Bomber from Belmont Party Supply, Dayton. Dark brown pour, not quite as sludgy and inky as I’d expected from the stylistic designation (bumped foreign stout, from what I understand) but still hefty enough for business. Nose is fairly light, with a fruitiness to it that was unexpected. Silky mouthfeel, just ever so slightly dry in the finish. Overall, quite sweet and fruity and not especially fresh-tasting. Much more fruity and sweet than I expect for a bumped up foreign stout, but not bad.

Do you ever sit down to rate a last beer of the night and realize that the beer you cracked, which is of course a bomber rather than a regular sized bottle, is not a dry stout but an imperial stout of over nine percent alcohol content only after you looked it up on RateBeer? I just did that. Work is gonna suck tomorrow so I might as well enjoy this as much as possible. This is a nice looking beer. A thin head of mixed but mostly fine bubbles sits on thick, black liquid. Honestly though, despite my desire to really like this in order to make tomorrow’s hangover worth it, this isn’t that great of a beer. The nose is something like a hoppy barleywine. I’m not getting much roast just some hops and and implied sweetness from the malt. Flavor is the same only the sweetness is not just implied and a bit overbearing w/o enough bitterness to balance. This is verging on watery despite the high ABV. I would hardly call it an imperial stout, more a sweet stout w/ some burn. Aside from lack of off flavors, this beer really doesn’t deliver what I want from a big stout, which is big flavor, creamy texture and balance.

Boring, unimaginative imperial stout. Bitter and sharp with a distinct chocolate malt note. Its good, but its nothing new and been done and done before.

Bottle. The pour is as black as you’d expect, but the head is quick to diminish. The aroma is hard to pin down ... raisins? rum? The flavor is even more hard to pin down, with an overly bitter character. Although, especially as this warms up a bit, the solid backdrop of chewy, dark fruit takes over, and this gets pretty darn good. (#4065, 1/29/2011)

black pour small brown dense head. Lacking in aroma, very little there. Full well coated palate. Overly bitter flavor an IS that comes of piney in the after taste.. really not much to it and not very good.

Served from a 22 oz bottle from Belmont in Dayton. The appearance is a deep dark flowing black. The aromas are rich with chocolate, sweet caramelized malts, nice hops with perfume floral. The flavors are rich with malts, chocolate, sweet hop florals. The mouth is very refreshing for an IRS because the the hop does and easy to drink. Lovely hoped up IRS, drink it fresh!

Sampled at Cleveland’s Winter Warmer Festival 2010. I was drawn to the bottle, but was soon disappointed after tasting. The color was dark brown with no head. Aroma and flavor were bitter with strong hops and strange stale-like malty flavor. It wasn’t pleasant.

Donated by Buckeye Brewing for ALS Beer Dinner Benefit. Gavin told me this was their Old Ale but RB classifies it as American Strong so I don’t really know what to do with that. LOVE THE BOTTLE LABEL SO MUCH!!! Pours about the same color but a little lighter than their Mammoth Stout with a lighter off-white head. The aroma is not overwhelming, sweet malts balanced really nicely against the hops. The flavor doesn’t overwhelm the palate, super drinkable but didn’t have that wow factor I was expecting.

Bottle… Deep, clear copper ale with a small, creamy, off-white head. Good retention. The restrained nose provides caramel and a rumor of chocolate alongside herbal, earthy, piney notes. Full-bodied and very creamy with weighted-down carbonation. There’s plenty of malt sweetness and specialty grain body here. The generous hop bitterness evens things out nicely, but the malts and hops used are not synergistic or even all that compatible. The result is a bland beer with lots of promise wasted. Technically, a very good beer, but it lacks soul or character. The perfect beer if you’re into “almost.”

Murky burnt orange pour, not much head. Big stinky hop nose, very catty, skunky and funky, toast, bread, and some light doughy malts. The flavor is earthy up front, tons of pine, leafy foliage, some weed, darker caramel malts, dough, toast. Nice dank finish. Very earthy bitterness. SOme alcohol as well. Nice.