Iron Hill Russian Imperial Stout

Brewed by Iron Hill Newark
Style: Imperial Stout
Newark, Delaware USA

Draft. Black with small tan head. Rich malty aroma. Nutty chocolate aroma and flavor. Very smooth and Creamy with roasted nut finish. Pleasent surprise.

Draft @ Capone’s. Pours a midnight black with a smallish tan head. Roasted malts & espresso dominate the aroma. Both are also very prevalent in the flavor, with some molasses and a smidge of woodsy hops. This is a hearty brew. Delicious. Thick & chewy that seems to coat your tongue!

750ml bottle - Black body, funny big+small bubbled light brown head; Lots of chocolate, lots of dark malt, a very little metallic aromas; Soft textured bitter salty body, soft carbonation; Very licorice sharp powerful long finish with a huge amount of aroma. Very American. Thanks Jeppe.

Handbottle. Very dark reddish brown colour with a little head. Nice aroma of chocolate, coffee, roastedness and little alcohol. Also flavour of chocolate, coffee roastedness and little alcohol, ends up very smooth and easy to drink very balanced, very well made.

750 ml oz bottle VIA TheEppeist (thanks!). Pours almost pitch black with a tiny tan head. Nose is roasty mocha. Taste starts sweet, then the burnt grains arrive, as well as some piney hops. Dry finish. Burnt coffee is dominant in the aftertaste. Body is medium. Carbonation low/medium.

brewery-bottled 750 from hopdog. Pours black as night with a really nice tan head that is still covering the top of the beer. Hearty stout aroma, with hints of roasted coffee and chocolate (I thought I smelled some chocolate cake). In the mouth it’s has nice, full body with moderate carbonation. Flavor is rich and complex, not as sweet as many imperials and nicely balanced with bitterness. Again coffee, chocolate, with more pronounced smokiness. Slight off note, which might be oxidation (I held on to this for a year or so), but excellent. Thanks a lot, hopdog!

Hand bottled 12oz from Kevin. Very cool! Enjoyed with friends from Ohio down for the weekend. Pours jet black with a light brown head. Molasses is strong in the aroma with notes of smoke, burnt malt, and grain. Hints of date towards the end. The flavor is roasted malt, strong molasses, hints of caramel and smoke. Lightly sweet. Full slick body and mouth feel. Quite enjoyable.

Draft: Blackened chestnut. Dense gray-tan bubbles. Aromatic notes of charred wood, piney hops, tar, charcoal smoke, beefy espresso, and orange marmalade. Soft and tight carbonation. Big, weighty body. Densely packed complexity is reminiscent of tar-covered espresso beans and pungent roast. Intensely resinous, yet so tar- and smoky-rich, the hop-derived resins purely complement the massive malt frame and, along with the gooey fudge and licorice, act as a pillar to the body. Citric hop acidity slowly creeps in, and the oily hops stop just short of numbing the palate. Crisp char struggles to exude amid the abundant tackiness. Finishes potently bitter and smoky with an ashen dryness linked with a crackle of burnt cookies which lessens the sweetness. Burps of sap and citrus come by the way of liberal hopping. Definitely on the gooey/underattenuated side of the spectrum (very yeasty [bread dough] nose), and somewhat muddled, but the malts are well-structured and almost worth dying for.