Wilco Tango Foxtrot - Lagunitas (USA - California - Petaluma)

Wilco Tango Foxtrot - Lagunitas (USA - California - Petaluma) 7.8%

An amazing aroma and taste to match: very hoppy (melon & cucumber), hints of peaches but also malty and roasted.  Dark and almost chocolatey tasting at times. It's not bitter at first (or maybe there is just too much going on to really notice it) but it does have a bitter finish. As far as colour, just like one of the many humourous lines to read from the label: "We're not quite in the Red, or in the Black...". It tastes like they mixed a heavily hopped beer with maybe a stout. It's really really good. Too bad it was only a limited release.

Pénombre - Brasserie Dieu du Ciel! (Canada - Quebec - St. Jérome) 6.5%

Pénombre - Brasserie Dieu du Ciel! (Canada - Quebec - St. Jérome) 6.5%

A very dark brown, not quite opaque with a tan head that leaves behind good lacing. The aroma is roasty with dark chocolate and coffee/espresso hints but also some resiney hops. I'm looking forward to tasting this one - the aroma sets my mouth watering.

Sooo nice, smoky, dark chocolate, roasty malt with bitterness especially in the aftertaste. There is a pleasant and mild cedar or resin flavour to the beer as well. A bit of pine comes out as the beer warms. Pénombre is a really nice beer, it bills itself as a Black IPA but it seems more like an American Stout but it's a blurred line not a clear demarcation so if they want to call it a Black IPA I'll call it a delicious one.

Storm King Imperial Stout - Victory Brewing (USA - Pennsylvania - Downington)

Storm King Imperial Stout - Victory Brewing (USA - Pennsylvania - Downington) 9.1%

Opaque and very black. Smells strongly hoppy and of dark chocolate. It tastes quite bitter both like hops and bitter like dark chocolate and has an alcohol finish. The hops character mixes heavily with the chocolatey stout but there are melon hints before the two forces intertwine. This hoppy stout is called an American Stout (Americans do love their hops) which I think is a tasty and interesting take on traditional stouts.