Aon Bourbon S'mores Shake Imperial Stout from Omnipollo Beer Review

It's difficult to resist an imperial stout on tap so once I saw this one from Omnipollo at the Strait and Narrow in Lincoln I wasn't going to turn it down. I don't know much about the brewery, but they are Swedish and based in Stockholm which I hope to visit once the covid pandemic has gone away. They have been doing a lot of brewing since 2010 and while I like the kaleidoscope on their website it is a little difficult to navigate which means I never quite managed to figure out why this Swedish beer is brewed in Holland. Anyway I've not had many Swedish beers over the years but I'm quite looking forward to trying this one especially if it's bourbon infused, yum.

Aon Bourbon S'mores Shake pours absolutely jet black with pretty much no head at all, so at least they got the look half right. The aroma tells you straight away this is going to be a strong beer, and sure enough clocking in at an impressive 11% alcohol this really is a beer than can do some damage. You'll be able to smell the bourbon in there but there's also plenty of sweet chocolate and possibly some marshmallow scents too. This seems for all the world like it's going to be a good strong imperial stout.

The beers texture is pretty thick, almost to the point where I'm quite glad I've only got a half as I think it'd fill me up quite quickly, it's reasonably smooth though. I found there was quite a strong liquorice taste among the chocolate notes, but unfortunately all the nice flavours take a back seat to the overpowering taste of bourbon and alcohol. This is always a danger with strong imperial stouts, they really need some powerful flavours to quell the sense that you're drinking an 11% beer and it's probably going to hurt in the morning.

Really Aon Bourbon S'mores Shake from Omnipollo does what it says on the tap. It's a strong imperial stout with a smooth bourbon texture and as a one off treat I think most dark beer drinkers will appreciate that it's a good beer. Where it lets itself down a little is just the complete lack of any head and the need to just infuse a little more flavour so the alcohol doesn't dominate too much. I'm going to give Aon Bourbon S'mores Shake Imperial Stout a good, but not great 7.5 out of 10. If you want a beer with a strong alcohol flavour it's a good choice for you.