One of the newest buzzed about beers comes out of Denmark from Evil Twin Brewing. Their Imperial Biscotti Break has soared to the top of BeerAdvocate’s Top 100 New Beers, currently sitting in the #2 spot. It’s even more “imperialized” (is that a word?) than their regular Biscotti Break which is billed as an Imperial Porter. So, the Imperial Biscotti Break is a massive 11.50% ABV Imperial Stout made with coffee, vanilla beans and almonds.

When talking about how an Imperial Stout should look like, the Imperial Biscotti Break epitomizes it. A dark black body pours out with a fluffy, rich dark brown head. Very impressive lacing down sticks to the sides of the glass, as well as leaving a thick cap of foam behind. The aromas open up with huge coffee beans, lots of toasted barley, vanilla, pumpernickel bread, almonds and hints of chocolate. This is just a massive smelling beer and the coffee certainly seems to be the centerpiece of the aroma.

As with the nose, massive coffee, roasted malt and bitter chocolate flavors coat the palate. Vanilla, bread and nuts come through towards the back end. There is definitely some noticeable alcohol heat but it’s not too detracting from the actual flavor profile. On the mouth feel, this is just straight up thick. It’s full-bodied, chewy and completely coating all over the mouth. An absolutely stellar feel here – this is what all Imperial Stouts should be like.

I went into this only reading the label which set my expectations up somewhat for what I was getting into. Having had only one other beer from Evil Twin (to my recollection), this was wonderful. Big coffee notes played extremely well with the aggressive roasted malt backbone this beer had. My only critique would be to tone down the alcohol notes a bit, something perhaps cellaring would assist with. A must try, folks.

Rating

95
out of 100