Green Flash Double Stout

One of the dumber moves that The Bros did over on BA was to push for the creation of the so-called "American Double Stout" style. That is to say, it's not a "Imperial Stout", in that it was a beer that wasn't in any way involved in the UK-to-Czarist Russia trade route. Seemed rather silly and pedantic to me at the time -- who's really bitching that a self-proclaimed Imperial Stout doesn't have the same provenance as, say, the long gone John Courage Imperial Stout?

But to pay just dues, "American Double Stout" moniker does fit this beer, to a tee. And that is where my problem with it first comes to the forefront. For not only does this not fit what I feel an Imperial Stout should taste like; okay, okay, Green Flash doesn't say that this is an ImpStout, fair enough. *But*, if it is to be pigeon-holed into the so-called American Double Stout category, it just doesn't work for me.

There's nothing all that smooth or appealing with this beer. Rather harsh, with lots of nuances that remind me of the acrid bitterness of old, cold coffee at work. Not the tepid stuff you power down after lunch, to fight off the food coma. No, the really old and really bitter and really lousy stuff that's been sitting around for hours in your stained corporate coffee cup since the AM hours.

I kinda wish I had some dark chocolate, just to see if it'd help this beer's overall vibe. Milk chocolate doesn't work with most Imperial Stouts IMO (oh! Sorry! "American Double Stouts), and this beer is no exception. In fact, it seemed to only highlight the acrid bitterness, and (in a new twist to the story), the 8.8%ABV booze.

Enough. I'll be a good sport, and finish my beer like a good little boy. But only grudgingly, as there's many better beers on my beer radar than this dud from GF.
//TB