Epic Brewing - Imperial Stout

Tonight I'll be drinking a bottle of Imperial Stout from Epic Brewing in Salt Lake City, UT.  This is part of their Exponential Series - back in September I enjoyed the Imperial IPA, an Exponential sibling to this big stout.  Epic Brewing has a cool way of tracking their brews - they actually reference each individual batch of beer and explain the subtle changes they make to the grain bill, and the effects on the beer.  It's an interesting way to track the life of a beer, from the first batch all the way to the currently available batch - other breweries should take note!

The label on the bottle states this beer is from Batch# 3, brewed on January 27, 2011.  For this batch, they threw a decent amount of Cascade hops, and raised the bar to 9.1% alcohol.  The color is deep black, with two full inches of dark tan, creamy foam.  Great looking beer, lots of lace left behind.  The aroma is loaded with roastiness.  Seriously, loads of roasted malts paired with semi-sweet dark chocolate and coffee beans.  There is also a bitter twang in the nose, seems to be a combination of hops and alcohol.  The flavor starts off extremely rich, with sweet molasses, dark chocolate, and a burnt, sugary caramel.  Not much coffee is present here, but there is plenty of charcoal...burnt, earthy, woody flavors.  Bitterness breaks through in the middle, certainly some Cascade in there.  The mouthfeel is incredibly rich and gritty - each sip is a mouth full.

Overall Rating:  This is a solid Imperial Stout.  I'll be honest, I just came back from Surly Darkness Day, where I drank multiple pints of their Darkness RIS.  That is a tough beer to follow, and while Epic has a nice stout here, it doesn't even compare to Darkness.  I know that's not really fair to Epic, but hey, that's what beer reviewing is all about!  B