Saturday, November 9, 2013

Oskar Blues Ten FIDY Review



Name: Oskar Blues Ten FIDY
Style: Imperial Stout
ABV: 10.5%

In honor of World Stout Day, I'm reviewing Oskar Blues very own Imperial Stout offering. That's right, I'm talking about Ten FIDY and yes, the FIDY is capitalized. In case you were wondering, the name comes from it's 10.5% ABV; Were you expecting someone else.....?

To my knowledge, this is the only Imperial Stout I know of that comes in a can, though if I'm wrong please feel free to correct me. I know craft beer in cans is becoming more of a commonplace, but it's quite unusual to see this style of beer in a can. Then again, this is Oskar Blues we're talking here.

Ten FIDY pours a opaque black color with a dark brown foamy head and a large amount of lacing. The carbonation which is visible is mild in appearance.

The nose starts off with strong chocolate malts, caramel, roasted barley and toffee. There's even some noticeable hoppiness thrown in for good measure.

The roasty and malty aroma is amplified in the taste with chocolate, roasted barley, vanilla, peasted scotch smoked malts and oak. The hoppiness isn't quite as noticeable here as the nose but you can taste it if you allow it to sit on your palate long enough. Speaking of which....

The body is fairly heavy and somewhat thick and the carbonation starts out moderate but tapers off into a more mild feel.

For an Imperial Stout, it draws heavily from Scotch Ales in terms of Smokiness but it's thankfully an asset in this case.  While the smokiness may deter some people from enjoying this, it's still got a very nice mix of flavors to make this worth checking out. As for me, I loved it and look forward to having it again.

Oskar Blues Ten FIDY - 9/10

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