Review: Dépanneur Peluso 30e Anniversaire Imperial Stout aux Griottes (Brasseurs Illimités)


A few years back, the folks over at Dépanneur Peluso celebrated their 30th anniversary. To celebrate 30 years of being awesome, they worked with Les Brasseurs Illimités and introduced the Peluso 30 Imperial Stout for the anniversary. Now days, Dépanneur Peluso is highly regarded as one of the top beer stores in all of Canada and it's no surprise because they carry over 400 beers brewed in Quebec and have staff who absolutely love talking about beer day and night.

I picked up a bottle of the Pelsuo 30 Imperial Stout aux Griottes when I was in Montreal last April, so it's probably aged and changed a bit in the 11 months since I got it. That's what imperial stouts are about!

Appearance: Pours a rich black with a light cola brown hue to it. The foamy head starts off a burnt caramel brown but gradually changes to a light cookie dough brown as the foam settles a bit.

Aroma: I'm getting a rich, dark roasted stout with hints of campfire smokiness, a hint of dark chocolate/cocoa.. and for it being a cherry stout, there's only a hint of cherry sweetness (no tartness).

Taste: A woody flavour is the first thing I notice which actually turns into more of a roasted malt flavour as I'm letting the stout warm up. It's a bitter roasty stout with notes of dark chocolate/mocha, fairly watery mouthfeel on the palate compared to your typical creamy imperial stout and unlike the aroma, I'm getting faint sour cherry notes here and there. I don't know how to compare the sour cherry flavour as it's not your typical kriek/Belgian sour cherry sort of tart/sourness, it's more of a dried cherries in a granola bar sort of tartness. The cherries really don't play much of a role in this stout, the roasty maltiness is front and centre.

Overall Thoughts: Comparing it with reviews all over the internet, I'm the only one that seems to notice a bit of a smoky/campfire vibe in the stout. Of course, this stout has been aged for a bit, but  I absolutely love smoky stouts so can't go wrong with that. I wish the griottes (cherries) made more of a presence in the stout, but since it made a presence in both the aroma and taste, that's fine by me. Peluso 30 tops out at 9.3% ABV.. which actually makes it the 3rd strongest beer/mead I've had tonight!

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