North Coast Old Rasputin Anniversary Bourbon Barrel Aged Stout

Brewed by North Coast Brewing Company
Style: Imperial Stout
Fort Bragg, California USA

Black pour, offwhite/tan head. Woody, bourbon aroma with touches of vanilla and subtle dark fruit. First sip is sweet and dark with woody chocolate and boozey bourbon. Vanilla, sweet oak and chocolate and a chalky finish. Dark and brooding, really delectable

Bottle thanks to smokepot23!
XII Anniversary pours black with a bubbly tan head with decent lacing. Bourbon comes first in the nose, then some chalky cocoa, brownie cake and ash. Flavor has heavy bourbon and alcohol, also light chocolate, particularly in the finish. Palate is washed out from the alcohol, ends thin and dry. Bourbon really drowns most of the complexity, some vanilla coming in hints with the chocolate but unfortunately one-dimensional and washed out.

Poured into a snifter. Black with frothy tan head. Aroma strongly of bourbon, sweet dark fruit, oak, and roasted coffee. Taste is medium sweetness, medium bitterness. Mouthfeel is creamy, slightly thin, oily, with soft carbonation. Overall, quite delicious!

Aroma of dark chocolate, malts, oak, bourbon, and alcohol. Pors a really dark black with a light tan head frothy head. Flavors are dark chocolate, smooth bourbon, tons of dark malt, and actually I taste a lot of hops in the background of this beer. But at 11.2ABV and mountains of malt you cant really taste them too much. Super smooth mouthfeel, absolute luxury to drink. Overall this is much like the delicious regular raspy but even more yummy.

Tap at the Blind Tiger for VSK. Drank this along side a Black Xantus and this was little better. Just another middling BA IS that fails to do anything new. Rasputin isn’t a particularly big IS as it is, so it comes as little surprise that it can’t stand up to the barrels, especially after a far-too-long 9 months.

Black pour with dark brown around the rim. Small tan head. Aroma holds tons of bourbon, vanilla, lots of wood, walnut, and a touch of raisin and fig. Flavor is glorious; loads and loads of bourbon and wood. Bits of vanilla, cream, and dark fruit also come through. The palate is really nice; the booze is clearly evident at the start, but it shifts to a enticing roasted bitterness later in the flavor, with a superb chalky finish. The only possible downfall of this beer is that the barrels may have masked some of the natural flavors of Rasputin, but it’s so good that if you take it as its own beer rather than in comparison, it is still incredible. Glad I saved this one, phenomenal brew.

Black pour with a thin tan head that glugs out enticingly. Aroma is hugely bourbon oriented with massive wood and vanilla. Upon further deep robust sniffs I am met with fig, date, raisin, caramel, toffee, and creamy chocolate. Flavor meets me with notes of dark fruit, gratuitous bourbon vanilla, oaken dark sugar, molasses, milk chocolate, and bitter roasted barley. Palate is thick, above average effervescence for the style, and finishes boozy and chalky. Damn fine stout.

12th Anniversary Bottle: pours dark black with a thick tan head, aroma is bourbon, toasted malts, chocolate and coffee, taste is lightly sweet with some mild bitterness, fairly full body, pretty creamy with some light fizzyness, mild bitter finish with a warming in the throat. Very good.