Imperial Russian Stout

Beer Name: Imperial Russian Stout
Brewery: Stone Brewing Co.
ABV: 10.5%
Serving method: 22-oz bottle in a tumbler
Born/Bottled/Shipped on: I'm not exactly sure, but it was released this year on April 16th

Happy 200th Post everyone! 

Spoiler alert - I already know that I like this beer quite a bit, so this review is probably going to be a bit anticlimactic. Especially now that I told you the ending. But I warned you that there was a spoiler ahead, so it's pretty much 100% your fault if you decided to read it anyway. Way to ruin the post for yourself.

Since there's not a whole lot of drama here, I'll tell you a story about beer. Beers that have a location in their title, such as imperial Russian stouts or India pale ales, originally were not allowed by the government to have words that suggested a place of origin as part of their name. Apparently the government felt that this would confuse consumers. Once the style became widespread enough (as India pale ale did way back in the first half of the 1900s), this was no longer an issue, but for Russian stouts, this was not the case until 2005. Before that, the government suggested calling them Russian-style, which is even worse since imperial Russian stouts were originally brewed in England and shipped off to Russia. Luckily, it all finally got worked out, mostly due to a whole lot of work by the folks at Stone, and now we can all drink imperial Russian stouts brewed anywhere in the United States. Thanks guys! And for both of my readers, hopefully you learned something today.

Stone's Imperial Russian Stout is a solidly dark beer. So dark, in fact, that there aren't even any highlights around the edges. Now that's dark. It seemed like it was going to have a thin layer of head as I poured it, but I couldn't get anything to last. Perhaps it was my lack of appropriate glassware. Whatever it was, there was just the faintest amount of head that faded away pretty quickly but in no way will be impacting my enjoyment of this beer. The aroma here is fantastic, with some coffee, dark and sweet chocolate, roasted malts and some lightly noticeable alcohol. Every sip should be proceeded by a deep inhalation to make sure you are appreciating the beer properly.

This beer definitely has some big roasted flavors, with some bitter coffee and chocolate as the main players. The alcohol isn't quite as strong as the aroma suggested, which I actually prefer as I don't want my beers tasting like my booze. The beer has a little bit of a creamy mouthfeel, and there is a decent amount of carbonation for a stout. It's a nice combination for easy drinkability. This beer also hits that sweet spot of being very flavorful straight from the fridge and also after warming up. You can't go wrong!

Final thought - You should pick up at least one of these every year. It's great. Mark your calendars for mid-April so that you won't miss it. As a matter of fact, I'm going to make a spreadsheet right now so that I don't miss it next year. I feel like I might have stated my intentions to create a spreadsheet in the past, but I probably kept drinking beers that night and forgot. Regardless, you need to go hit the packie and grab yourself a bottle of this. Then maybe invite me over and we'll quaff together.

-Jon