Stone Imperial Russian Stout

Brewed by Stone Brewing Co.
Style: Imperial Stout
Escondido, California USA

<i>Bottle (35 cl) from Systembolaget</i>. Black with a rich creamy beige head. Earthy, cellary roasted malt aroma, notes of burnt sugar, coffee, and dark berries.Full bodied, soft carbonation. Very well balanced, with an initial sweetness, and a dry and bitter finish.

Bottle. Black colour. Kind of aggressive aroma. Smells malt and alcohol. Add some smoke. The taste is sweet. Lots of chocolate. It tastes a lot of alcohol, but not in a bad way. Mint. Smooth and well balanced beer. [A lot better after a year in the cellar]

Bottle. Black with a thin head. Aromas are earthy and smoky roast malts with leather and mellow berries. Lots of raisins with dark chocolate. Flavours are strong coffee with liquorice and strong soy. Some sweet cola notes with the expected warming alcohol. Bitter on the finish. Very good.

Bottle from Systembolaget. Pours black with a smal head dark brown head. Lots of malts, coffe and chocolate in the aroma. Well balanced for a strong stout!

Bottle. Black colour with a brown head. Aroma: Roastiness, coffee, cocoa, sweet malt, licorice mint, dark fruit, alcohol. Flavor: Roastiness, lots of licorice, coffee, sweet maltiness, chocolate, black fruit, a bit of alcohol. Balanced by quite a lot of hop biterness.

Flaske. Flot kulsort øl. Dejlig duft af malt med en smule alkohol. Smagen er brændt men på en meget balanceret måde. Bitterheden slår til allersidst, men igen på en måde der afbalancere varmen fra alkoholen. Virkelig lækker øl.

Bottle: Black colour, with a nice brown creamy head. Aroma of Dry fruits, raisins, dark Choclate, coffee and some aly nose in the end. Flavor is almost the same, smouth creamy mouth feeling, with a nice raisins, and choclate/coffee mix. This beer had a nice big body, and a medium to long raisins finish.

Bottle from Systembolaget. Tasted on dec 2, 2008 and on dec 28, 2008. Pours a pitch black color with a brown head. It dissapears quite quick, some lacing on the glass. Aroma of roasted malt, chocolate, toffee, coffee, liquorice and anise. Flavour is quite sweet first; notes of dark chocolate, lots of coffee, toffee (reminds me of the chocolate toffee-candy Riesen). Clear notes of liquorice and anise also in the flavour. There’s definitely hops in the background but they are not that prominent as I expected - on the other hand that is only good according to me. Nicely bitter finish. Much more balanced than other american imperial stouts I have had lately. Wonderful taste. Drinking this is like letting some chocolate toffee slowly melt in your mouth, and well, even better than that! Wonderful and filling in the mouth. Very creamy, quite thick, a bit sticky, but at the same time smooth. Wonderful and fantastic. This is defintely a very nice sipper. Despite the 90 IBUs it feels very balanced - not too bitter, but not too sweet either. This is how I want to have my imperial stout. Fantastic!