Nils Oscar Imperial Stout

Aroma: 9 | Appearance: 6 | Mouthfeel: 7 | Flavor: 7 | Overall: 7

Perfect ebony coloring with a light tan head. Toffee, caramel and big maltiness in the nose. Bitter dark chocolate flavors up front over a background of sweetish malt. Bitter, resiny finish is very complementary to the sweetness throughout. I wasn't expecting much as my mom bought a mixed 6-pack as a gift. This was a surprisingly good pick. Go Mom!

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 8 | Overall: 8

Dark, very dark ruby with brownish foam head, lacing to glass. Aroma is dark malts, chocolate, coffeebeans, raisins and slightly sweet. Taste is roasted raisin, coffee, bitter chocolate. Very soft in mouth. Bitter aftertaste. (Göteborg 201208)

Aroma: 6 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 10 | Flavor: 8 | Overall: 8

Pours with a black body topped by a thin head with some lacing. It’s slightly sweet and malty with a touch of roasty notes and a note of chocolate. Full bodied and smooth.

Aroma: 7 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 7 | Overall: 7

Dark brown black, medium foam .. sweet roast, tar and burnt malt .. slick and slightly oily .. pretty good ... . Well my friend Sweet Jay took me to that video arcade in town, right, and they don't speak English there, so Jay got into a fight and he's all, "Hey quit hasslin' me cuz' I don't speak French" or whatever! And then the guy said something in Paris talk, and I'm like, "Just back off!" And they're all, "Get out!" And we're like, "Make me!" It was cool.

Aroma: 9 | Appearance: 10 | Mouthfeel: 10 | Flavor: 9 | Overall: 9

Aroma is strong, rich, smoky, with a decided undertone of fine roast coffee and hints of molasses, burnt caramel and unsweetened chocolate. It pours a deep opaque sable with a fairly thick light tan head. Scrumptuous flavor is what I call "stouty" - smoky, malty, with tones of fine coffee, a whisper of sweetness, and touches of chocolate and molasses - even a bit of caramel. Texture is thick and silky smooth, but fairly tingly; it leaves a smoky and pleasing finish.

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 7 | Flavor: 8 | Overall: 8

Bottle: Poured a deep black color color stout with a medium foamy head with good retention and very good lacing. Aroma of lightly sweet black chocolate with notes of dry roasted malt. Taste is a nice combination between some back chocolate with lightly sweet dry coffee notes. Body is quite full with good carbonation and no apparent alcohol. Very well done but creamier body would have improve enjoyment of this beer.

Aroma: 7 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 7 | Flavor: 8 | Overall: 8

I was pretty impressed by this one, The aroma was really nice, strong sweet chocolate with coffee undertones. Initial flavor of chocolate with some nuttiness showing and a nice coffee aftertaste. Mouthfeel was smooth and it is a well balanced beer with all flavors sharing the stage. Overall it is a pretty nice Imp. stout and i wouldnt mind having more someday.

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 6 | Flavor: 8 | Overall: 7

A vigorous pour produces a fat-one-finger thick, frothy, lightly brown tinged, tan colored head. The beer is near black, but shows flashes of brilliantly clear, deep ruby notes around the edges if held up directly to the light. The aroma is somewhat rich with lots of dark malt character; aromas of chocolate, well toasted rich grain notes, a touch of dark roast coffee, a touch of charcoal, and some earthy, dusty burnt grain husk aromatics. Underneath the dark malt is a touch of burnt fruit character reminiscent of overly broiled raisins and prunes.

Somewhat light feeling for an Imperial Stout, but well within character for a stout of 7% abv. The beer is quite roast dominated with burnt malts providing both a touch of acidity and a palate coating, dry burnt character up front. This palate coating burnt note is counter balanced and somewhat washed away by a sweetness that takes hold towards the middle into the finish and which provides flavors of burnt, sweet plums and roast raisins. This has a fair amount of sweetness to it, especially as it warms up; the sweetness is perhaps not as rich and malty as I prefer in an Imperial Stout, but is instead more like a fruit-forward, clean sweetness. This has a fairly low carbonation (thus the minimal head despite a vigorous pour), this makes this a bit smoother drinking. The beer has a medium heft to it, enough to coat the palate just a bit, but not enough to keep this from being fairly drinkable.

As a contemporary Imperial Stout this seems quite week, but even ten years ago this was a decent strength version. A tasty brew that seems a bit more like a strong stout. I almost feel like I could quaff a couple pints of this brew, which says something both about the strength and the flavor of this brew. Tasty!

Purchased: Plaza Liquors, Tucson AZ

Aroma: 5 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 5 | Flavor: 5 | Overall: 5

Re-rate, May 09, bottle about a year old: Not nearly as smokey as my first review reads, some roast, but some serious chocolate going on. Flavor was better than the prior write-up, but the oxidized/metallic type notes were absoultely still present along with some acidity. Very faint vinous notes in the background, some hops in the finish. Original rating: Bottle, courtesy of Robert at a long vertical and horizontal run of excellent imperial stouts @ statelineliquors.com. Poured a deep brownish color, not quite black as black. The aroma was chocolate with some smoked notes. The flavor was smoked (almost peaty) chocolate, bandaids (not a good thing either), dust, cobwebs, and almost an oxidized or metallic flavor. Mouthfeel was thin. Noting the abv on the bottle after tasting, at 7%, this surely isn't a surprise to lage behind the other fine Imperial Stout concoctions of the night. Nevertheless, thanks to Robert for this opportunity!

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 9 | Mouthfeel: 9 | Flavor: 9 | Overall: 9

Sampled RBESG 2006, bottle. Dark reddish brown colour, nearly black. Very nice roasty aroma, notes of bakery, coffee, liquorice and dark chocolate. Nice roasty flavour with rye bread and coffee notes, hints of chocolate. A very good stout.