Biggie's Bodacious Banana Split

Alvarado Street Brewery — Salinas, CA

14 Feb 2020 · Stephen

Imperial Stout Alvarado Street Brewery

10.0% ABV

Deep dark brown Color

Contributing Factors

Presentation ✓

Character ✓

Experience ✓

Return ✓

4 / 4 I'd order another

Tasting Notes

Appearance Near-black to deep dark brown, nearly opaque with a tan head that settles to a persistent ring. Rich and substantial in the glass — this looks like a dessert course before a single drop has been tasted.

Aroma Banana arrives first and with conviction — warm, ripe, and real rather than candy-artificial. The cacao follows with a dark bitter chocolate quality that grounds the tropical sweetness into stout territory. Vanilla comes in behind both, soft and creamy, tying the banana and cacao into something that smells unmistakably like the dessert it's named after. The imperial stout roasted malt sits underneath everything, providing structure and a faint coffee note. The milk sugar gives the whole aroma a rounded, full quality.

Palate Rich and full-bodied — the milk sugar and 10% ABV together creating a mouthfeel that's somewhere between dessert and stout. The banana carries through the middle in full expression, warm and ripe, the cacao building alongside it with a dark chocolate bitterness that keeps the whole thing from going purely sweet. The vanilla rounds the back half into the whipped cream quality the concept demands. The roasted malt provides a dry counterpoint that prevents the adjunct stack from going cloying.

Finish Long, warm, and banana-forward. The cacao bitterness and vanilla linger together on the back palate, the banana sweetness fading last with the 10% ABV warmth underneath. Nothing harsh, nothing hot — just the slow resolution of a well-made imperial dessert stout that ages gracefully and tastes like it was made with affection.

The Verdict

Named after a beloved bulldog, built like a 10% dessert, and still holding up at five years in the can. The holy grail, as the most loyal drinker in the series says from a golf course. Cacao, vanilla, banana, milk sugar, imperial stout. Bodacious, as advertised. Cheers, Biggie.

— Stephen · Contributing Factor Brewing · 14 Feb 2020