Columbus Brewing Russian Imperial Stout

Brewed by Columbus Brewing Company
Style: Imperial Stout
Columbus, Ohio USA

On tap at Mellow Mushroom. Pours black with a medium light brown head. Malty aroma with alcohol, cream, hop and licorice influences. Malty flavor with a good hop balance and a coffee finish. Solid offering from CBC.

Thought this was a decent, if unspectacular, RIS. The bar on Russian Imperial Stouts is high and getting higher all the time, and this one might have been quite good a few years ago, but in a market-place crowded with the likes of Bell’s Expedition Stout, Founder’s Kentucky Breakfast, New Holland Night Tripper and countless others this beer no longer really antes up to the style. Still, this beer is not bad, and I can’t say I regret ordering it. It was dark, with a little head, some roasty aroma, and a clean roasty taste (like a porter) with not a lot else to it. This beer didn’t have any alcohol tang, dried fruit, or anything else to it. Mouthfeel was fine; not too thick but certainly not watery. Good, just not great. I had this on-tap at Barley’s Smokehouse on Dublin Rd.

Draft at Barleys #2. Poured black color with a large creamy brown head that mostly lasted with fair lacing. Moderate roasted coffee and chocolate aroma. Medium to full body with a smooth texture and flat carbonation. Medium to heavy smooth bittersweet flavor with a medium to heavy bittersweet finish of moderate duration. My expectations where met with a solid drinkable beer.

On draught at the brewpub. This brew pours black as pitch with a medium foamy light brown head that diminishes slowly. Thick rings of lacing stay put for the duration. The aroma consists of roasted coffee and hops, plus a bit of malt. Medium, dry body with flavors of roasted malt, bitter coffee and dark chocolate. The finish is tangy hops and coffee with a lingering bitter aftertaste. Overall, CBC’s first attempt at an Imperial Stout is fairly respectable.

On tap @ CBC: Pours a deep mahogany pour with a nice sticky tan head. This sort of lingers somewhere in between a porter and an imperial stout; flavor is very strong roasted notes of dark malt and coffee, but also pretty aggressively hopped with a nice spicy bitterness. Finishes with a thick, roasted malt that nearly coats the palate. The flavor here was very tasty, yet I could see myself being able to drink more than one. Great.

On tap @ CBC: Pours black with a medium sized tan head. Aroma, chocolate malts, roasted notes, earthy hops. Flavor, very chocolaty and rich up front, leading to a roasted earthy finish. Certainly a very hoppy beer, palate was a bit on the lighter side for the style, but the flavors are spot on. Sweet and rich, with a nice bitterness cutting into it. Really nice.