SaintBrewis.com - Perennial Artisan Ales

Justin:

Aroma - Coffee (duh), dark fruit, and roasty with a hint of green pepper.

Score: 10/12

Appearance - The head is a frothy, dark tan. The beer is coal black with slow bubbling carbonation.

Score: 3/3

Flavor - Dark roasted coffee and chocolate. Unfortunately, I'm pretty sensitive to green pepper flavors that are common in coffee beers and got a noticeable level here. Didn't take away from the awesomeness.

Score: 18/20

Mouthfeel - Very slick and creamy which is very characteristic of the style. Full, thick body. Carbonation is low but appropriate.

Score: 5/5

Overall Impression - True to the Imperial Stout style, this beer got better as it warmed up. Again, you may not even taste the green pepper personally but it's slight and doesn't take away from all the other great things going on in the beer. It's hard to ignore the hype but Sump lives up to the lofty praise heaped upon it. It was worth standing in line for and it'll be worth doing so again.

Score: 8/10

Blake:

Aroma - Lots of coffee, and so sweet it is almost cloying. Roastiness balances out the aroma.

Score: 10/12

Appearance - Opaque. Shine a light through this one, and you'll see nothing out the other side.

Score: 3/3

Flavor - Coffee is right up front, and only gets stronger as the beer gets closer to room temperature. After Justin noted green peppers, I got hints of it as well, but it dissipates as the coffee and chocolate characteristics come forward.

Score: 18/20

Mouthfeel - Thick, like drinking a melted chocolate bar in your coffee. The thick and viscous mouthfeel is what every stout should strive to be.

Score: 5/5

Overall Impression - Perennial might have been originally known for its Belgian style beers, but they've stepped into the imperial stout game in a way many would have never expected. This along with Maman, Abraxas, and 17 make an unholy quadrilodgy of flavorful stouts. If you can try all of them in one tasting, consider it a life achievement, doubly so if you get the barrel aged variants to go along with them. Sump is one of the easier ones to find of this imperial stout series, and if you are a fan of coffee beers, you'd be remiss to pass up a bottle of Sump.

Score: 9/10