Vampire Slayer – Clown Shoes Beer

10% ABV
Purchased at Taylor’s Market in Sacramento ($9.99/22 oz. bottle) and poured into mini globe glasses.

Vampire Slayer pours midnight black with a fun-sized, caramel candy-colored head and intricate spider web lacing on the glass.  This imperial stout from Ipswich, Massachusetts-based Clown Shoes smells of smoldering wood (the malts were smoked with hickory and ash), caramel, and a little milk chocolate.  The first swallow is rich and chocolate-y up front, but that fades into a long and bitter finish dominated by burnt wood and coffee grounds.  It’s a dark and delicious beer, and a masterful storyteller at that – on later swallows, caramel and root beer flavors emerge on the front end, while firewood and bitter coffee stay planted on the finish.

   4.5 Toasts

   4.5 Toasts