Leinenkugels Big Eddy Russian Imperial Stout

Formerly brewed at Leinenkugel Brewing Company (MillerCoors)
Style: Imperial Stout
Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin USA

Bottle. Pours a black abyss with a tan head. Loads of sweet malty chocolate, roasty grain, dark fruit raisin and sugar. Maple sugar cane and vanilla.

Pours black with decent brown head. The nose is tons of chocolate and molasses; some notes of raisins. Comes across the palate sweet and creamy with chocolate, sweet coffee, molasses, raisins, maple syrup, & fresh cane syrup. Damn this is good.

No matter how long I have been and will be in the world of beer, I am still amazed and quite often baffled by the widely accepted big name beers and just what it is that constitutes their largely universal appeal. Uniformity? Consistency? Cheap simplicity? Availability? Conspiracy? All of the above I would say, with far more than I can and would really like to go into at the moment. My personal ethics and beer politics aside, I always try to let the beers speak for themselves and so far to date Leinenkugal has done absolutely nothing to impress or even averagely appease me. Not part of their yearly selection of beers, I am hoping that the Leinenkugal Big Eddy Russian Imperial Stout will be the one to buck a current trend and wow me with its flavor, dazzle me with its complexity, and woo me with its seductive quaffability.
A thick, oily, viscous pour is a promising sign of what is to come as my glass is slowly overtaken by its black abyss topped by a large tan head. Soft and tightly packed bubbles seem to be sucked into the blackness below, leaving only a thin tan layer. I swirl my glass a couple times and a dark tan head once again struggles to rise to the surface, but is once more sucked into the abyss below. Careful to not be sucked in myself, I raise the glass to my nose to partake of her bouquet which revels in richly roasted malt, bitter dark chocolate, bakers chocolate, and pitted fruits such as dates and prunes with a dry citric lemon rind finish. So far, I am more than sufficiently impressed, and as I partake of my first quaff I am once more impressed. Thick and chewy with noticeable notes of licorice upfront while overripe dates and prunes come in a close second. A mildly dry finish, my lips smack with each sticky sweet, viscous, and mouth-coating quaff. The chocolate I got in her nose comes into play later on in the game, slowly building into a permanent afterimage while fresh dark chocolate and bakers chocolate cleans my palate in preperation of my next quaff. As I finish my Big Eddy, I have but one minor complaint amidst an oil field of satisfaction; she was almost a bit too sticky. That aside, well, done.
While I love being right, I also love being made a believer out of a usually washed-out macro brew performer and for Leinenkugal that would be the Big Eddy Russian Imperial Stout. You won’t see me going near any of their other brews, but I would gladly grab another bottle of Big Eddy if given an opportunity. For anyone who is a fan of Russian Imperial Stouts, you need to give her a try.

12-oz. Thanks, Sprinkle! Pantanap? No, I think it was Sprinkle. :-)
Dense black with tight creamy tan mousse on top. Humongous sweet chocolate nose with backing chocolate there as well. A little bit of prune and coffee underneath that. Rich, dense, creamy, thick body--almost syrupy. Super complex multilayered swirls of chocolate on the mid-palate, from sweet tangy milk chocolate all the way to baking chocolate. Baking chocolate and coffee finish.

Pours a midnight black with heavy lacing and really thick tan head. Aroma is nutty, malts, caramel. Flavor is caramel, malts and some hops undertones. Body is thick and cream with light carbonation.

On tap at Blue Nile. Pour is black with minimal brown head. Aroma is dark chocolate, caramel, dark fruit and raisins. Flavor much of the same with some alcohol. Palate is thick and chewy. Too much going on to enjoy. An alright but slightly disappointed.

On tap. Poured black with minimal brown head. Aroma was of roasted malt, dairy creamer, dark fruit, chocolate, and syrup. Taste was of chocolate, roasted malt, soy, raisins, and a small amount of coffee. Mouthfeel was lighter, yet sticker than expected. This one stuck to the mouth leaving a delicious lingering chocolate taste. Tasty, without being too heavy.

Bottle thanks to BMan1113VR via zathrus13. Blackout pours with the tiny fishegg tan bubbly head. Nose: soy sauce, milk chocolate. MOuthfeel is thick. Taste: salt, dark chocolate, teriyaki, sweetness. Its good but lacking.