If I’m ever going to stand a chance of achieving my New Year’s resolution of reviewing 300 different beers this year it’s about time I got started don’t you think? Searching through the fridge for a bottle to try my only condition was that it should not IN ANY WAY remind me of beers in Tenerife.

That’s why I eventually grabbed a bottle of Midtfyns Bryghus Imperial Stout, a heavyweight 9.5% ABV beer from Denmark that pours as black as the volcanic rocks of Mount Teide.

(Ed note: That’s it. I’m sick of references to Tenerife now. Stop it)

I don’t know much about this quirky brewery. I have previously tried their IPA and found it to be pleasant if a little forgettable. I couldn’t uncover a  lot of information about it on the web although I did find a rather unflattering picture of the brewery which makes it look like a botched 70s shop front extension to a house.

However microbreweries don’t always need to look pretty as long as they deliver in the bottle. MB’s Imperial Stout had previously been voted the Best New Beer of 2007 by the Danish Society of Beer Enthusiasts so my expectations were high.

The beer pours a coal black colour with an impressive and firm O’Boy coloured head. Smells initially of milk chocolate, cereal husks and burnt coffee beans, but there’s something odd mixed in there too that reminded me of sour cream.

In the mouth the beer starts to disappoint, with salty stingy bitterness and raw burnt flavours of rågbröd, liquorice and ash making it a little ‘uncomfortable’ to drink.

Considering the high ABV this Imperial Stout doesn’t have the flavour muscle I expected it to have. Lots of burnt tones but you’re left searching for something else to add contrast.

Not a great Dane, but I wouldn’t swap it for a Dorada (dammit!)

(ps: I noted on their website that among an interesting line-up of beers produced at Midtfyns Bryghus is one called Gunners Ale produced for the Danish Arsenal supporters club. As a die-hard Liverpool fan I want to stress this in no way influenced my appreciation of their beer).

Midtfyns Bryghus Imperial Stout

9.5% ABV

Systembolaget Article Number 11707