Brewery: Black Market Brewing Company
Beer: Black Hole Sun
Style: Russian Imperial Stout
ABV: 15%
Character: Brewed with a massive amount of dark and black malts
Rating at the time of Review: BA: 88 | RB: 99
Metal Connection: AYREON – Into the Black Hole
BeerMetalDude Rating: 4.5/5
As I normally do here on this site, I have to thank a fellow blogger, and good friend, Jorge Espinoza (animebeers.com) for hooking me up with this amazing beer. I believe when this beer was given to me, it was due to the name of the beer, since there is a very popular song by this same name by a popular Grunge/Alternative Rock band. I’m sure you all know who I am talking about. No need to promote them here on BMD. Anyway, I knew I didn’t want to pair this beer to the said song, so I found an amazing choice for the Metal Connection, but more on that later. For now, let’s get to the beer. Shall we begin?
The label is shrouded in purple as the main color focus here. The artwork displays two astronauts on the surface of the moon. One astronaut is driving a rover that is carrying cases of Black Market Beer. The other astronaut is holding a pint glass of a stout, looking happy and giving a thumbs up to the rover driver. They have flagged the moon with their BMB (Black Market Brewing) logo.
On a side note: Black Market Brewing has changed the name and artwork of this beer since I drank this beer for the review. I did let this one slip through the cracks, since I drank this one a while ago, but I thought I’d still include it since it is a Russian Imperial Stout, and a lot of people age these beers. I wanted to give you my notes on this beer in case any of you are still holding onto one of these in your cellar. So, if you are looking for a current bottle of this beer, look for Black Market Brewing Dmitri.
I used a snifter glass from Adelbert’s Brewery out of Austin, TX. Black Hole Sun poured a dense, thick looking black color which was topped with a half of an inch dark tan foamy head. The head stayed for a bit, leaving small spots of lacing towards the top, but nothing really after that.
The aroma was a lot of roasted malts, dark chocolate, a little brown sugar/molasses, tons of dark fruits like raisins, prunes, plums, and dark cherries mixed with black coffee, caramel, dark rye bread, a bit of a hint of vanilla cream. There is a bit of smokiness, and a good boozy burn in the nose with each whiff. The lingering aroma was a mild boozy burn and dark chocolate, dark fruits, vanilla, and black coffee.
The taste had all the same characters as the nose. The palate was hit with a 1, 2 punch of roasted malts, and dark chocolate right up front. The body was made up of dark fruits like raisins, prunes, plums and dark cherries. Dark coffee, caramel, dark rye bread, brown sugar/molasses, and vanilla cream come up after the dark fruits. Towards the end of each gulp there is a bit of smokiness and a slight boozy burn. The aftertaste is dark fruits, brown sugar/molasses, dark chocolate, vanilla, and black coffee with a slight boozy burn.
The body of Black Hole Sun was thick was with a smooth mouthfeel. Mild carbonation. The finish was still very smooth with a slight boozy burn at the tail end.
Overall, this beer was damn impressive. I was a little thrown off by the fact that this beer was said to be 15% ABV, and yet the alcohol burn was moderate. I was expecting a lot more burn to this beer. It didn’t altar the beer by that much though, and the overall flavors were on point to the style of a Russian Imperial Stout. I wish I would have put this review up sooner, but at least it is up now. I hope you use my reviews to help you make a decision to seek out these beers. Just please remember to look for Black Market Brewing Dmitri for the current release of this beer. Not that the Black Hole Sun version wold be bad, cause it would have some age to it. Happy hunting my beer friends!
Metal Connection: Soundgarden’s hit song, Black Hole Sun from 1994 would have been the obvious choice for a song to pair with this beer, but since I don’t really promote radio friendly grunge rock on here, I said Fuck no to posting that song as the Metal Connection. I mean after all, it is a “Metal” connection. I was at least nice enough to add a link to the music video above in the text. OK, enough about that. Let’s get down to the real Metal Connection. I went with a truly epic tale of a song. Ayreon from the Netherlands is a and with a wild history dating back to it’s inception in 1994. This band is a project by Arjen Anthony Lucassen (The Gentle Storm, Star One, ex-Vengeance, among other bands) which features a high number of guest musicians throughout each album. I won’t go through them all on here, but I will say that members of Gorefest, Hail of Bullets, The Gathering, Tiamat, Nightwish, Symphony X, Helloween, Angra, Rhapsody of Fire, Stratovarius, and Iron Maiden to name a few. Did I mention Iron Maiden? Well that guest musician was none other than the man behind the metal pipes, Bruce Dickinson. Dickinson lent his talents to do main vocals on the song, “Into the Black Hole (The Eye of the Universe – Halo of Darkness – The Final Door)” from the band’s 5th studio full length album, The Universal Migrator Part II: Flight of the Migrator, released in 2000. This song is over 10 minutes long, featuring some powerful vocals by the Metal God himself. The music on this song is epic, and heavy full of power metal chords, sci fi sounding keyboards, and noises. The song pulls you in, and before you know it the 10+ minute long song is over, and you didn’t even realize it’s been that long. This song could easily be the soundtrack to a space battle near a black hole. Definitely a way better choice than that other song mentioned above.
Beer Metal Media 