Raven's Eye Imperial Stout
This seemed pretty exotic. An imperial stout I've never heard of from a brewery I've never heard of. Worth a shot, right? Poured the beer from the 22 oz. bottle (pretty bottle, too; big picture of a raven on an orange background) into a pint glass. The brew poured an almost opaque black with ruby tints when held up to the light. Only a small head on the initial pour (though the refill gave me a nice, frothy tan head) with moderate lacing. I guess I missed out on all the smelling fun because the only smell I could discern was tannin. It smelled heavily of alcohol - almost wine-like - with a faint, faint hint of roasted malts in the background. The alcohol smell was overpowering though; my buddy and I both had this at the same time and the smell just overtook the entire room. It tasted how it smelled - the alcohol taste was more upfront than any other brew I've had in a while. Once it warmed, the flavors became more prevalent (and quite good!) and chocolate, roasted malt, and roasted coffee become discernible. Mouthfeel was a bit thinner than expected considering the thick pour, but overall not bad. Though there was a prevalent alcohol smell and taste, there was little bitterness in the mouthfeel which made it nice and drinkable. Thus the drinkability factor remains fairly high. I understand it's a 22 oz. bottle and it's 9.5% alcohol, but I could probably drink a couple of these in an evening (and wouldn't doubt I'd be drunk after three of them). It goes down super smooth and I think this is one of the few beers that, as it warms, it tastes 100x better than fresh out of the bottle cold. Recommended.