Two Delicious but Temporary Offerings from Rockbottom (Canada - Nova Scotia - Halifax)

Wreckoning - Rockbottom Brewpub (Canada - Nova Scotia - Halifax) 10.0%

Yikes, this Russian Imperial Stout is not messing around! On account of its strength, I wouldn't mind if they sold a 8oz version rather than only the 12. On account of its taste, I wouldn't mind getting a barrel to take home with me; but more on that later.

Wreckington smells punishingly high in alcohol with lots of dark fruit and bourbon tones: delightful and dangerous. Nitrogenated by a sparkler faucet this stout has a velvety smooth, creamy head. Black and more or less opaque in a glass.

The taste is just, wow. Bursting with flavour: dark and milk chocolate, molasses, fruit esters, vanilla as well as oaky wood tones, dark fruit and bourbon-like tones. So good and, as I have already mentioned, not messing about. As a result, beer geeks will flip for this one while many others will turn up their noses at a beer so strongly (and awesomely) flavoured.

Blackened IPA - Rockbottom Brewpub (Canada - Nova Scotia - Halifax) 6.8%

A strongly green spruce aroma with a hefty dose of sweetness. A shade more brown that black but just about opaque in a glass with just a touch of sediment. Lots of that same spruce flavour in the taste with plenty of wooden tones and a green cut grass taste that comes through with an astringent quality and a chest warming feeling that conveys its high ABV. This cask ale was of normal carbonation but pleasantly just on the cool side of room temperature having been sitting on the bar in a kirkin sized thermos for about three hours before I got my pint. A lovely cask ale, makes me wish I was in Halifax for every Firkin Saturday at Rockbottom.