Storm King Imperial Stout - Victory Brewing Co., Downingtown

Storm King has a reputation that other brewers would kill for. Before I knew who Victory was I'd heard of a great Imperial Stout named Storm King. Victory doesn't distribute to my part of the country so I remained in the dark until recently. After returning from a trip to a far away beer market I found myself in possession of six Storm King bottles. The Stout family of beers has certainly grown on me over the past few years and I've eagerly awaited a cold wintery night to open up this 9.1% alcohol Imperial Stout. The Storm King's bottle says it is a seasonal release and there is a remarkable amount of hops packed into this beer. Suddenly, I'm a bit less excited...

Victory's Storm King pours dark, really dark. It's a deep dark black bodied beer when it settles into your glass. There's a third of an inch of light brown foam sitting on top of this beer just after pouring, but the head quickly dies down. Swirling the glass will wake the head back up and leave just a little lacing on the sides of the glass.

The aroma of the Storm King gives no hint at all to any amount of hops this beer may contain. This beer smells like a rich and semi sweet Stout. There's a lot of right chocolate malt aroma to this beer, which is complimented nicely by a tangy dark fruit and roasted oakiness. As far as I can tell this beer was not barrel aged, but I kept smelling just a hint of barrel character on it.

I took my first sip of this Storm King when it was still a little cooler than I'd like. I didn't notice any of the roasted or dark fruit flavors I picked up in the aroma. There was plenty of dark charred and almost burnt malt that gave this beer a bitterness and dry character I wasn't too crazy about. As the beer warmed up that bitterness decreased and the vanilla cream and dark fruit balanced things out. I've never used peat to describe the flavor of a beer before, but I think it's more than accurate when talking about the Storm King. This beer is so dark and so charred that it's difficult to find much sweetness in this beer. The hops certainly don't help when it comes to balance... I didn't pick up any hops in the aroma but they are definitely there. This beer had a dry, dirty and bitter flavor that sounds horrible, but in the end I actually liked it.

Victory Storm King isn't my favorite Imperial Stout but it is definitely one that has earned it's reputation as a great beer. This beer has many characteristics and flavors that I normally don't like, but blends them all together in a way that isn't just palatable but is genuinely enjoyable. That's a commendable feat as far as I'm concerned.