Sunday, February 19, 2012

San Diego Beer Review: Iron Fist Velvet Glove Imperial Stout

Iron Fist Brewing
1305 Hot Spring Way #101
Vista, CA 92081

First off I need to thank my bro SG (you know who you are..) for the gift of this sweet bottle of Iron Fist VG!

Iron Fist Brewery is part of the growing North County Beer Triangle. This is an area that derserves exploring for any visitor to San Diego or Orange County. Hell, if you are anywhere is Southern California you need to make the pilgrimage to the North County of San Diego. You will find multiple high quality and nationally renowned breweries here, including but not limited to: Iron Fist, Port Brewing/Lost Abbey, Mother Earth Brewing,....hmmm...rather than go into this now I will make a separate post that discusses NC SD Beers in more detail...

On to the review...!

Velvet Glove Imperial Stout (9% ABV)

Appearance:
This beer pours thick and dark. The color is either a very very dark brown or it is pure black. I tried everything to get a hint of the true color..up to shining an extremely bright flashlight through the glass. The light did not penetrate any portion of the beer...so I am going with pure black here. On initial pour it forms a 2cm thick dark brown head with tight small bubbles. Beautiful lacing from the head on the sides of the glass.

Smell:
Massive coffee notes (very roasty) with some malty sweetness.

Taste:
First taste hits you with big choclate and coffee flavor. Hint of hops in the middle of the tongue but I believe the majority of the bitterness here is from the espresso/coffee that as been inserted into the brewing process. I am both a dark chocolate and coffee consumer...sometimes in larger than normal quantities... ;) The bitterness here is definitely of the coffee variety and not dark chocolate. The is a sense of the sweetness of the malt here as well.

Mouthfeel:
Sliky and smooth. The carbonation provides a nice "pop" on the center of the tongue.

Overall:
A nice clean rendition of a chocolate stout, with a coffee bitterness that offsets it from a traditional chocolate stout. I would definitely recommend this beer in bottle form to anyone who is a stout/porter connoisseur. If you are just getting into stouts or porters...this beer might not be for you.

NOT FOR THE FAINT OF HEART!