Homebrewer Review- Lutherhaus Molasses Stout

A couple months ago some bloggers decided to all brew the same stout recipe save for one "secret" ingredient. The plan was to then ship them off to each other and review the end products. I found out about the opportunity too late, as they all brewed around the same time. Next time I would love to get in on the fun, since it sounded like the results were amazing. I was lucky to get my hands on what sounded like the best of the bunch.
Derek at Lutherhaus/Beer This blog came over in January to brew with me, and brought along his recently bottled stout and told me to give it some time. I finally opened it on Friday night and was very impressed. While the molasses didn't seem to dominate, it created some unique flavors that complimented the rest of the stout perfectly. An outstanding stout in every way. My review:
It pours jet black with a finger of tan head. Great roasty aroma with a hint of sweetness. Perfect mouthfeel with a nice creaminess and full body. Sweet at first with some nice smokey-roasty flavors going on. Great balance of bitterness and sweetness. Just a wonderful complexity of flavors; sweet, chocolaty, smokey, with some licorice/molasses flavor hidden in there as well. It finishes smooth with a lingering sweetness and chocolate followed by some smokey-roastiness.

Congrats to Derek, maybe you should bring a bottle to Summit during your internship and see if you can get this added to the Unchained series! I'd buy sixers of this in a heartbeat.

Salud!
Bearded Brewer