roasted coffee -- the roasted quality is so present -- but it is nice to get a little bit of sweetness in from the chocolate. That sweetness becomes a bit more obvious as the beer warms, which is a pleasant effect, and the flavor becomes reminiscent of a creamed coffee liqueur.

Mouthfeel: Thick and creamy, with soft carbonation. Very substantial.

Overall: A pretty delicious stout, particularly if you like them coffee-forward. I think I tend to prefer just a bit more sweetness, but this delivers 100% on what it claims to be, and I love drinking it when I get the chance.

4/5

Brooklyn Brewery - Black Chocolate Stout

Brooklyn says: "This is the famous Brooklyn Black Chocolate Stout, our award-winning rendition of the Imperial Stout style, once made exclusively for Catherine the Great. We use three mashes to brew each batch of this beer, achieving a luscious deep dark chocolate flavor through a blend of specially roasted malts. We brew it every year for the winter season. It is delicious when newly bottled, but also ages beautifully for years."

The Black Chocolate Stout is a 10% ABV imperial stout that is brewed during the winter season. This is the 2011-2012 batch, that I received through a trade with someone in the NY area.

Appearance: Dark opaque black with a dark brown head, which in person was much darker than it appears in the picture. The head poured to almost 2 fingers in height and took awhile to recede. Not much lacing or residual head, but there is a thin foam layer that sits on top of the beer.

Smell: Rich, dark chocolate, slight bitterness, and a trace of fusel alcohol.

Taste: Chocolate forward, with traces of roasted, bitter coffee and sweet grain. A slight flavor of dark fruit is there too, but true to the name, it's mostly bittersweet chocolate.

Mouthfeel: Smooth, creamy, medium-bodied, and a dry finish. On the lower end of the carbonation spectrum, but it's nice. It almost feels like it is on nitro out of the bottle.

Overall: Other than the heavier aroma note from the fusel alcohols, this was a well-balanced, tasty chocolate stout. The chocolate really did shine, and elements like roasted grains and slight balancing hop bitterness didn't overtake the chocolate notes and aromas at all, which is what should be expected from a stout that emphasizes its chocolate character. This is overall a beer I would seek out again, but not a very complex stout as it was very chocolate heavy.

3.5/5

Goose Island - Bourbon County Brand Stout

From Goose Island's website: "A liquid as dark and dense as a black hole with thick foam the color of a bourbon barrel. The nose is an intense mix of charred oak, chocolate, vanilla, caramel and smoke. One sip has more flavor than your average case of beer."

Goose Island is located in Chicago, and does limited distribution to California. We used to see bottles of the Bourbon County Brand Stout (BCBS) out here, but in recent years they've cut back on their distro to provide more of it locally. This beer has seen an immense surge in popularity, and though Goose Island produces reasonably large quantities of it once a year, it is becoming less easy for locals to get much of, and even more difficult to get as a trader. Still, some friendly Chicagoland folks have come through for me, so my first birthday beer today is going to be this 14.5% ABV monster.

Appearance: Completely dark, opaque black, with a thin layer of brown head that recedes very quickly. There is no lingering lacing, but you can definitely see the legs on the side of the glass that the alcohol leaves behind with every sip.

Smell: Wow -- huge bourbon notes upfront: spice, vanilla, dark fruit, oak. There are also hints of dark chocolate. It's such an incredibly huge nose, so bold and full, but no hint of the huge amount of alcohol.

Taste: Just like on those, the alcohol is remarkably absent from the taste here. Vanilla, molasses, fig, spicy wood/oak, and cranberry hit hard in the first wave of flavor. Dark chocolate, very rich, comes in toward the middle of the palate and remains as a lingering flavor. The notes from the bourbon are melded together with the base flavors from the beer so well -- nothing dominates, and each note has its time to shine.

Mouthfeel: Thick, rich, and creamy. Between the heavy mouthfeel and the powerful flavors, this beer is definitely a sipper. It's meant to be savored and shared.

Overall: This is a favorite of many. Barrel-aged stouts are often treated like the kings of beers, because of the absolutely knockout flavors and the craftsmanship involved in the barrel-aging process. Much like with sours, it took me awhile to warm up to bourbon barrel aged beers, because the taste of the bourbon was always strong and not very pleasing to me. Now, after trying so many, I've definitely grown used to these flavors. My first love will always be IPAs, but this is a style I can certainly appreciate as a craft beer lover. Admittedly, my overall score for this one is partially influenced by what this beer means to other people -- I can absolutely appreciate the balance and complexity here, particularly at the production level that Goose Island is always operating under in order to manufacture this. It's not at the very top of my list, but it's truly an excellent beer.

4.5/5

Dogfish Head - Chicory Stout

Stout, 5.2% ABV
I grabbed this in a 4-pack from Red Carpet sometime in January. It was a winter release but it didn't stick around that long after it made it to shelves.

Appearance: Dark brown/black with a hint of red, not completely opaque. The head pours out to about 1-2 fingers and is retained pretty well, and there is a good amount of lacing left behind on the glass.

Smell: It smells very roasty -- notes of coffee, chocolate, and tobacco come through. There is a bit of a woody quality that is not quite oak or cedar, but it's nice.

Taste: Much as in the smell, the roasted malt warms the palate. Chocolate and smoked wood are dominant here, but coffee notes are present as well. There is slight warmth from the alcohol, but it's very subtle.

Mouthfeel: The body is great: full and robust. The finish is a little sticky, but still more dry than I would have expected.

Overall: A nice, drinkable stout! Despite the full body, it's not overpowering, and in fact it's very drinkable. I would absolutely buy this again. People who are exclusively into really big stouts probably won't appreciate this, but I found it to be a pretty tasty and solid beer.

3.5/5

Ballast Point - Indra Kunindra

"India-style" export stout, 7% ABV

This was a collaboration between Ballast Point and a local homebrewer, and as a result is one of the more original and out-there brews produced by Ballast Point.

Appearance: Very typical stout appearance -- like dark black oil, but with very little head and head retention.

Smell: It blows the mind. Cumin, coconut, and the spiced curry adjuncts are the strongest. Chocolate is very faint, and I don't get any coffee at all.

Taste: The whole body is bolstered by the (strong) undertone of coconut. In addition to the coconut, the first apparent tastes are the cumin and curry. At the end the added cayenne kicks in and definitely gives you that peppery warmth in the back of your throat. They say they also added lime juice; I don't detect it personally, but it's possible that it's imperceptible but the beer would somehow taste differently without it. The typical stout notes are barely present here, if at all. It basically seems like it's a stout just because that's the kind of weight that would support this much powerfully packed flavor.

Mouthfeel: It's actually light to medium in the body, which is light for a stout, but necessary for this beer. Too much physical body in the mouth would feel so overbearing with the flavor profile here.

Overall: I quite like it. I've had it twice now, both times in small quantities, and both times I've said that though I like it, and that this is absolutely a unique beer and I've never had anything like it, I don't know that I would want to undertake the whole 22oz bottle (or even a whole pint) all by myself. There is just so much going on. If you get the opportunity to try this, I'd highly recommend it, but try it out in small quantities first and see how you feel.

4/5