Sixpoint Bolshoi!

Formerly brewed at Sixpoint Craft Ales
Style: Imperial Stout
Brooklyn, New York USA

Rating #1000!!!!! First I have to thank everyone that helped me get here. Thanks to the great guys in the DC crew who bring top notch beers to every tasting. Thanks to the amazingly generous traders out there who helped me get my hands on my own world class beers. Thanks to all of the great beer spots in Washington DC that make DC a great place for a beer lover to live. I bought this bottle back in October 2005 from Shoreline Beverage in Huntington NY. It was the first time I ever paid $20 for a single bottle of beer. Had I known what this would taste like in 2010 I would have bought a case. I took this beer out of my cellar at halftime of the 2008 Superbowl when my team, the New England Patriots, had a slim lead. I put this beer back in my cellar an hour or so later after the Plaxico Burress touchdown. I decided that the right time to drink this would be nearly two years to the day later at the 2010 Sexual Chocolate release. I was thankful to share this with a great crew of friends who came to the release with me as well as a few other Ratebeerians present. The 22oz bottle pours a opaque, oily, viscous black with a creamy, clumpy tan head. Aroma is dark bread, grains, brown sugar, lightly toast, light coffee. The nose is extremely approachable. Flavor is really nice and easy: chocolate, nuts, grains, booze, raisins, oatmeal, sweet, cookie dough. The finish is super smooth with a lasting sweetness. Totally drinkable. Despite a hint of oxidation on the end, this has aged extremely well. It’s almost a textbook example of how good beer can come together with some age. I definitely thing this is peaking now. Kudos to Sixpoint for crafting such an excellent, approachable imperial stout.

Bottle. Aroma of sweet chocolate, molasses, roasted malt with light coffee tones, earthy/roasted cereals, a sort of evergreen outdoors-y quality (not piny hops or anything, a different, deeply earthy character that sort of blends with the molasses that I’m otherwise inept to describe). In any case, flavor very rich, richer than expected from the aroma, lovely chocolate and molasses notes, sweet but not sugary sweet, balanced sweet, and overall lots of depth and complexity. Didn’t notice any negative age impact, only what was apparently very nice maturing and conditioning. Really, really nice, much more than I was expecting.

Bottle enjoyed at DBGB. Pours black with a thick tan head. Aroma of booze, vanilla, molasses, and roasted malt. Sweet and decadent. Flavor of sweet roasted malt, bitter chocolate, and molasses. Very smooth palate and very delicious. Age has done this beer well. I thoroughly enjoyed this one. 8/4/9/5/17 [4.3/5]

Thanks Todd! The beer pours to a black body with a dark tan head that’s fully coating. The aroma is coffee and deep roasted black malt. Rich and thick aroma. The flavor is chocolate, oats, sweet barley, yeast, and deep roasted black malts. Medium full body with a deep viscosity.

Thanks to TODD for opening this!.. bottle #1028. Poured near-black with a thick cap of beige head.. nice lacing as it descended. The aroma picked up darker molasses, honey, and.. well.. more honey spiced up by a bit of vanilla plus floral and earthy hoppage.. deep, sweet, and syrupy, but a touch too sweet. The flavor was sweet and dark again, led by honey and molasses.. light earthy bitterness and peppery warmth around and through the finish. Medium-plus bodied and a bit too sweet on the palate.. overall a tasty brew.

22oz unlabeled bomber with gold wax from Shane, poured into a snifter. Given my past experience with Sixpoint, I was expecting a good beer...and I was also expecting a massively carbonated beer. Sure enough, a careful pour at a relatively cold temperature yields a gigantic three inch tan head on top of a pitch black body. The head takes forever to dissipate and levels good lacing. The aroma is fairly sweet but with a hefty bitterness throughout the nose. There is plenty of dark roasted malts and bakers chocolate as well as hints of coffee. Additional whiffs of raisins and plums thrown in as well. Very complex and interesting nose. The taste is much more subtle and dominated by dark roasted malts and lots of semi-sweet chocolate. I don’t get as much of the bitterness and very little of the dark fruits. The finish is slightly dry with hints of the bitterness that really came out in the nose. The mouthfeel is medium bodied with tons of carbonation (par for the Sixpoint course) and very, very smooth. This is one interesting impy stout from Sixpoint and the taste goes from subtle and simple to complex as it warms. Very good stuff.

Stratford tasting @ Cletus house. Pours a black body with a tan head. Malty chocolate body, a bit roast y and chewy with a slightly acidic roasted finish. Not bad.

Another rare gem shared by JW77...delicious even after 3 years. Dark brown pour with a creamy tan head. Nice chocolate notes jump out of the glass followed by molasses, dark fruits and more chocolate! Flavor is creamy and delcious. Age hasn’t hur this bad boy. Alcohol? I didn’t even detect it. Flavor has such a great chocolate flavor. Toffee, molasses, and light hints of coffee too. Man this was good.