Tasting Notes: Flying Dog Gonzo Imperial Porter

Flying Dog Gonzo Imperial PorterBrewery: Flying Dog
Location: Frederick, Maryland, USA
ABV: 8.7%
Version: Bottled
Source: Tesco

[Part three of a Flying Dog Triple, along with Classic Pale Ale]

Gonzo Imperial Porter is another recent addition to the Tesco World Beer Range. I grabbed a couple of bottles of this one as soon as I spotted them on the shelf and I urge you to do the same; this is an absolutely fantastic example of the imperial porter style, a truly fabulous beer.

Enough hyperbole (fuelled, I might add, by the fact that I’m supping another glass of Gonzo Imperial as I type). I think it’s probably time for some description. The pour is a pleasure in itself: the beer almost gloops out of the bottle and settles down to present an opaque, black body with a creamy, tan-coloured head that lingers right to the end of the drink. The first sip releases a flood of rich, mocha, coffee-chocolate flavours: sharp, dark chocolate and smooth, mellow coffee. Further sampling reveals hints of vanilla and black treacle, creating a lingering, palate-tingling sweetness that reminds you of the after-taste of good, creamy, treacle toffee and there’s a very, very slight hint of pepper in there as well.

Damn, this stuff is delicious. Since we started Blog o Beer I’ve sampled some truly incredible beers. The vast majority of the ones that I’ve enjoyed the most (so far) seem to have been stouts, porters and strong, imperial stouts and porters – such as Red Rat Crazy Dog Stout, Outstanding Stout, Meantime London Porter, BrewDog Rip Tide and the pick of the bunch so far, Brewdog Tokyo* – and Gonzo Imperial Porter is definitely up there with the best of them.

Seriously: go straight to your local (large) branch of Tesco and clear the shelves. I reckon I’ll be doing just that the very next chance I get.

  • Rob Derbyshire

    I ordered a bottle of this from Beers of Europe, little did I know I could have order something much more rare as my local Tesco would be stocking this great beer.

    This was served up along with desert at the Flying Dog beer tasting event in Leeds this past monday.
    This was beer number 15 of the evening and I was a little worse for wear. appearing on the heals of a 10.2abv Horn Dog Barley Wine, a gorgeous Smoked black lager titled Schwartz Dog & a oversized milk carton of the uber rare RAGING BITCH! an incredible hybrid of a pale Belgian Ale and a American double IPA!

    I’m looking forward to a nice cold rainy autumn evening where I can really savour this lovley beer.

  • http://www.timlebbon.net Tim Lebbon

    Darren, I received some samples of this courtesy of James Clay (via R&R Teamwork), but you beat me to reviewing it. I have to agree with you, the Gonzo imperial Porter is one of the finest I’ve tasted in a while. Like you my preference is usually with stouts and porters (one of my most regular tipples being the London meantime Porter), and this is certainly up there with the best of them. I loved the intense roasted flavours, a hint of chocolate and caramel, and the high ABV didn’t smother the most sutle tastes. A real winner, and I can’t wait to pick up some more.

  • Ed Ashby

    My first impression of this was – don’t take the first drink immediately after pouring, give it a few minutes to settle and acclimatise. I didn’t do this and screwed my face up with the acidity. But after leaving for said time it smooths out as the flavours start to neatly blend together. The coffee and dark chocolate still retain some of that acidic bitterness though and I felt that detracted a bit from the overall taste but I’m prepared to try another to convince myself it’s as good as you claim.

Latest Comments

Recent Comments

Powered by Disqus

Subscribe for Updates

Facebook


Twitter Lists

I follow over 2,500 beer-themed Twitter accounts via @FolkAle and have organised many of them into lists:

If you run a beer-relevant Twitter account and would like to be listed, please follow me at @FolkAle and I’ll take a look.