Winning award for the most almost literal brew name, Dragonslayer Imperial Stout from the Middle Ages Brewery in Syracuse is so powerful in taste and alcohol content (9.5%) that it could probably slay or at least knock out a small dragon. In these times, make it a grown man and we have one quickly head spinning night on our hands.
The taste is hard to describe, they say “Strong, chocolaty and aggressively hopped with finest English hops.” Though I myself can never detect “chocolatey” as being actually “chocolately” but I agree that it's aggressive and strong – one of those beer that make people shrink back after the first taste as say “wow”.
It's also good, which doesn't always go hand in hand with those more aggressive brews. More of a sipping beer than the kind you down a tankard of, we all agreed that it was very tasty once you get over the initial shock.
Middle Ages Brewery is a small company that upholds the tradition of brewing in small batches like it was done back in the Middle Ages. I picked up Dragonslayer at Whole Food's impressive beer room, and hope to try more from them like Blackheart Stout, Wizard's Winter Ale, and Wailing Wench.
Their art work reminds me of new D&D manuals – aka highly diverse (for example this one is actaully pretty nice – probably the reason I picked it up) and often weird (the wizard is exactly like the odd D&D ones) or just bad (the wailing wench has got to be a girlfriend, right?), but don't let it discourage you from trying what's inside.
I am also very intrigued by the brewery description: Step through the main door, and you'll find yourself in a stone-lined castle hallway complete with a life-size suit of armor. And would love to take the tour some day.
But what do you think?