Sauce Imperial Stout. 9.2 % ABV. 40 IBU. Wild Mind Artisan Ales, Minneapolis, MN.
Solid blackness...Stygian, even....slim brown ring above. Looking very nice.
In the nose: Rich and chocolatey, some spice and smoke. Slightly ashen. Some peppers? Turns out, yes, peppers, and quite a lot of spices. I'm tasting this blind, as usual, without knowing all the details. Just peeked at them, which I will share at the bottom.
In the mouth: Full, Rich. Intense. Massive malt presence. Lush and luxurious. Minimal hops. And on comes the cinnamon. More spices flood the palate. Chocolate catches up. Sweetness and spice. Yum.
As you'll read below, the idea is to re-create a mole sauce in an imperial stout. I don't find that ingredient much in my diet, but I feel like they achieved their aim. My notes were succinct, but I feel that I made my point. Once I tapped those notes into the keyboard, I relaxed and luxuriated, and drank down just a little more than half of the 64 ounce growler. Probably a little more than I should have. It's good that I don't have a day job. (By the way, some of the prices on the 750ml bottles at Wild Mind go from $8-$25. $15 for 64 oz. of Imperial Stout seems like a steal.)
This Imperial Stout was brewed with the intention of reproducing the depth of flavors in a mole sauce. There are many varieties of mole sauce, some containing up to 30 ingredients, and this one is based on a mole dulce. It checks in at 20 ingredients with seven grains, two hops, one yeast and 10 other spices. This has robust malt flavors of cocoa, coffee and dark fruit in a full, sultry body. The addition of cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, cardamom, almond, ginger, raisins, vanilla, cocoa nibs and ancho chiles meld into that body and come across on the palate with a rounded spice character. With how much is going on, this stout leaves you with a singular and distinct impression that we hope reminds you of mole.
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