Brodies: Elizabethan (England: Imperial Stout: 22% ABV)
Visual: Black. Still with no head and a small amount of bubbles around the edges.
Nose: Marmite. Horse blankets. Black olives.
Body: Chocolate liquore. Toffee. Marmite. Treacle. Very smooth. Red cherries. Gin. Black olives. Black cherry. Cranberry. Coconut macaroons. Raisins. Shortbread.
Finish: Chocolate. Port. Fudge sweetness. Fruitcake. Black cherry and olives. Sweet liquorice touches. Coconut.
Conclusion: Holy shit. This thing is Tokyo*++. Well half way between a Tokyo and Romanov Stout. Or something. It has got the chocolate liquore smoothness and the black olives that I’ve come to associate with Romanov and the real sweetness and cranberry fruitiness of Tokyo*. It is so very smooth, no alcohol burn despite the fact this should be an insanely weighty beast. Frankly that makes it dangerous.
The aroma does fool you. It is quite simple and as one friend said, slightly marmite like. There just doesn’t seem to be much going on initially, it could be that the glasses don’t suit careful nosing well but I was preparing to be disappointed.
The first sip dispels this foolish notion.
The body is chocolate liquore soaked in dark fruit and fortified wine. The word liquore is required to adequately describe it. If you are looking for a more traditional beer you wont find it here. This is one for the fans of the heavy duty experiments of recent years. What it gives you is a complexity far beyond most of the sweet liquore concoctions can provide.
It still feels like an Imperial Stout though. Initially the power belies the complexity but then over time lovely coconut flavor comes out, an element I deeply appreciate in stouts. It feels like it is combining Good King Henry Special Reserve with the sheer power of the craft beer scene. This is match made in heaven.
Like Romanov the olive elements ground it so the sweetness is not the only thing, and so gives it a base from which it aims for the stars. Of all the insane abv beers this is the greatest. Sweet, indulgent, liquore like and fruitcake rich. No hop character I can detect, this rides all on its soothing nature.
Maybe I am biased by the effort it took to get access to this but an alcohol burn free indulgent and rich beer is bloody lovely.
Background: Rate Beer says this is an English Strong Ale. Possibly, the style is wide enough that it could come under it and at such high abvs style definitions do tend to break down. However on drinking it I couldn’t help but view it as an Imperial Stout, so that is how I listed it. This beer is one of Brodies legends, brewed very rarely, some say once a year on Brodies anniversary, I couldn’t confirm. We had heard it was on over the Easter Bunny bash when I was down for my friend’s birthday. It wasn’t on when we arrived but we were promised it should be ready any time now. So we kept asking every half an hour odd on if it was on yet. Apologies to the staff if we were driving them mad. Finally it came on, at 22% it was only served in thirds and I grabbed what I could for the table. So you might say I was quite anticipating it. Maybe just. The marmite notes were first noticed by a fellow drinker then I couldn’t unsee them.
