Harviestoun Ola Dubh

Name: Ola Dubh Special Reserve 12
Style: Imperial Stout
ABV: 8.0%
Serving: 330ml bottle
Brewery: Harviestoun Brewery
Location: Alva, Clackmannanshire, Scotland, UK
Weblink: Harviestoun Ola Dubh

Well... it's been a while. How are you? Been keeping well? Sorry for the big paws, but us polar bears are like that. Anyway, I've had quite a few good beers lately and though "now, if only I had somewhere that I could make a note of this". Why did I start this blog after all?

On to the beer in hand. In glass? In tummy? Well, all are true. This beer's name apparently means "black oil". I'll take their word for it as I don't speak Gaelic, but if so then it is terribly apt. The beer pours very treacly and thick, and I had to abuse it a little to produce any decent head. Once formed, however, the head was a beautifully thick and creamy layer of fine foam that lasted and lasted and lasted. On the nose it does smell frighteningly alcoholic, with a sharp tang of hard liquor and wood. Fortunately, this isn't the way it tastes. The beer comes across as a very well put together Imperial Stout; deep, thick and even across the mouth, with a rich malt and chocolate flavour accented by notes of tobacco and caramel. However, towards the back of the mouth this beer starts to take on another character, as peat and smoke start to power their way through, and as the beer leaves your mouth you end with an unmistakably whisky afterglow.

I did think that the whole "aged in whisky barrels" schtick was just marketing hype, but it really is there. This beer really does leave you with the feeling that about ten minutes ago you were enjoying a beautiful, smooth, aged single malt whisky. You really wouldn't want to drink more than one of these in an evening, and to be honest I found it somewhat over sweet as I like my stouts a bit more bitter, but as a sipping beer to enjoy curled up on the sofa it is up there among the best.

Southern Tier Oat

Name: Blackwater Series Oat
Style: Imperial stout
ABV: 11.0%
Serving: 650ml bottle
Where: Pub Italia, Ottawa
Brewery: Southern Tier Brewing Company
Location: Lakewood, NY, USA
Weblink: Southern Tier beers

Just to round out Friday night, before I get too far behind, here's the other mighty Imperial stout on offer at Pub Italia from Southern Tier. Just for research purposes, you understand. This beer forms an interesting counterpoint to the Young's Double Chocolate stout below.

The beer pours very dark, pretty much jet black with only hints of brown, and fairly treacly, with only a very thin deep brown head. The flavour palette is dominated by strident burnt toast and bootstrap molasses tastes, with a slightly spicy and caramel toffee backnote. These morph gradually into a very similar tobacco and dark chocolate flavours to that of the Chokolat stout from the same brewery. In contrast to their Chokolat, however, you can definitely taste much of the 11% alcohol that resides here.Their shared parentage is very clearly shown here. The aftertaste is predominantly a similarly spicy and toasty flavour to those of the main palette, but that linger for a very long time indeed.

Southern Tier Choklat Stout

Name: Blackwater Series Imperial Choklat Stout
Style: Imperial stout
ABV: 11.0% (9% quoted on the import label...)
Serving: 650ml bottle
Brewery: Southern Tier Brewing Company
Location: Lakewood, NY, USA
Weblink: Southern Tier Beers

Just to prove that I do drink beers from outside Ontari-airy-airy-oh, here's a monstrous offering from western New York's Southern Tier brewery. Bought from the specialist cabinet at, yes, Pub Italia in Ottawa, it was a bit of a treat at $20 for a single 650 ml bottle. But hey, sometimes you gotta push the boat out.

The beer pours thick and resinous, with an oily sheen and thin, dark brown head. The aromas that pour off the beer are, well, fairly un-beer-like. The first scent that you detect is a slightly milky sweetness, followed by burnt coffee notes and a thick, rich chocolate undertow. And that's pretty much how it tastes as well; as my drinking companion put it, "like alcoholic Nesquik!" There is obviously an awful lot of fine, dark chocolate and rich cocoa gone into each bottle of this mighty brew, and these have swamped out all but the most bombastic elements of the malt's own flavour profile. Gradually these do ease their way through from the back, however, with a pleasing tobacco and black coffee toastyness gradually filling your mouth as the chocolate fades away. The one thing you can't taste - surprisingly, given its high ABV - is alcohol, although you can feel its warming presence in your throat, and see its effects in the way that the room begins to shimmer after a while!

One of the nicest parts of this beer is the way that it feels in your mouth. There is a robust, voluminous richness, that is tempered and enhanced by a smooth, silky feel as the beer slides towards the back of your mouth. This beer is certainly an experience, but not one I can see myself indulging in too frequently. It does pretty much what it says on the bottle label, but there isn't much complexity here and after a while this means that the beer loses its attraction. The 650 ml bottle is probably enough for 2-3 people to share but one on your own is a bit much. So take a friend of two, crack open a bottle, sip it from a snifter, and let the chocolate wash over you.