North Coast Old Rasputin Russian Imperial Stout

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

From a bottle into a pint glass. Pours with an inch of thick gray/brown head which dissipates but never really goes away. Very thick and oily. Scent is of burnt coffee and licorice with hops as an overtone. The taste is very much burnt coffee and licorice and a good amount of hops, especially for a RIS. The alcohol is very noticeable as is the burn. The licorice is very powerful almost mediciney. In fact it’s very mediciney to the point of annoyance. Couple this with the alcohol burn and it’s not one of my favorite stouts. I’d drink again, but only if someone else was buying.

This is one of the most complex brews that I’ve tried. Toffee, Java, Malt, Licorice candy, Chocolate, and the bitterness of hops are all present here. Very nice thick/chewy mouthfeel...should be consuming it with a spoon. Oily black colour with a thin nut coloured head. This is truly fit for a Russian Czar.

From the bottle. Pours a late night black with a small creamy head. Aroma of thick carmalized malts. Flavors of carmel and molasses. Coats your mouth with its thick and creamy texture. Its more of a meal than a drink and I loved it.

Bottle, with countless thanks to bitbucket. Pours inky black, impenetrable black, with a 2-finger tan head on top that laces in a decidedly above average fashion. Nose is sublime, if understated; roast malt, coffee, chocolate, blackberry fruit, tar, floral, ever so slightly sweet. Palate is, if anything, better than the nose, I am a man who invariably rates the aroma higher than the flavor, not so in this case, good though the aroma is. Flavour is rich, creamy and velvety, fantastic coffee and chocolate palate, rich without seeming overtly boozy, in fact not boozy at all! So flavorful and creamy, one of my favorite stouts to date, dynamite stuff.

Not perfect, but awfully damned close. Not a great head, but everything else was supurb - aroma, appearance (like a dark, black ink), and taste. Really want more of this, but no longer available here in B.C. Also got to love the name as well as the excellent label.

Pours none more black with a thick and creamy tan head. Leaves a ton of lacing. Simply beautiful. Smells strongly of coffee and chocolate. Hop presence found in the taste doesn’t have much place here. Tastes of..coffee, chocolate, and a nice bitter hoppy finish. This is definitely a hop-forward stout. Thick bodied and medium carbonation with a warming sensation. Very good, very easy to find, but as it warms the hops tend to overtake the other flavors making it more difficult to drink as I prefer hops take a backseat if any seat in my stouts.

Oily, warming, coffee, chocolate, treacle, bitingly bitter, but smooth and comforting. A great beer, and an excellent RIS.

Beautiful dark stout that was perfectly balanced. Creamy tan head with dark brown, almost black, body.