In many industries a company that’s ten years old is still relatively early into their lifespan and just establishing themselves in the minds of their competition. Craft beer is a very different beast, a 10 year old brewery is a grizzled industry veteran that was around before the current explosion of new breweries. It will be really interesting to see how many of the breweries that opened in the last few years make it to their tenth anniversary. I bring this up because Mayflower Brewing Company recently celebrated their 10 year anniversary, a huge milestone for a brewery in the current market. To celebrate ten years Mayflower brewed a big and boozy imperial stout simply named X. It seems like breweries tend to make high alcohol beers for big anniversaries, maybe because these styles tend to age well and it’s fun to cellar some and re-visit the anniversary beer in subsequent years. Mayflower X is a one-off beer, available for a limited time on draft and in 16 oz tallboy cans.
Mayflower X pours pitch black with a mild tan head. The aroma is rich roasted malt, chocolate and dark fruit. The flavor is malt forward, notes of cocoa, coffee, dates and brown sugar along with some warming booze. There is minimal hop flavor, as you would expect from a boozy stout. Mayflower X is a full bodied sipper and packs some serious punch at 11% ABV. The finish is rich with some lingering malt flavor and booziness. This is a really nice imperial stout, happy 10 years to Mayflower! Hoppy Boston score: 4.5/5.
Previous Mayflower Reviews:
Mayflower Hometown Brown, Mayflower Alden, Mayflower Standish, Mayflower Daily Ration, Mayflower Squanto, Mayflower Porter, Mayflower Scotch Ale, Mayflower Spring Hop, Mayflower Oatmeal Stout
Hoppy Boston 
