t Smisje Catherine The Great Imperial Stout

Brewed by Brouwerij De Regenboog
Style: Imperial Stout
Assebroek-Brugge, Belgium

Pours a fuzzy khaki head with a deep cola color body. Smells of roast, ripe fruit and dark sugar. Tastes like toast, ripe fruit, brown sugar, and a faint bit of coffee on the finish.

Sampled at the Impromptu Butter’s 6th cellar clearance. Clear brown pour with light brown highlights and fair fading khaki head. Nose is faint chocolate and some tartness. Flavor is dark fruit and roastiness and wierd sourness. Creamy and hugely carbonated. Over priced and not all that great.

Bottle @ chriso’s Pre-GBBF Shindig 2008. Pours a dark brown colir wit ha small off-white head. Fruity malty yeasty aroma with some hoppy hints. Sweetish roasted malty fruity chocolate and caramel flavor. Has a sweetish warming roasted malty caramel and chocolate finish.

Red brown cloudy in color with generous tan head.... Aroma of malts and candi sugar... Flavor of roasted malts and belgian yeast... Slightly bitter finish... Belgian yeast apparent in flavor... Not terribly impressed, thought the Black Albert and the Podge Imperial Stout were both better....

Murky, dark brown appearance with a super sized tan head and loads of lacing. Fairly complex aroma offering up notes of leather, smoke, coffee, molassas and ripe fruit. Passively hopped, yeasty sweetness of the taste yields to tobacco, figs, dates and some roasted malts. Lush, full bodied mouthfeel with a lingering finish. A really good Belgian Strong Ale.

Brown, red colored brew. Not very dark colored. Malty, sweet aroma. Flavor is sweet, some roasted malts, some bitterness, nutty, dark fruits. It’s a weird combination, flavors do not fit together. It’s too shallow and empty, a bit dishwater. Aroma and flavor lack Imperial Stout characteristics. No, I do not like this one.

12oz bottle poured into a snifter. Well, I’m not sure what to make of this one out of the bottle. It pours an opaque caramel brown with a huge rocky off-white head that shows very good retention and lacing. As a barleywine, it’s very good looking. As a stout, it’s not quite right... The smell is much more like a dubbel, with tons of yeasty sweetness and a hint of a lactose and funk in the background. Really weird smell for an impy stout. The taste actually has a pretty strong chocolate presence in the beginning with the big yeasty Belgian backbone taking over in the middle. There are also some dark fruits thrown in as wlel with raisins and plums in the forefront. The mouthfeel is extremely carbonated but still has a soft feel on the palate due to the cask conditioning. This is probably the most interesting take on an imperial stout I’ve ever tasted. It would qualify as a very good Belgian ale but I’m just not sure what category I should be reviewing it under. As an imperial stout it’s probably just below average, so I’ll stick with that....

Ennesima grande birra targata ’T Smisje, questa imperial stout da 10 gradi si fa bere in una maniera impressionante; è profumata, piccante e amara con decoro, con un sentore vago di certa frutta secca natalizia. Con tagliatelle panna e porcini, al Mulino di Villaromagnano.