Emperor: Kessel Rum (England: Imperial Porter: 13.3% ABV)
Visual: Very dark, black and opaque body. A short lasting frothy brown head that soon becomes just a dash.
Nose: Peanut butter. Charcoal dust. Wisp of smoke. Strawberry jam. Spicy red wine. Bitter cocoa dust.
Body: Milky chocolate to chocolate fondue Sweet strawberry syrup. Jam doughnuts – both strawberry and apricot style. Spicy red wine and sweet dessert wine. Mulled wine. Milky coffee to coffee cake. Tobacco. Peanut butter. Chocolate liqueur.
Finish: Milky chocolate. Touch of greenery. Coffee cake. Almonds. Bitter cocoa. Dry peanut butter. Apricot jam doughnuts.
Conclusion: I’ve had this beer three times now, and in a rare statement for me I have to say, don’t try this at room temperature or warmer. It is a big, big beer and when I tried on a warm day, with it only slightly chilled, it was so sweet as to be sickly at times. Still mostly enjoyable, but it made it roughly sweet and definitely not at its best.
Here, on a cooler evening, and moderately but not excessively chilled, same as when I first tried it, like this it is fantastic.
It has a solid milky chocolate body, with hints of more bitter cocoa to offset the big sweetness coming in, and with similar coffee bitterness hints – however the milkiness of the body means in general this is sweeter and less harsh than these notes could be.
Over that is really jammy, and fun doughnut character, mainly strawberry like, but with unexpected apricot jam in the mix at times, which makes for a pleasant fruit surprise that goes against the red fruit and barrel notes that seem to be the beers theme.
The declared peanut butter is there, mainly in aroma and finish but does slowly begin to come out in the body over time. What is super present is the spicy red wine to mulled wine that I presume is, at least in a big part, layered on by the rum aging. They mix and merge with the sweeter jammy notes for a fantastically rewarding fruity, spicy and vinous beer without losing that solid Imperial Porter base. Over time there is even a wisp of smoke like note from the base beer, again working against the sweetness, no idea where that part came from.
A lot of Emperor beers can be fun but too heavy/sweet/or something similar. When slightly chilled this goes up to the line of too much but never crosses it and makes for an utterly fantastic beer.
Background: Despite having done notes on a bunch of Emperor brewing beers in collaboration, I think this is the first time I have done a solely Emperor brewed beer. It described as a peanut butter jelly imperial porter that has been aged in Barbados Rum barrels. Emperor brewing seem not to know how to go small in their attempts to make the best stouts and porters. Looking at the ingredients looks like they have added oats into the mix, and more oddly raspberry, honey, demerara sugar,cocoa nibs and peanut flavouring. Also maltodextrin which I had to google, and seems to be used to thicken up food, mimic fat content and act as a preservative. So, the more you know! Anyway, pretty darn far from a standard beer it seems, something I can enjoy in moderation, hence grabbing this, though beers with tons of additives seem to dominate the market overall more than I would like at the moment. Anyway, this was grabbed from Independent Spirit and I wanted some heavy music to back this so went with Opeth: Blackwater park.
