Lagunitas Cruising with Ruben and The Jets

Brewed by Lagunitas Brewing Company
Style: Imperial Stout
Petaluma, California USA

Pretty darn interesting. I kept searching the label for a description and didn’t see it. With that in mind I thought it looked rather dark, but as I see it is supposed to be a stout it seems not quite dark enough. Or maybe since it says chocolate pepper stout it can be forgiven. After the fiasco after fiasco with Otter Creek I am now thanking my lucky stars that despite Lagunitas not being my favorite brewery ever, I do like them and appreciate what they do. Cruisin’ was an album my older bro had and I got a kick out of it just as I did with this.

Pours a dark brown, with a thin ring of lace - nose of chocolate, roasted malts, blakc cherry, and this bizarre, tangy, nearly tannic, kind of belgian-ish character, which is bizarre, but it works - the flavor is mostly chocolate, but the black cherry from the aroma is fairly apparent as well - finishes with strong roasted malt, and the white pepper rides in on that - it’s not that strong, but there is enough of it there to add a uniqueness to this beer that many Lagunitas beers lack - it’s not great, but I’d drink this again.

...cruisin with ruben?..odd people over at lagoos... pours a dark dark brown-black .. some lacing .. average roast and tar imperial stout aromas .. COME ON UNITED! ... very smooth ... lacks some of the complexity of most imperial stouts, but enjoyable .. i like wear (like sandals or jean shorts) the special series from lagunitas are going... grapes? .. another chance??

Dark brown pour with a nice creamy lasting head. The aroma is of chocolate, with a light roast and a little earthy dryness. The flavor is initially sweet and chocolatey. This is followed by a nice moderate roast which moves into a touch of earthy hops. There are underlying flavors of pepper, but it is very light and really only contributes to the dry lingering mouth feel IMO.

Deep brown body, light small brown head. Seemed a little on the thinner side while pouring but turned out to be a little above medium bodied. Rich roasty chocolate character, almost milk chocolate with some dark chocolate notes. Smooth mouthfeel that bordered on creamy. Some sweet fruit notes along with a bread-like component and some light woodiness. Soft pepper character that are not pronounced and seem to blend into a spicy hop presence. Nice drink and one of the better members of the the FZ tribute series.

pours a nice dark ruby brown with a thin tan head. Aroma starts as light chocolate, cherry fruit, dusty nutty malt, choc. aroma comes on as the brew warms. Flavour was slightly smokey sweet malt, cherry/berry fruitiness that gives it a light to medium tartness towards the finish. Alc is well blended in the flavour but does come across as a little sticky.

Pours dark brown, roasted malts, caramel, chocolate, little spice, little alcohol.

A vigorous pour into my 25cl tulip glass produces a fat-two-finger thick, lightly browned, tan colored head. The beer is quite dark, but shows some clear, deep red notes to it even as it sits on my desk. When held up to the light it shows a brilliantly clear, dark cherry red color. The aroma is quite fruity smelling with ample berry notes (blueberry, and blackberry are noticeable), but these are most definitely, at least partially, from the chocolate character as the finish has a rich, bright chocolate note to it. There is also a touch of tartness here that accentuates the berry notes, a touch of up front roast character as well as a touch of solvent like alcohol and some toasted bread crust character. This has a very interesting nose to it; it can be quite intriguing at times.

The beer is soft and creamy textured up front, but this is somewhat cut by a prickly carbonation, but then it finishes with a velvety texture again. There is a strong roast character here that provides a lot of burnt bitterness. The beer is sweet up front which accentuates a bright berry character, and there seems to be a fair amount of hop character here as well; some of the berry notes come from this, there is also a touch of pine, as well as some grapefruit like notes as well as a herbal bitterness to the finish. The sweet chocolate notes get mixed in with the roasted grain character; the chocolate flavors are actually somewhat hard to pick out and if I didn’t know this contained chocolate then I would not guess it. Also the pepper is almost non-existent, I get no zing, subtle or otherwise.

Not a bad beer given that the bottle advertises nothing about the beer on it, so to say I am disappointed in the chocolate and white pepper character seems a bit disingenuous. This is actually a pretty good beer, it definitely has a hard time fitting in a style description (which is, I suppose, fitting) as it is not really roasted enough to be your typical strong American Stout. Certainly interesting and a beer that I can easily spend an evening sipping my way through a 22oz bottle of.

Purchased: Plaza Liquors, Tucson AZ