De Molen Rasputin

Bottle… Burnt caramel color with a small, creamy, off-white head. Good retention. Restrained, nutty nose. Full-bodied with a 2%-milk mouthfeel and spritzy carbonation. Leans heavily toward the sweet side of balance. Moderate burnt bitterness is surpassed by chocolate and caramel malt sweetness. Caramel and brown sugar finish.

Courtesy hopscotch. Pours dark brown, and semingly only medium bodied looking, with a small swirly off white head. Smells of dark malts, light tartness, and a bit of roast, but not much. This certainly looks pretty thin for an impy. Not a good start. The flavor is like I expected, a bit thin and bland. Not big and rich like an impy should be. Light bitter roast and dark fruit come through, but nearly as complex as I’d like. This was a bit of a bummer for me, as I was hyped to try it.

Courtesy Hopscotch. Pours an odd chestnut color. Aroma is atypical, with a pronounced fruity note. not much roasted quality to this at all. Very odd.

Bottle from The Ramsgate Brewery, Broadstairs: Pours a deep, dark brown. fantastic aroma of toffee, nuts and malt. Flavour is chocolate, toffee and lots of malt. Gorgeous mouthfeel, viscous and velvety in the mouth. More of a barley wine than an Imperial Stout, stunning none the less.

Bottle. Head is initially average sized, frothy, light brown, mostly diminishing. Body is hazy dark brown. Aroma is moderately malty (chocolate milk, caramel, roasted grain/nuts), lightly to moderately hoppy (resin, herbs). Flavor is heavily sweet, lightly acidic, lightly bitter. Finish is moderately sweet, lightly acidic, moderately bitter. Medium to full body, velvety texture, lively carbonation, lightly to moderately alcoholic. Surprisingly simple. More like a strong porter or brown ale than a stout...mostly chocolatey-caramel with very little roast, and rather light in color for a stout too. Nice mouthfeel, but the balance is mainly sugary sweetness without enough bitterness (or alcohol) to balance. I also don’t understand the comment on the label about lasting 25 years...I can’t see this avoiding the "cardboard creep" for more than 9-12 months.

Dilightfull and complex beer. Roasted barley. All kinds of smoked flavours. Sweet and bitter in the taste.

I love IPS and this was a very good one with a nice black body and a white head with a nice rich vanilla flavor and a fruity flavor that also was very roasty overall a different type of beer but not bad at all.CHEERS!

Bottle. Creamy high and lasting light brown head. Hazy very dark brown body. Alcohol dominated aroma (which I do not like) in a complex mixture of berries coffee and liquorice. Flavor though is more pleasant without the expected alcohol dominans, or disguised by a strong coffee choccolate liquorice flavor with a creamy and pleasant mouthfeel. Low carbonation, Long bitter sweet creamy aftertaste.