Fort Garry Kona Imperial Stout

First off, apologies for not writing in a while.  Second off, I'm fighting off the tail end of a cold so my sense of taste may be a bit wonky.

It's time for Fort Garry Brewing Co.'s second beer in their Brewmaster Series.  I was a huge fan of their eisbock, so I have big expectations for today's beer.  It comes in a 650mL brown bottle with 6.5% alcohol/vol and 50 IBU's.  The label proudly displays a tiki doll, putting more emphasis on the "Kona" part of the beer's name.  Near the bottom, it says "beer brewed with coffee".  Oh boy!  I suppose the best beers (that I've had) to compare this one to are Half Pints' Stir Stick Stout and Mill Street's Coffee Porter.

Upon opening, I was unsurprisingly greeted with a strong coffee aroma.  It wasn't as strong as I was expecting, however.  Upon pouring though, the coffee aroma got much stronger.  It formed an average-sized dark brown head on its ridiculously opaque brown body.  I couldn't even see through the beer as I poured it.  Any bubbles were completely undetectable.

The first sip was pretty good.  It tasted like the love-child of a beer and coffee.  The beer was exceptionally bitter, but obviously needed to be as it made my lips slightly sticky (from the malts).  The beer had a very soft feel in the mouth.  The aftertaste was remarkably like that of a strong cup of black coffee.  While the taste was like coffee, it was unlike any coffee I had ever had.  Most likely due to the Kona variety of bean used in the brewing process.  I will definitely have this beer again due to its limited production run.  This beer pretty much reinforced my conclusions that coffee-flavoured beers are not my favourite.

Flying Monkeys Netherworld

I've heard much about today's beer. It comes from a renown craft brewery in Barrie, Ontario. It comes in a non-standard 355mL brown bottle, with 6% alcohol/vol. It has a rather interesting label, one that I don't particularly like. While I do like innovative labels on my beers, I don't like flashy ones. This is a flashy label.

Opening the bottle, I was bombarded by cascade hops and coffee.  My interest has been piqued.  I noticed a neat motto on the bottom of the cap: "Save water, drink beer".  It poured a very dark colour, almost black.  There was a little bit of light brown head but disappeared quickly.  The beer wasn't very highly carbonated, for I saw very little in terms of bubbles at the top; looking in at the beer from the side was a fruitless effort.  The beer had less of a hoppy aroma after the pour, and had more of a chocolate hint to it.

My first sip was pretty good.  I could easily see myself guzzling this beer.  There was a strong hoppy bitterness to the beer, and a strong coffee flavour.  The beer had an exceptionally soft feel in the mouth, making it much easier to swish around.  There was an extremely light lacing left on the glass as I drank.  This is not a beer for neophytes.  I will definitely buy this beer again.