Boundry: Zapato: You’re Not Getting Any (Ireland: Imperial Stout: 9.8% ABV)
Visual: Black. Still. Grey brown dash of a head.
Nose: Blueberry. Grated chocolate. Milky chocolate. Slight sulfur eggs and brown bread.
Body: Chocolate liqueur. Blueberry. Toffee. Chewy mouthfeel. Bitter chocolate.
Finish: Milky chocolate. Blueberry pie with sugar dusting. Light dust. Bitter cocoa and bitter coffee. Nutty. Muesli.
Conclusion: I’m a lot further through this bottle than I thought I would be before I started with this conclusion. Thus, at 750ml and a hearty 10% abv I expect that my writing is likely to be nearer to the incoherent level that normal. Enjoy! I’ll try and tidy up on upload.
Part of that is that this is easy drinking for the abv – it has none of that “Boozy” character that normally comes with it. It does have a chewy mouthfeel , but not a heavy one – robust but nowhere near the thickness that a lot of stouts bring – let alone oatmeal ones, especially in this abv range.
Another reason that I am further through the bottle than I expected is that I am taking my time to see if a bit more is going to come out. The beer comes in with the base chocolate and coffee you expect of a stout, and the base blueberry you would expect considering that it used used with the beer. This all comes in smoothly delivered, but even giving time and warmth little else comes out. It is hard to complain that it is doing the job that it set itself, but I kind of expect beers, especially big beers like this, to have a bit more than that these days.
It is … ok.. I mean it feels like quality brewing in that it is very smooth for the abv, keeping good mouthfeel and the blueberry use is very well done to allow it to come through without dominating the beer. The whole abv to weight ratio shows a good understanding of texture and how to get the most out of a high abv beer in feel – it just has very little flavor range to go with that.
Enjoyable, does the job, but nothing spectacular for the style – especially for such a strong beer. It you want a stout with blueberry – this is a stout with blueberry and does it well – it just doesn’t stand out.
Background: Ratebeer lists this at 8.6% ABV, and since there is a label on the bottle giving the new abv and covering the old I’m guessing previous batches were at the lower abv. They also list it as a sweet stout, which I couldn’t justify at the abv, so I’m listing it as imperial stout. Anyway a collaboration imperial milk stout made with oats and blueberry. Grabbed from Independent Spirit and drunk while listening to the madcap metal that is Evil Scarecrow.
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