Harvey's Bicentenary Stout
Got this bottled beer from the Pitfield's Beer Shop. The beer seems to be yet another offering amongst so many others produced this year to celebrate the bicentenary of the Battle of Trafalgar... It comes in a small brown bottle (275ml), with a BBE date of DEC 07. A: in my recently acquired Innis&Gunn goblet, it pours a jet-black hue, coming with a 1cm thick espresso crema coloured foam, dissipating quite fast and settling to a brownish velvet on top of the black nectar; low carbonation. S: profoundly chocolaty maltiness coupled with a lightly sour, oak-wood and vinous aroma as imparted by Harvey's Imperial Russion Stout; the woody note is ever so intense, even penetrating but by no means overpowering; more dark fruits, char, leather, and roasted coffeeish note to follow, against a backdrop of lightly aromatic hops. Overall, the nose is settled, complex, and well-structured. Great! T: deeply dark chocolaty with a semi-sweet edge, followed by lots of black malts and imparted roastiness and smokiness, char, coarsely ground coffee-beans and sourly-sweet ripe dark fruits like berries... the aftertaste has a rich, crushed dark grainy flavour coupled with a satisfying coffeeish bitterness, slightly peppery/spicy touch; ending with a lovely, slightly sourly-sweet vinous but full textured fortified-wine like finish, like combo of vintage port and malmsey madeira. M: ultra smooth as well as slightly oily-textured on the mouthfeel with lightly warmish alcohol backdrop~~ simply sublime--full flavoured and full bodied while it retains a delicate texture very hard to obtain in this beer style. D: this is a heavenly delicious and very easy-drinking strong stout!! Harvey's must have used some ideas behind their imperial russian stout in this beer, and the end result is just great. I hope they could make this beer one of their regulars~~ Highly recommended!!