REVIEW #16: Imperial Stout (Samuel Smith's Old Brewery)

Pours near jet black with a cream coloured head that soon forms a collar. Liquorice and rye bread savoury odours intermingle with wine-like grape and cherry notes. Monster mouthfeel packed with lusciously juicy, chewy cherry and liquorice/aniseed. The huge malt portion manages to impart both sweet and savoury notes, as well as drown out most of the hop. A solvent, phenolic finish rounds things off. This is a beast of a beer!

The still independent Samuel Smith Old Brewery was founded in 1758 by the same family that launched John Smith's (who are no longer independent and sadly have their name on can's of bland, creamy rubbish). The brewery still use a pair of shire horses to deliver its beer around their home town of Tadcaster and are still using their own strain of yeast which they have propagated since 1900.

• MALTS: ? INCLUDES ROAST BARLEY
• HOPS: ?
• IBU: ?
• ABV: 7%
• FERMENTED IN YORKSHIRE STONE SQUARES

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