The Grapevine Exclusive Imperial Stouts

Grapevine Manila commissioned a batch of Imperial Stout each from Half Baked Brewing Collective and The Marc’s & Tony Brewing Company as a bundled release for the Holiday season. These beers can be bought exclusively from the Grapevine Manila website.

The first of the pair is the Chocolate Imperial Stout by Half Baked Brewing Collective. Not too long ago, Half Baked impressed us with their first version of Black is Beautiful, an Imperial Stout brewed with vanilla beans and bourbon-soaked cacao nibs. For this release, they blended three different Imperial Stouts brewed over the course of the lockdown with additions of cacao nibs and Madagascar vanilla beans.

Read More: Half Baked Joins #BlackIsBeautifulBeer to Support Justice and Equality for People of Color

With the Raspberry Imperial Stout, the Antipolo-based The Marc’s & Tony Brewing Company returns to the dark side after releasing the instant classic, the Lakatan Langka Stout last October. This was a beer of the same style but made with lakatan bananas, jackfruit, and coconuts. For this Grapevine exclusive, Tony brewed an oak-aged Imperial Stout with coconut, raspberry, and vanilla.

Read More: The Marc’s & Tony Brewing Company “Lakatan Langka Stout”

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Half Baked Brewing Collective “Chocolate Imperial Stout” (10% ABV)

STYLE GUIDELINES

This beer is being evaluated as a Spice, Herb, or Vegetable Beer (30A) with the Imperial Stout (20C) as the base style in the context of the 2015 Beer Style Guidelines of the Beer Judge Certification Program (BJCP). The most current version of the guidelines can be found on the BJCP website.

TASTING NOTES

Deep brown and partly opaque. Boozy liquor and cacao nibs on the nose; others noted more vibrant aromas such as cherry, maple syrup, biscuit, and hazelnut. Medium-full bodied with style-appropriate carbonation and wine-like dryness. Up front, cacao nibs and dark chocolate meld with wine and a few drops of rum for sweetness. As the beer settles, subtle breadiness surface alongside grape and lychee esters. Alcohol suggestive primarily of rum become more evident. The beer finishes dry and puckering; lychee and grape with a faint smoky character we associate with chocolate cookies in beer.

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The Marc’s & Tony Brewing Co. “Raspberry Imperial Stout” (10% ABV)

STYLE GUIDELINES

This beer is being evaluated as a Fruit Beer (29A) with the Imperial Stout (20C) as the base style in the context of the 2015 Beer Style Guidelines of the Beer Judge Certification Program (BJCP). The most current version of the guidelines can be found on the BJCP website.

TASTING NOTES

Deep brown and partly opaque. Aromas of raspberry jam with some coconut open up. Medium-bodied with moderately-low carbonation; slight dryness. Prominent berry and grape tartness with light coconut flavors surfacing secondarily. Supportive raisiny and bready malt character; low jam-like sweetness. Bitterness is moderately-low. Aftertaste lingers with lychee and raspberry impressions; slightly dry, puckering, but with some stickiness on the palate.

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THE VERDICT

The Chocolate Imperial Stout by Half Baked Brewing Collective is a dry, boozy, cacao-forward dark ale. The first few sips had a smoother showcase of the chocolates, but as the beer settled to room temperature, the booziness heightened by a notch. It is good, but not as impressive as their first version of the Black is Beautiful Imperial Stout. While the vanilla felt muted, we enjoyed how the cacao nibs were translated into the beer and provided some sort of backbone. However, the future iterations of the Chocolate Imperial Stout could have a fuller body with a more balanced approach on the rum or whatever spirit was used through a medium.

Meanwhile, Tony Sindayen of The Marc’s & Tony Brewing Company created a beer that delivered on the raspberry promise. In our opinion, the coconut worked well with the raspberry for the aromas, but the presence of the oak felt muted overall. This brew also felt lighter on the palate relative to the Lakatan Langka Stout, which is also an Imperial Stout that featured coconut. The raspberry addition appeared to have contributed some fruit tartness, so we think a more robust and roasty malt presence could hold this up better in the next versions.

 

 

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