Oskar Blues Ten FIDY:
Howdy friends and Happy Stout Day!  Today we celebrate that dark elixir that scares off the novice and excites the experienced and Oskar Blues brings us a beer that lives up to these standards and is worth remembering.  Now I’ve sampled beers with a number in their names in the past but those number referred to their caloric count, not their alcohol count but, hey, there is a first time for everything and what a first time this one is.  Ten FIDY (named after the alcohol content of 10.5% ABV) is Oskar’s Imperial Stout and it’s brewed to highlight “chocolate-covered caramel and coffee” notes and  has a strong enough alcohol content to knock the inexperienced drinker for a loop.  The beer was poured from a tap, has a black ink color with a cream colored head that is minimal at best but leaves some nice lacing in the glass with a nose of strong booze and roasted malts.  The initial taste is a very dry coffee flavor that develops rather quickly for an imperial stout (usually they take a bit to develop with most of their flavor coming on the back end of the sip), and the mid tongue develops a boozy chocolate taste that also coats the roof of the mouth.  The back end develops a coffee bloom that reminds me of a good cup of robust coffee spiked with whiskey and an after taste that rolls back to the nose of roasted malts and just a touch of coffee.  Probably one of the most noticeable thing about this beer while I was drinking it was the warming sensation that it produced which was very similar to drinking hard liquor neat and it stays with you and this little effect makes this a great winter beer (as most stouts should be).  This is an awesome beer, but it maybe a bit much for the intro stout drinker and there are similarly good stouts to start off with, however, if you want a challenge, look no further than Ten FIDY.