Goose Island Night Stalker

This is a great imperial stout. I have to say this, as generic as it sounds, because some imperial stouts are not great. One thing that causes them to be not so great, in my opinion, is over the top roasted malt characters, just not my thing. Goose Island Night Stalker is balanced. It pours a deep reddish black, you can only see the redishness when the glass is mostly gone, it's very dark as the name Night Stalker would imply. It poured with almost no head. Most reviews I have read say it has an inch of head. I find normally temperature has a huge effect on this, mine was poured at 52 degree Fahrenheit, not exceptionally cold so I am not sure where all the talk about head comes from. The aroma is typical of imperial stouts, that sweet, carrot like malt smell, and Night Stalker adds an ever so slight hop bouquet to the mix. It has a sweet malty taste with a slight hint of roasted barley. It's up with there with the best of them. Without doing a side by side with Brooklyn Chocolate Stout or Old Rasputin it's hard to say just exactly where it lies. I am going to say it's just a little maltier and sweeter, with a little more in your face bam! to it. At first it also has just a little tangy malt bite to it. This mellows as you work your way to the bottom of the bomber.