Looks:
Smell:
Taste:
Overall:
Description:
Brewed with molasses, brewer’s licorice, and Belgian dark rock candi sugar, The Muddy is an imperial stout with amplified sweetness for a taste as distinctive as the Chicago blues that inspired its creation. (Description provided by company)
Brewer:
Beer Style:
ABV:
9.00% ABV
Availability Frequency:
Limited (brewed once)
Containers Available:
bottle
Locations Where Available:
Northeast
Southeast
Great Lakes States
Plains States
Southwest
Store/Serve Temperature:
close to 60 degrees F
Comments
The Muddy: Imperial stout with hints of a quad
The Muddy poured near-black with a two-finger tan head that melted away with a little lacing. The aroma is chocolate, cherries, and coffee...smelling as sweet and boozy as a quad but with enough coffee and chocolate to keep you certain this is just a complex stout. When I taste it, the coffee is in front with chocolate, licorice, and dark fruit mixed behind. Flows richly over the tongue. I'm rather thrilled with this offering from Goose Island. Even after having my expectations overcome, I continued to improve my opinion of The Muddy as my glass emptied.
In the mud
Goose Island's Muddy Imperial Stout pours pitch black. I can't see a single bit of light through this bad boy. There's a nice creamy head after the pour. The smell has strong licorice notes. I'm struggling to get much more than that. The flavor is licorice-forward, but there's a heft that supports that sweet flavor and gives it some life. The alcohol flavor is well masked.
Play in the Mud(dy)!
Pours a pitch black with a finger and a half of a tan, fizzy head. Head doesn't last long, but there is a bit of lacing that sticks around.
A dark malty nose, with strong notes of coffee, some bitter chocolate, and licorice. There is some bright, fruity alcohol aroma as well.
The darker flavors (dark chocolate, licorice, dark fruits, coffee) are quite prevalent in the taste, although to me the more bitter flavors are more dominant than the sweeter ones. The brief flash of alcohol toward the finish does help to cut the aftertaste down to something that's only moderately long. Not quite as sweet as I was expecting from some other reviews, but it does have a lot of depth and complexity, and even though the bitterness is moderately high, the flavors are quite good.
A medium full body, and fairly low carbonation - smooth.
A very good example of an Imperial Stout, the Goose Island Muddy does provide some very dark malty and fruity flavors while maintaining decent balance and even managing to (somewhat) mask the 9% ABV.