Imperial stout tasting

I attended a tasting of imperial stouts last night, hosted by my friend Chris and attended by fellow Team Library Dork member Dave and Marc. My tolerance is pretty low these days, so thanks, Marc, for driving.

Here was the lineup:



Let's see if I can name them all:
Port Brewing Santa's Little Helper 2008 Imperial Stout
Port Brewing/Lost Abbey Serpent's Stout 2009 (?)
Green Flash Double Stout
Sam Adams Imperial Stout
Oskar Blues Ten Fidy Imperial Stout
Victory Storm King Imperial Stout
(we skipped the Stone Bitter Chocolate Oatmeal Stout)
Avery's The Czar Imperial Stout
Stone Imperial Russian Stout (2008?)

These were some big, solid beers. The first three were wildly flavorful, then they seemed to settle into more balanced, textbook examples of imperial stouts. (Or maybe my palate was just overloaded by that point.) Standouts for me were the Stone Imperial Russian and the Oskar Blues Ten Fiddy - they seemed the most drinkable and accessible.

Here's my view for much of the night:



And a table-top view from later:



So: a good time, some incredible beers, and good friends. Thanks, Chris, for a palate expanding experience, as usual.