Herevana – Isthmus – Figaro
I’ve drunk a goodly amount of Isthmus beers, but oddly they’ve not made a stout that I know of, but I’m not an expert in that.
So, if you’re going make one go all on on a Fig and Chocolate one. Right?
Isthmus Brewing make the Isthmus Figaro in Auckland, 🇳🇿 New Zealand in the style that is a Stout – Imperial with an ABV of 9.0% and with 70 IBU. This is 3.1 standard drinks in NZ
I was distracted reading about the music that I chose. Anyway.
There’s a couple of aromas that you get when you open the can. The last is that familiar roasted chocolate/coffee note. The first was really sweet and tantalising which might be the fig, not being a fig expert I’ve just educated myself.
That is coal black and very bright in the glass with a coffee coloured head that is full firm and fierce. The aroma in the glass seems lost to the roasted part of the deal.
I’m torn. There is a quite a lot of burnt or smokey about taste, and it is quite lightly bittered. Then there’s this shadow or parallel taste that for me is just out of reach as you drink it.
I went again, and this time a new thing appeared with was a dryness at the end that settled on my tounge.
There’s a gentle and soothing softness about the body of this beer, which makes it quite deceptive, there’s no show of the 9% Payload, no tang or edge that just nudges you, the body of this is jsut sweet enough without being sweet.
As an aside there is some nice lacing appearing as I sip this, lacing is under-rated.
Am I loving it? I’m not not loving it, there’s more smokiness than chocolate or figgyness, but this does have a lovely softness about the drinking, and I’m quite enjoying the puzzle I’m getting.
The Pdubyah-o-meter rates this as 8 on the arbitrary number scale. If you anything about the way I buy beer it’s usually a one off experience. I’ve got two of these because I know the quality of the beer and the ability of the brewer. I’m pretty sure that the next time might deliver me a different experience that will equally delight and confound me.
Music: well Mercury Rev have an album called Bobbie Gentry’s The Delta Sweete Revisited. I can’t resist listening to something with that kind of title. Mercury Rev is an American indie rock band formed in 1989 in Buffalo, New York.
Herevana beers are those I drink at home, I’m not at some beer festival, like, for instance, Beervana, but am just in my kitchen, usually, dining room table, sometimes, or outside, occasionally, where I can take an average picture and write in real time about the beer that I’ve invested in, both in a monetary and emotional way.
Philip himself.
Fit for royalty, this imperial stout is laden with caramelised figs and cocoa nibs. Indulge yourself with this big beauty: rich, roasty, chocolatey and velvet smooth.
Brewers Notes
Pure decadence!
Stout – Imperial
The “Imperial Stout” or “Double Stout” is an intensely-flavored, big, very dark reddish-brown to black colored ale with a wide range of flavor balances and regional interpretations. Roasty-burnt malt with deep dark or dried fruit flavors, and a warming, bittersweet finish. American versions have more bitterness, roasted character, and finishing hops, while the English varieties, or “Russian Imperial Stout” (RIS), reflect a more complex specialty malt character and a more forward ester profile. Like a black barleywine with every dimension of flavor coming into play. More complex, with a broader range of possible flavors than lower-gravity stouts.
A life just as ordinary 