Alley Kat Sherbrooke KGB Russian Imperial Stout

Brewed by Alley Kat Brewing Company
Style: Imperial Stout
Edmonton, Canada

Serve in Snifter

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2011-03-04. Black body with a small tan head. 3+ Aroma is mild for an imperial stout. Sweet malt, light roast malt overtones. 7+ Flavour is similar, sweet malt core, light roast and alcohol. Simple, sweet imperial stout is the overall impression. 7+ Smooth medium to full bodied palate. 3+ Pretty good but lacks the depth to give it the edge over some others. Bottle via trade with Vertical Bacon Strips

"You know that show, "Gay Guy for the Gay Friend..."

650mL bottle poured a deep dark brown with reddish highlights to the light. Big beige head with nice lacing. Aroma of roasted malts. Taste is sweet maltiness with some bitter chocolate and hops in the finish. Medium to heavy body and moderate carbonation. Overall, this is quite an outstanding beer with the alcohol well hidden.

Bouteille de 22oz. Visuel: Bière noire, très noire, la mousse est brune-beige, elle est durable (l’anneau). Olfactif: Le nez offre des arômes rôtis et sucré. Gustatif: La bouche est ronde, sucrée avec une légère amertume en fin de bouche et des fruits séchés.. Résumé: Un Imperial Stout très sucré et décadent.

(Courtoisie de Vertical Bacon Strips) Un petit anneau de mousse flotte sur un liquide foncé, presque noir. Au nez, les grains rôtis transportent des parfums torréfiés et chocolatés. Des effluves caramélisés sont riches et apparaissent en toffee. Le goût est dominé par des malts noirs qui, au travers des petites notes éthyliques, finissent par donner des notes étirées de café et de chocolat. En bouche, le liquide est assez corpulent avec son effervescence douce et sa texture légèrement sirupeuse. En finale, les malts foncés sont contenus par une présence modérément tonitruante de l’alcool. En résumé, produit convenable qui manque néanmoins de raffinement.

Bottle from a trade with Dany, shared with Derek. Pours a deep dark black with a thin beige head. Smells of toast and chocolate, papery with cardboard, and some prune notes as it warms. Sweet, some roast, a touch of sweet cardboard, not really infected, but certainly something old. Rather disappointing, but age happens sometimes. Bad chocolate and coffee grounds. Alas. Awesome label though.

Bottle shared by Jay, thanks! Poured black with a grayish brown head that dissipated to the edges. Aroma had notes of roasted malts, biscuit and dark grains as well as an odd paper note. Flavor had the same odd paper note that did not combine with the rest of the dark malt notes in the beer. Definitely a miss.

In short: A boozy, sweet and overly roasted abrasive stout. Amateurish
How: Bottle 22oz. Consumed 5 months after purchase. Exact age unknown, but if there was only one batch made then my bottle was a little over 1 year of age. Bottle sent to me by Vertical Bacon Strip, thanks Jeff
The look: Near black body topped by a tan ring of foam
In long: Nose is burnt malts, alcohol fumes, burnt fruits, notes of rubber. Taste is overly sweet, overly roasted, burnt brown sugar, burnt rubber, black cherries, cocoa powder, plenty of molasses, booze, soy sauce, chalk, dust. The 10% alcohol is very much apparent. The extreme roastiness dries out the finish but leaves an asparagus and chalky after-taste. I’d like to tell you why I didn’t like it but there’s so much stuff wrong with this beer that I don’t even where to start from. I was not able to finish my 22oz bottle. I’ve heard the KGB knows of many ways to make any man talk but have yet to figure out a way to make their wives shut-up.

Bomber poured into snifter. KGB poured a deep brown with absolutely no head. I saw relatively little head developing early in the pour and went all aggressive on it for the last 75% of the pour. It was still completely devoid of head. The aroma included coffee, chocolate, caramel, dark cherries, and alcohol. It sounds great for the RIS style but they were not seeming to meld together as well as they should. It was fairly heavy on the sweet side. The taste has lost its relative complexity compared to the aroma. I am getting a very basic RIS. There are notes of bitter coffee and chocolate but the depth to each flavor is missing. There is a fairly strong alcohol bite to this so I am acutely aware of the 10%. I have had 13% RISs that disguise the alcohol much better. The mouthfeet was smooth and fairly thick but there is aboslutely no carbonation. I can’t help but feel this was a somewhat stale beer with no carbonation and no head. Overall - this beer was decent and I would drink it again if offered; however, there are numerous superior products in the style and at the price point one could buy instead. I tend to be rather hard on my local Alley Kat but I should mention that this is a winning homebrewers recipe that was produced by Alley Kat. I doubt they did any significant tweaking to the winning recipe.

650ml bottle provided by Alex for Canadian tasting...The best thing about this beer are its cool name and awesome label, the rest is downhill from there. Admire it from a distance or just leave on your shelf...A dark brown beer, very light for a stout, with hardly an carbonation...The aroma is super sweet dominated by fruits, chocolate covered cherries, dark fruits and molasses. The sweetness is good but one noted and boring after a bit...The taste is a complete 180, all the sweetness is gone. I was hoping it was a little less sweet but to lose it all is deceiving. What you do get is harsh metallic bitter coffee with alcohol on the back. Just not very good, avoid.

Bottle [650ml] shared with HogTownHarry, garthicus, GregClow, jerc & mabel -- c/o j&m. Pours black with red hues and a small diminishing bubbly tan head. Aroma of roasted malt, dark fruit, coffee and light leafy hops. Flavour of roasted malt, coffee and light leafy hops -- quite tasty. Alcohol’s well hidden. Medium+ bodied. Very good!

[3628-20110304] 650mL bottle. Mild soya sauce roast malt aroma. Black body with a quick foamy brown head. Roast malt flavour has a nice underlying light dark fruit. Medium body. Good, solid. (7/3/7/3/14) 3.4
Overheard: "I didn’t say whether they should... they do." -- Regarding female hair escapades
(w/ blankboy, garthicus, GregClow, HogTownHarry, jerc)