“Imperial Brown Ale brewed with Vanilla and Coffee.”
Glassware: English pint.
Appearance: Virtually black but revealing a cola hue at the base of the glass. A thumb of tan foam emerges but eventually retreats to the rim with a wet lace drag running down.
Aroma: Intense coffee and vanilla get things underway. A rather sweet coffee though – surely a cold drip as opposed to fresh coffee beans. The vanilla works very well in tandem we must say. It’s also getting great support from the nutty malts, milk chocolate, lightly roasted malts and cocoa. Very alluring!
Flavour: Getting that delicious sweetness from the vanilla but more of a roasted bitterness from the coffee (making us question our comments on the aroma). Bitter sweet chocolate, cocoa and burnt toast definitely adding to that. Some hop bitterness developing late as it finishes dry and roasty with a mild boozy burn in the tail.
Mouthfeel: Has a good viscosity to it. Weighs in at 8.9% AbV so some warmth is to be expected. No IBU to be found…we’d love to know where it lands because it’s quite bitter.
Overall: We’d also love to know whether the brewers intended on this being a kind of spin off of an Affogato. It has the ingredients but it missed a trick if that’s what they were after. Either way it’s a cracking brown ale.