Peg Leg Imperial Stout

Yet another mid-’90s entrant into craft brewing, Baltimore’s Clipper City brewery produces several lines of beers, all now under the Heavy Seas brand. Peg Leg Imperial Stout, revealing intensely pungent aromas of blackstrap molasses, dark roast coffee and rich milk chocolate, is archetypically an imperial stout that dares you to dig deeper. Waiting beneath the powerful coffee notes, Rick was pleased to find teases of cedar and Ibarra Mexican chocolate to balance the aromas. Pete, too, found hints of chocolate, but he focused more on the intense, ripe fruitiness in the aroma, reminiscent of cherries and ripe boysenberries, noting their give and take with the almost punishing roastiness. Rather light for its style, the beer radiates a deep brown glow from the glass, occasionally punctuated by flashes of orange, and it throws a somewhat small tan head that quickly collapses. Chewy and mouth-filling, Peg Leg assaults the palate with a profusion of malt flavors drifting from French roast coffee to sweet hazelnuts to Kraft caramels, yet it maintains an assertive hop edge to remind you this is most definitely beer. Its big coffee component, balanced out by an almost milk chocolate-like sweetness, truly impressed Nick, who pronounced this an exceptionally approachable imperial stout. Tom had praise for the unexpectedly “clean, crisp” malt profile, commenting on the overall roast aspect and faint candy-like sweetness, but he found the beer to be just a little too small to be a standout imperial stout. As Heavy Seas continues its westward expansion, be on the lookout for Peg Leg in a quality purveyor near you.