Fanø Gorm

Brewery: Fanø Bryghus

Type: Imperial Stout

Alcohol: 10%

Country: Denmark

Fanø is a little island off the west coast of Denmark. I used to live in Esbjerg, Denmark which is the city closest to the island, it's also where you have to take the ferry from to get to this brewery. So beer from Fanø Bryghus was probably the first Danish craft beer I ever tasted. Stormflød (storm cream) is their signature chocolate milk stout, and it is the first beer that jumps to mind when I think of them. It was the first beer I had from them, and it was also the last beer I ever drank when moving away from Esbjerg. So this is the double imperial version of this beer, made as part of their artist series to celebrate local artists.

Pours totally pitch black into my Fanø glass. Has a huge creamy and super dark tan head that stays as a thick film on top of the beer and leaves the whole glass coated. it looks so much like chocolate milk foam it is almost uncanny. Certainly living up to it's triple milk stout name with the looks. Massive sweet dark malts, vanilla and cocoa dominate the nose. It's like smelling alcoholic nestle quik. One of the top best smelling stouts I have ever had. Because of this I can't keep from taking a taste any longer. A tidal wave of chocolate, sweet lactose sugar up front and bitter dark chocolate as you swallow. While it starts out sweet with milk chocolate, the finish is actually quite bitter, an almost hoppy bitterness that really helps balance out the sweetness. Lots of espresso coffee tones in the aftertaste, as well as round and super complimentary vanilla. Like having a chocolate latte at the coffee bar with a generous sprinkling of vanilla sugar. Huge mouthfeel, its sticky and thick like hershey's syrup. The aftertaste lingers forever, alternating between intense bitter chocolate and pleasant smoky molasses.

This is probably the most intensely chocolate and vanilla beer I have ever tried. My bottle has quite a bit of age on it, I can't imagine the intensity of this beer straight off the bottling line. I had doubts about this, as I have a spotty record with milk stouts. I can honestly say this beer blew any doubts I had completely out of the water. I like the original stormflød, but this is on a complete other level. Each factor of the beer is ramped up, chocolate, cocoa nibs, vanilla, all of these are massive in the taste, but almost perfectly balanced. This beer was amazing, a fitting Rock on Beer anniversary beer and certainly worthy of being one of Denmark's best beers. Next time I am back on the west coast I am going to try and stock up on this beer, and cross my fingers they will brew it again. This beer deserves all ten bottle caps.