Cigar City Marshal Zhukov’s Imperial Stout

Brewed by Cigar City Brewing
Style: Imperial Stout
Tampa, Florida USA

Serve in Snifter

10 feb 2012, bottle. Really dark brown with bright red edges. Looks absolutely thick. Lightly salted meat, soy sauce, burnt chocolate, burnt malt. Thin body and a tad fizzy. Sugary bourbon aged stout with some burnt oak. Wow! ---Rated via Beer Buddy for iPhone

Bottle. Black as black can get... not much head. Aroma of licorice, dark fruits, slight chocolate. Smells kind of sweet. Taste is a nicely well balanced big arse stout. Malty, chocolate, big roasted malts but none of the flavors overwhems the other... Motor oil thick.... the thickest beer I can remember drinking, stongl lacing coats the glass. Oily and slick. Alcohol is well hidden. Overall: A big imperial stout

A deep dark stout with a thick brown head, very creamy. In aroma, a pungent woody chocolate, grassy hops, coffee grids, interesting. In mouth, a nice bitter chocolate with coffee and woody notes, murky, bitter and challenging, but overall, very nice. Bottle 1.5 years old from Tampa. Tasted with Pushkinnow, Spinrsx, Brews Phillips, CFrancis and Ian, Jan. 14 2011, Bartowel Ottawa gathering.

Thanks to dvelcich for bringing this and the Humidor version. A - Pours back, mocha-colored head, very thick and viscous. S - Sweet dark fruits, slight char, burnt sugars, nice level of roast, chocolate. Pretty sweet, sweeter then expect, really. The chocolate and burnt sugars really stand out and create the high level of sweetness. T - Similar to the nose. Very sweet, chocolate, burnt sugars, char, roast, dark fruits. The alcohol is barley noticeable, which is impressive for such a fresh version and 11.5%. Impressive. M - Full, rich and viscous, creamy oak finish. O - A really good RIS. Perhaps a bit too sweet to enjoy in large amounts, but still, very good and enjoyable. Would def have again, if offered. I would like to try a bottle with some age on it to see if the sweetness dies down at all. Very good.

UPDATED: FEB 6, 2012 Bottle at Darkness Day 2011. Pour is OIL. Love that. Malt, wood and chocolate in the aroma. Maybe some licorice too. Slightly bittersweet but a really great tasting beer.

Noire huile de moteur, col épais moka qui laisse ses marques sur le verre. Bière très complexe au bouquet renforcé par un taux malt bien en évidence, grillé, torréfié et caramel. Chocolat est épais. Palais est épais et laisse ce côté malté prononcé faire son effet et prendre ses positions tel la défense de Stalingrad en son temps. Le houblon reste bien en retrait et parvient à donner une pointe d’amertume qui reste bien modeste face à l’adversité du malt torréfié. Le palais est soyeux en bouche, réchauffant. Intéressant à déguster en parallèle avec la Hunahpu qui profite d’un autre traitement.

Jeez. This gets the 40 weight looks like oil beer award of the night. Had a Black Tuesday as well. It doesn’t even compare. This stuff is thick. It’s so thick that it literally turns my beer glass a reddish brown color remaining even after the beer is long gone. Damn that’s thick stuff. Blacker than night. There’s no seeing through this guy. No color breakage at the edges either. Smells thick and intimidating. Roasty coffee stout oil madness. Tastes very potent. Tart thick fruit. Roasted coffee beans and some tart raw ones also. It’s got that tart flavor kick. Some sweetness and well. Damn this is massive. Biggest beer I’ve had in recent memory. Whewww.

Was down in FL for the holidays and I agreed to pick one of these up for someone in MD. The only place I could find it for sale in Gainesville was a beer bar that sold beer to go. I purchased the rather expensive (for me) bottle of beer and proceeded to drink the rest of the night away. The owner of the bar (and a friend of mine) asked me what beer I had bought to go and when I told him (he had not heard of it, been a busy 6 months for him) he promptly bought another one for he and I to share. Poured from a bottle into a tulip glass (Delirium tulip). Beer is viscous as it pours from the bottle into the glass, jet pitch as dark as can be black in color. Leaves a residue where the beer hits the side walls of the tulip. There isn’t much head or carbonation (its 11% alcohol) but when you swirl the beer a big thick head of really dark brown bubbles (small combining into large) forms and falls away leaving a ton of lacing on the walls. The carbonation level cannot support the head. This beer looks amazing. I’ve never seen such a dark colored head. The aroma is overwhelming and complex. The flavor of this beer had better not let me down, the aroma is beautiful. First off its strong. I stick my whole nose into the tulip and breath in. I can smell chocolate and sweet malt. The alcohol is there but its not solventy it adds to the experience and helps accent the roasted coffee flavors. The sweetness is the dominant flavor. Time to drink finally. The beer was served a little too cold so I held the bowl of the glass in my hand for several minutes enjoying the aroma. Mouthfeel is good, big bodied despite the high ABV, lots of flavors that completely coat the mouth. The alcohol is not as obvious in the beer as it was in the aroma, the flavor is dominated by a strong sweetness (that the alcohol may be contributing to) in the front of a good full malt character and then an avalanche of roasted espresso and coffee in the back of the mouth. Beer continues to surprise by not having an aftertaste. The coffee flavor is present and lingers but there is not secondary flavors. This is a world class beer and one of the, if not the best, Russian Imperial Stout I have ever had. I’m sure the oak and cedar aged versions are even more complex and amazing.