Review #1000, December 24th 2006. 22 oz bomber, 2006 vintage, gold wax dipped neck. Poured into the Duvel Goblet.
Thanks to Beerinator for the trade as part of Xtreme BIF 39.
Pours jet black with a wonderful expresso like head that becomes a simple film fairly quickly. Milk chocolate color to the head and the spotty film. Perhaps the “blackest” beer I have encountered, but definitely not the most viscous.
Nose is all sweet alcohol and the initial tastes match that aroma. Actually a lot more sweetness upfront than I was expecting. This gives way to a big bitterness fairly quickly. The bitterness is a burned charcoal. Bitterness bites in the finish. Increasing charcoal and burned malts are present with a hint of hop bitterness but not much. A combination of early milk chocolate and then some later dark chocolate. The overwhelming sensation is a something burning! Coal comes to mind.
Mouthfeel is very good with a silky smoothness descending on the mouth pretty quickly.
Drinkability is not great, and this beer definitely fails to live up to the hype, but that’s not at ALL surprising to me. All the nonsense about “Dark Lord Day” etc. is almost certain to raise the beer to silly heights that are difficult to live up to. Having said that, it’s still a super drink that is worth trying once, but I would not bother making a great effort to seek this out again.