Barleys Alexanders Russian Imperial Stout

Brewed by Barleys Brewing Company
Style: Imperial Stout
Columbus, Ohio USA

Serve in Snifter

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Sampled from a growler shared by goldtwins on 7/2/06: Pours a nearly opaque dark brown with an airy, nicely-lacing dark tan head. Nice, mild caramel and dark fruity aroma has a light earthy hoppiness, but is overall pretty subdued. Body starts lightly sweet and caramely with some milk chocolate and toasted malt thinning considerably toward a blander earthy bittersweet finish. This one needs some more malt for body.

Draft in a sampler at Barley’s #1. Pours a dark, mostly opaque brown color with a fairly thick, lasting dark tan head. Aroma of roasted malts, vanilla, molasses, and dark chocolate. Flavor of bitter dark chocolate, roasted malts, caramel, molasses, brown sugar, and earth. Medium-bodied, with a sweet and roasty mouthfeel and medium carbonation.

Nice. A gift. Good chocolate, nice roast, some hop, a dry finish, but thin in the body. A nice splash of coffee. Over all not bad.

Pours opaque black with small dark brown highlights and small beige head. Little lacing, thick body, and no carbonation. Taste is mostly roasted malt (mostly espesso with a little chocolate), alchohol is pretty well covered. This is good beer.

The beer is a nice black with light brown in the light. The head is very nice, about 2 fingers high of medium tan heat that is just beautiful. It is full and creamy and lasts forever with nice lacing. The aroma is light and sweet with chocolate, vanilla, toffee and caramel. The taste is all malts, very very sweet, too sweet for me without it being balanced out by some nice hops at the end. Sweet chocoloate dominates the taste and you can also pull out some vanilla.

On tap at Barleys Ale House #1, Columbus OH, on 12 March 2010. I presume this was the one I had but I just noted it down as Barleys Imperial Stout at the time – probably my failing rather than theirs. Very dark Creamy chocolate aroma. Quite dry and roasty with pronounced bitterness. Don’t know what the ABV is but it didn’t seem to be particularly imperial. Tasty enough but not especially spectacular.

Very well done. Thick black pour--small dark brown head (not much to speak of). The flavor is rich in roasted malts, with a sweetish finish. Smooth and drinkable.

A pretty tame imperial stout. Not as syrupy as most. Underwhelming but very approachable

This was a superb Imperial Stout. However, the hops taste was a bit overwhelming. So, if you enjoy hops, this may be much too your liking. The soft head and dark color was distinct. The aroma was not, however. The full bodied strong taste was very enjoyable, but the finish was too bitter and long for me.

Spit it among friends in tulip glasses, the beer produced a nice finger of tan head on a black body brew. The aroma was nice subtle roasted malt with a light chocolate note in the finish; there was no notice of the alcohol at all in the nose. I must say that this was an easy brew to drink. The flavor was roasted malts but not to astringent to dry out your mouth. I enjoyed the balance of the sweetness that came from the malts as well. One person pointed out the British yeast flavor reminiscent of a Samuel Smith’s but a ton better in my book. It had a medium to full feel in the mouth with good carbonation for the style. It was an easy beer to session the alcohol was unnoticeable. I easily finished my two pours. If it was my local brew house I be proud of this one for sure Serving type: growler

Cask @ Barley’s. Head was everything an impy stout should be - thick, tan and unforgiving. Nose was super roasty-sweet malts, coffee and a little chocolate. The flavor profile was the same, but not as complex as I had expected. The impression on my palate, however, was downright disappointing. For an imperial, I was expecting much more body out of this. The flavor was close to a Breakfast Stout, but with the body of a Guinness. For what it’s worth - this mixed with their brownie is the most flawless.