Arcadia Ales’ Imperial Stout
Thursday, February 28th, 2008
One of Arcadia Ales’ “Big Beer Series,” the Imperial Stout pours a black, thick liquid with very little head or lacing. In fact, the beer seemed…flat to me, as if the cap had been taken off, and the beer left in the bottle in the fridge for several hours. But since I uncapped the bottle myself, I know that isn’t the case. Some more carbonation would have improved this beer.
I’ve read reviews of this beer that talk about the complexity of its taste, but I couldn’t detect it. Unlike Arcadia’s London Porter Ale, which truly has a complex taste, the tastes here simply blended together into an undifferentiated mess. It tasted like someone had taken a substandard version of this style, and poured vodka into it to increase the alcohol level. The alcohol, you could taste. It was high enough, and raw enough, that I thought this beer could do with some aging.
It was vintage 2007. Did the brewer think the customer should have aged it? Would there have been additional bottle conditioning if I had? If the brewer had thought aging would have improved the beverage, the labelling should have indicated that.
Update: The bottle-carrier (built for four bottles, not six) actually did make the claim that the beer would improve with age.
