Part of Emelisse’s White Label Series, this is an Imperial Russian Stout that has been made with peated whisky malt and aged in Bowmore barrels.
And. It. Is. Amazing.
Pouring an inky black, the aroma is heavy with damp undergrowth, brandy, and a little bit of yet to be cooked smoked bacon.
The first sip is burned dry toast crusts, treacle and molasses, black pepper, but it’s not easy – or to be honest, necessary – to discern the malts from the hops, and so I won’t.
With every sip, and this is a sipper, the feeling and flavours build.
Crunchy woodland leaf litter, rum and raisin, dark chocolate, bitter pithy sapling wood, and underpinning this is the most amazing, lightly smoked, fungal wrapped oak, damp and warm and groaning with whisky heat.
This is an absolutely stunning beer.

Source: Ales By Mail