Fulton War & Peace Imperial Coffee Stout

This 9.5% ABV Imperial Coffee Stout is from the Fulton Brewing Company of Minneapolis, Minnesota. It is part of their Garage Series of periodic limited releases. It uses Peace Coffee's Guatemalan Organic Dark Roast, a pound of whole beans per barrel. Ten percent of the profits of this beer go into the Ful10 fund that provides micro loans to entrepreneurs. It is a Russian Imperial style stout, playing off the name, War and Peace the epic novel by Russian author Tolstoy.

The beer pours a pure, opaque black in color, even when held to the light. There is nearly an inch of medium-brown dark cappuccino creamy foam. The aroma is coffee, tangy and bitter cold coffee, vanilla, a touch of dark roasted malt char that slips back under the coffee, and some dark chocolate. The taste hits all the notes of the aroma, there is a huge battle between sweet dark malt and bitter, bitter coffee. Bitter and sweet of dark roasted malt, coffee and dark chocolate battle each other. A shiver goes up and down your spine. Sweet, bitter, coffee, char, chocolate, man this one hits them all. Full-bodied and smooth.