t Smisje Catherine The Great Imperial Stout

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

Well this one certainly threw me for a loop. Not that I am one to rate to style, quite the opposite, but I could help but be surprsised by the amber brown beer that poured from the bottle. Actually in the glass it was darker, a deep ruby brown but still translucent. It produced a voluminous stiff meringue of a head. Aroma was big on the sweeter things in beer, caramel and molasses, melanoidiny biscuity malts, perhaps a raisiny fruitiness that you would get from a quad. The flavor surprised with a touch of smokiness and roast, but just enough to offset a big sweet malt body. General fruitiness comes through toward the finish. Interesting beer, not an imperial stout as you would expect but then those quirky Belgians, you never know.

Bottle... Pours dark, cloudy and prune-colored with a large, frothy, off-white head. Never-ending retention. The aroma is of Russian black bread and light molasses with lesser offerings of dried plum, espresso, chocolate and a whisper of cinnamon. Full-bodied with medium carbonation. Despite a hearty malt framework, it leans on the acrid, bitter side of balance. Notations of port, tobacco, charcoal and lots of alcohol. Sweetness does take one step forward as it warms, but never usurps the dominance of the alcohol, burnt malt and hop bitterness. A touch of cardboard-like oxidation. Finishes bittersweet – more bitter than sweet. An odd marriage of a quad and a stout that doesn’t necessarily work all that well, but is certainly interesting.

Bottle. Pours a dark brown body with a 1" tan head. Creamy milk chocolate with sweet minerals. Calcium. Nice etoh warming and sweet and malty.

bottle from whole foods. Brown with fizzy white head. Sweet aroma and an earthy herbal floral taste of elder flower.

[November 15, 2008]
Bottle shared with Tronraner and Muenster. Pours a dark red with a huge head. The nose has a funky Belgian quality to it with hints at coffee, licorice, and wood. This is weird. The mouthfeel is flat and strangely thin for 10% abv. A slightly medicinal iodine note is found in the finish and a sour candied flavor dominates. This isn’t very stout, but I thought it was quirky and decent.

(33cl bottle) Pours a cloudy brown body with a small beige head. Aroma of wood, ashes, mustiness, smoke, plum, and roasted coffee. Flavor of smoke, roasted malt, candi sugar, wood, and banana.

11.2oz bottle. My label is different than the one shown (I wish I had the horse label!). Poured a medium brown color with a huge sized (5 finger) off white head. Aromas of roast, smoke, spicy, earthy, and some dark fruits. Tastes of dark fruits, woody/earthy, spicy, and some what nutty. Alcohol content well hidden. Different profile for an Impy.

Bottle, complements of NachlamSie. Pours mahogany with fluffy beige head. The aroma is spicy yeast, walnut, chocolate, and some leather. The flavor is mild acidic coffee, walnuts, and a strange woody sourness. It finishes with a dry leatheriness. Quite interesting, though not at all what I was expecting.