 SilkTork (3941), Rochester, Kent, England
Aug 11, 2003 Updated: Aug 15, 2003
Cask, GBBF 2003 Nuffield, Duff and I queued up early for the opening of the trade session of GBBF 2003. We were right at the front of the queue about an hour before opening time. Spiesy phoned, and we were all giggling like school kids, shouting at him to get down here quick or we'd drink all the Courage Stout. England's most acclaimed beer, not commercially available since a special brewing for the GBBF in 1994, was behind the steel shutters. A rarity. An extreme rarity. And, just to make this even more special, it would be available in the cask for the first time in its long history! I had arranged with rauchbier that we would share our 1,000th beer together with a glass of this famous and rare beverage. There were anxious moments as we waited. I had looked on the CAMRA website, and that had given a confusing and worrying description of the beer, which did not include the word Russian, and which made it sound as though it wouldn't be the real thing. To make our anxiety even higher, the doors were late in being opened. We banged on the steel shutters and demanded they let us in. Slowly the steel gate was lifted! We had already made our plan. One of us would get the glasses, one of us would get a table (already mapped out as being placed between the American cask ales and the Imperial Stout) and one of us would go straight to the Courage stand and get the order in. But plans, as they do, fall apart. Our bags needed to be searched, and we needed name tags to be filled in, placed in little plastic holders and then pinned to our chests. Impatience! Frustration! Confusion! We got separated. But I stuck to the mission. I grabbed my glass and ran down to the table, slammed my bag on the table and went straight up to the Courage bar. O joy of joys! The pump clip read: Courage Russian Imperial Stout. The barman pulled off the first of the cask. And I asked the important question. Is this the real thing? I was then surrounded by various members of Courage, including Neil Woodward the Brewing Development Manager for Courage, who assured me this was the real deal. They had gone to great lengths to ensure that every detail was correct. They had used information from the Edinburgh special brew for the 1990's GBBF, and trial data from Courage Brewing (Eastern), and a 1989 production trial at Tadcaster. I was given the recipe: Premium malt, Amber malt, Black Malt, VHM syrup and 100% target hops added to the copper. Fermentation started at 18oC and rose to 23oC - the fermentation lasting for 7 days. It was conditioned in a maturation vessel starting at 23oC and cooled to 3oC over a 4 week period. Prior to racking the yeast rate was checked and confirmed to be in specification. The casks were then racked directly from the maturation vessel. I asked if it would be bottled and sold, but was told that they had no plans to make the beer available outside of the festival. This was a special one off event. When it was gone it would be gone! I took my glass carefully back to the table where Nuffield and Duff were waiting. We had before us the first beer to be pulled at the GBBF 2003 - we had got our beer before anyone else. And it was the Courage Russian Imperial Stout! My notes read: "Simply wow! The experience in the mouth has to be lived to understand the power and deep luscious beauty of this beer. the mouthfeel and smooth waves of chocolate are simply orgasmic. I've been 5'd!" Nuffield, Duff and I had had the Stout from the bottle a couple of weeks earlier at my house. We'd been impressed then, but we were blown away by the experience of a fresh sample from the cask. My notes from the drinking of that 1985 bottle were: "Musty aroma. Mature and distinguished like walking into a gentleman's club. Rancid bacon. Morrello cherries. Marmite. Smoked mackerel. Balsamic vinegar. Beaujolais Neuvo. Opal fruits burst. Starts oily and smokey, then moves into a thinner, more refreshing fruity red wine finish with no bitterness. 9/4/9/4/17 - 4.3" At various points in the day we were joined by other drinkers, some ratebeerians, others not, and we sampled the Russian Stout at various points in the cask. It degraded toward the end of the cask to the point where it became undrinkable. When I sampled a glass that the brewer from Flagship had I spat it out - it had small oily lumps in it. A little while later the barman from the Wenlock Arms had a glass which I sampled, and that was heavenly - it was from a fresh cask. When rauchbier caught up with us he had a glass of the Stout in his hand - from about midway through the cask, and it was a damn fine drink, worthy of a 4.5, but it wasn't the 5 that the front of the cask produced. However, rauchbier and I finally managed to get together to share our 1,000th ratebeer rating with the greatest drink that Britain has ever produced.
maniac (2022), Richmond, Virginia, USA
Sep 27, 2008 Bottle courtesy of Greg Koch at our stop at the Stone Brewing World Bistro & Gardens on 08/03/2008 on day three of RBSG. Vintage 1993. Clear caramel color with nearly no head. Big malty aroma with caramel and honey. Caramel and molassas flavor with a smooth finish. Medium full body with no carbonation.
Shag (1787), Chattanooga, Tennessee, USA
Sep 7, 2008 Vintage 1993 - A pitch black appearance with no head. The aroma is soy sauce, chocolate, coffee, and some dark fruits. The flavor is rather sour with some soy sauce, grapes, chocolate, and noticeable alcohol. This was ok for a small amount but nothing I would drink alot of.
yespr (6944), Copenhagen O, Denmark
Sep 6, 2008 33 cL bottle, 1983 vintage, thanks to faeroeviking for bringing this - nice surprise! Pours dark brown to black with a fully diminished. Dense roasted malty and dark fruity. Very dense. Flavour and mouthfeel is oily. Dark hardroasted malty with a mild chalky note. Smooth and slight tarish. Dark roasted and tarish finish with a smooth alcohol presence.
thewolf (3983), Kolding, Denmark
Sep 2, 2008 Bottle. [thanks for sharing, faroeviking]
[vintage 1983]
Pours completely black with no head. Aroma is lightly olxidized, some cellar, tar, roasted malts, raisins and dark chocolate. Super oily mouthfeel, with nearly no carbonation. Fat, oily flavour, lots of chocolate, no oxidition noticeable. Some cocoa powder-like graininess and dryness. No residual sugar. Super long, vinious and warming aftertaste. Great to try!
faroeviking (4414), Faroese Autonomous Beer Republic, Denmark
Sep 2, 2008 Botella. Vintage from 1983 taken from the biggest beer collection in the Faroe Islands (my own). "Best before end of 1986" :-) Originally a gift from NosirIwont. Pours a pitch black colour, no head. Nice soft sweet dark fruity aroma with some chocolate and sherry. Sherry sweet dark fruity chocolate mild coffee alco flavour. Long lasting sweet chocolate sherry finish. Great 25 year old brew!
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