Sierra Nevada - Narwhal

I seen this one on another blog a few months ago which inspired me to buy this. The price, which is double what you give for the normal sierra nevada range available in supermarkets here ie. pale ale, ipa, torpedo ipa(a steal at the price) and kellerweizen..so will this one live up to the high price tag ?.....

Aroma of roasted malt from the pour with coffee, licorice and dark chocolate covered raisins.

Narwhal pours pitch black with a tight creamy brown head. Heavily roasted malt on the intake with dark chocolate, licorice and a touch of coffee while the finish is hoppy, bitter and warming alcohol. The long aftertaste is more of the same but with a tannin/leathery tinge to it ? Yeah, there is a question mark there for a reason. Full bodied and low carbonation, the mouthfeel is creamy to being a tad oily. While you can certainly feel and taste the alcohol in this it does not detract from the flavours.

Maybe I have drunk too from the fermenting vessel this morning while checking gravity but this left me slightly disappointed. I'm left questioning while writing this post if the alcohol is overriding the flavours and the sweetish licorice through this is too much and spoils it totally for me. Saying all that, I still enjoyed it. However, I would not buy it again apart from to store it for another year as I think storing will really benefit it. No doubt some bottle shop with be selling 2012 which this is in a year or two for two times the price.

Summing up, bold malty imperial stout that if I had never tried it I would buy two. One to try now and one to forget about for another year.

This scored a generous 7.5/10 in the 'what's this about keeping beer for another year about ? It's not wine for gawds sake' Beerometer.

Alc : 10.2%
Where to buy CPH : Superbrugsen