Courage Russian Imperial Stout

Formerly brewed at John Smiths (Heineken UK)
Style: Imperial Stout
Tadcaster, England

Serve in Snifter

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UPDATED: AUG 15, 2003 Cask, GBBF 2003 Nuffield, Duff and I queued up early for the opening of the trade session of GBBF 2003. We were right at the front of the queue about an hour before opening time. Spiesy phoned, and we were all giggling like school kids, shouting at him to get down here quick or we'd drink all the Courage Stout. England's most acclaimed beer, not commercially available since a special brewing for the GBBF in 1994, was behind the steel shutters. A rarity. An extreme rarity. And, just to make this even more special, it would be available in the cask for the first time in its long history! I had arranged with rauchbier that we would share our 1,000th beer together with a glass of this famous and rare beverage. There were anxious moments as we waited. I had looked on the CAMRA website, and that had given a confusing and worrying description of the beer, which did not include the word Russian, and which made it sound as though it wouldn't be the real thing. To make our anxiety even higher, the doors were late in being opened. We banged on the steel shutters and demanded they let us in. Slowly the steel gate was lifted! We had already made our plan. One of us would get the glasses, one of us would get a table (already mapped out as being placed between the American cask ales and the Imperial Stout) and one of us would go straight to the Courage stand and get the order in. But plans, as they do, fall apart. Our bags needed to be searched, and we needed name tags to be filled in, placed in little plastic holders and then pinned to our chests. Impatience! Frustration! Confusion! We got separated. But I stuck to the mission. I grabbed my glass and ran down to the table, slammed my bag on the table and went straight up to the Courage bar. O joy of joys! The pump clip read: Courage Russian Imperial Stout. The barman pulled off the first of the cask. And I asked the important question. Is this the real thing? I was then surrounded by various members of Courage, including Neil Woodward the Brewing Development Manager for Courage, who assured me this was the real deal. They had gone to great lengths to ensure that every detail was correct. They had used information from the Edinburgh special brew for the 1990's GBBF, and trial data from Courage Brewing (Eastern), and a 1989 production trial at Tadcaster. I was given the recipe: Premium malt, Amber malt, Black Malt, VHM syrup and 100% target hops added to the copper. Fermentation started at 18oC and rose to 23oC - the fermentation lasting for 7 days. It was conditioned in a maturation vessel starting at 23oC and cooled to 3oC over a 4 week period. Prior to racking the yeast rate was checked and confirmed to be in specification. The casks were then racked directly from the maturation vessel. I asked if it would be bottled and sold, but was told that they had no plans to make the beer available outside of the festival. This was a special one off event. When it was gone it would be gone! I took my glass carefully back to the table where Nuffield and Duff were waiting. We had before us the first beer to be pulled at the GBBF 2003 - we had got our beer before anyone else. And it was the Courage Russian Imperial Stout! My notes read: "Simply wow! The experience in the mouth has to be lived to understand the power and deep luscious beauty of this beer. the mouthfeel and smooth waves of chocolate are simply orgasmic. I've been 5'd!" Nuffield, Duff and I had had the Stout from the bottle a couple of weeks earlier at my house. We'd been impressed then, but we were blown away by the experience of a fresh sample from the cask. My notes from the drinking of that 1985 bottle were: "Musty aroma. Mature and distinguished like walking into a gentleman's club. Rancid bacon. Morrello cherries. Marmite. Smoked mackerel. Balsamic vinegar. Beaujolais Neuvo. Opal fruits burst. Starts oily and smokey, then moves into a thinner, more refreshing fruity red wine finish with no bitterness. 9/4/9/4/17 - 4.3" At various points in the day we were joined by other drinkers, some ratebeerians, others not, and we sampled the Russian Stout at various points in the cask. It degraded toward the end of the cask to the point where it became undrinkable. When I sampled a glass that the brewer from Flagship had I spat it out - it had small oily lumps in it. A little while later the barman from the Wenlock Arms had a glass which I sampled, and that was heavenly - it was from a fresh cask. When rauchbier caught up with us he had a glass of the Stout in his hand - from about midway through the cask, and it was a damn fine drink, worthy of a 4.5, but it wasn't the 5 that the front of the cask produced. However, rauchbier and I finally managed to get together to share our 1,000th ratebeer rating with the greatest drink that Britain has ever produced.

1992 vintage. Black colour with very little head or carbonation (great, no need to remove it): leather, black chocolate, plum, cherry, sherry, liquorice, toffee, roast and coffee aroma; sweet/bitterish taste with chocolate, caramel, liquorice, cream, roast, smoke, dates, aloroso sherry, plum aromas; bitter finish with smoke, chicory, espresso, burnt, liquorice, black toffee, caramel and dates. Seamlessly complex with every dark malt and fruit flavour imaginable. Sweet up front, yet ending as burnt as a spent match. Everything melds so smoothly - never rough nor coarse. Wonderful. Only 50 bottles left. Just enough for every remaining birthday. On my scale, 131 out of 100. In my all-time top three. The other two were also Courage Russian Stout. In the 1980’s this stuff could be found in working-class East-end pubs. Sic transit (I don’t mean puke in a van). Tasted 19.10.2006.

Bottle at Kulminator, 1983 vintage, march 07. Spicy, cinamon, chocolate, tobacco and some dried fruits aroma. Phenomenal. Gorgeous, sexy black, opaque, dark as night color wiht a medium, just right size, compact, dense, creamy yellow head. Outstanding. Full chocolate, bitter chocolate flavor. Some chocolate mousse and a port finnish. Heavenly. Medium to full MF, feels amazingly fresh and vivid. Heaven in a bottle. A great beer, but I fell a little sad, since it´s only downwards from here...

1983 vintage bottle in Kulminator Dirk you r a legend. Pors a delicious deep chocolate colour with plenty of yeast spwirling in the glass and a tight beige head. Rich roasted malts, chocolate, coffee, figs, dates, plum cake golden syrup and hearty red wine bombard my nostrils. I could nose this beer alll day! Tatse is similar with dominant malt and dark chocolate character ending on a warm port/mulled wine finish as it trickles down your throat. This is my idea of heaven in a bottle and why i keep coming back to belgium for more. Complex and comforting. My favourite beer and the best most rounded and well balanced stout i have ever tasted. Excellently matured and exceptionally cheap for fantastic quality.

1983 Vintage. 30-letnie piwo poraz pierwszy piłem aż tak stare. Po tylu latach jaest nadal wspaniałe, a nawet lepsze. Bo tylko zyskało na głębi czerni czekoladowego i portowego aromatu. Piwo pachnie tak intensywnie że aż miło. Delikatnie sączyłem przez ponad 40 minut i nadal pachniało jak na początku. Sporo mazi na dnie butelki której prawie nie można wymieszć. Ale mimo to piwo jest zdecydowane w smaku. Kawowo-czekoladowe, piernikowe i nuty porto wyczuwałem najbardziej. Finisz rozgrzewający i trochę alkoholowy. Trochę nut chmielowych, aromatycznych. Piana średnia lecz opada, ale jest pięknie brązowo-żółta. Wspaniała uczta u mnie w domu, tak jak na carskich dworach. To piwo to sama klasa. Polecam zdobyć na aukcjach jakikolwiek rocznik bo warto.

1983 bottle. Pours a brilliant, light brown half-inch head atop a beautiful, black body and thick, black bottle conditioning. An amazing aroma that is simply mind-blowing. Raisins, anise, chocolate, lightly roasted coffee and a healthy dose of alcohol. The mouthfeel is soft and velvety smooth (probably 20 years of bottle conditioning). Sweet, lightly roasted, vinous, and extremely tasty. There may be a significant bit of hype surrounding this beer, but I was still not let down. Just a fantastic beer and an amazing experience. I wish my feeble mind could produce adequate words to describe it.

UPDATED: AUG 12, 2003 1985 vintage. Powerful aroma--first musty and dank, then rich roasted and chocolate, vinous. Dark with ruby edge. I could get drunk on the aroma aone and then wasted with one sip! There is some life in the body even 18 years on. Fruitcake, rum-raisin, Christmas cake flavors, and a sour edge suggesting cherries. Oily palate. This mellows a lot as it goes on, smooth but flat on the palate. More grape, port comes through later. What am I rating here? The experience of a 1985 beer? The quality that shines through today and my guess about what it was like when much younger? A beer like this can raise so many questions. A HUGE thanks to SilkTork for waiting to share this with me and Duff--a very special beer. Bottle rating: 9-4-8-4-16 (4.1) // Re-rate from Cask. Why in heaven's name is Courage only brewing this again as a special brew and not part of their regular line-up? Do they not understand that this would be highly coveted around the world? That their fame would spread as far and wide as any brewers? The aroma is mild when it is too cold, but immediatley shows vanilla. Then as it warms, WOW! there are few comparisons. Beautiful, dense head. Little alcohol shows in the flavor, the chocolates coming first, then roastiness, then fruit (plums in particular, plus raisin), then chocolate, then chocolate, then chocolate. An absolute sensation that had SilkTork, Duff, and I nearly panting to catch our breath and lower our heart-rate. (hand-pull at GBBF 2003)

Bottle [1983 vintage, 20 years old]: the cap opened with a small hiss and you could almost feel the age slowly creep out into the room . . . the ancient liquid oozes thick and dark as night out of the bottle. A generous creamy light brown head builds in the glass. A delicate aroma is slow to fill the air, but once it there its presence doesn't diminish: cherry skins, sweet milk chocolate of the finest quality, anise, caramel sweetened alcohol, and the faintest wisp of hop bitterness (a memory of something that once may have been stronger). Elegant palate: silky smooth velvet drapes and caresses the tongue, while vinous fruit juices (plums, cherries, red grapes, blackberries, currants) surround the taste buds. In many instances age and time is against us . . . but tonight I learned that with a bit of luck, fine craftsmanship, and malted barley Christmas Eve can be even more memorable that usual. This beer is truly in a class by itself.

This deep dark maroon colored beer is very smooth in color. It has a smell of a wine, sort of a merlot. It taste smooth and powerful, man I cannot believe I had one on there, what a night, and what a way to start off the holiday season.

A tad over-rated! Michael Jackson was in a generous mood when he tested this one. I don’t get it. It’s perfectly acceptable, hell even great, but in what way does this qualify as the ’World’s Best Stout’??? Yes, it is very complex. Yes, it’s as smooth as a baby’s ass. Yes, it’s got an amazig aftertaste, but... Michael Jackson says he won’t part with the few cases of the 1983 in his collection, despite numerous offers. WHY!? Ok, to each his own. If you can find it, take out a small home equity loan, buy it, drink it and buy some extra for later. I paid $40 for this?!