North Coast Old Rasputin Russian Imperial Stout

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

12oz Bottle: Aroma is sweet with blueberry, chocolate, and roast. Poured dark black with a medium brown head that lasted throughout. Excellent lacing. Poured slowly as if it is thick. Flavor is moderately sweet with hints of coffee, cream, chocolate, and alcohol. Full body. Very complex flavor. A little thick. Soft carbonation. Sweet finish turns salty and lasts. Nice mouth feel. A very good Imperial Stout.

Poured with an undistinguished head, mostly dissipating. Aroma actually off-putting--not so much complexity as confusion. Much much better in the tasting. Excellent flavors up front and superb palate (syrupy without burdening the palate, oily, dense). But then the flavors become too much in the finish. Having had this a day after the Samuel Smith Imperial Stout, I felt the hop flavors were a bit heavy. Definitely "warming"...like someone has lit a spaceheater in my gut.

Coffee and chocolate nose with a molasses hint linger above the dark walnut body and small tan head. Roasty coffee and chocolate flavor complete the brew.

Holy crap! This beer rocks harder than Motorhead, and if it had arms it would more than likely kick their asses as well. This beer explodes on the tongue with all the qualities anyone can possibly want in an imperial stout, and in perfect balance as well. Chocolate is all over this brew, and it lounges on the palate like your lazy uncle on disability lounges on his couch all day eating cherrios and drining vodka - this beer seduces your tongue like Rasputin himself seduced the ladies - more complicated than a Russian novel, and much easier to appreciate - The Brothers Karamazov of beers.

35,5 cl bottle. Black colour. Aroma of roasted barley and some fruit. Great taste of roasted barley. Well balance between hops and the dark malt, that ends in a great complet smooth taste, with hints of alkohol.

The aroma is sweet and caramel like with lots of toasted malt. The appearance is so dark brown that it’s almost black. The head is small. The flavor is bitter and full of chocolate, toffee, brown sugar, coffee, and celery. The palate is just about right. Aftertaste is bitter and the alcohol lingers just a little. Overall not bad but it could be better.

(Bottle, Akkurat, Stockholm) Black colour with lasting, brown head. Malty, roasted nose with strong black coffee, dark chocolate, cocoa and dark rye bread. Malty, roasted nose with notes of dark fruit, black coffee, dark bitter chocolate, blueberries, tar, liquorice and generous amounts of cocoa bittreness in the finish. Full bodied, fairly sweet. Everything lingering together in almost perfect harmony. Lovely beer!

(12 oz bottle: Holiday Wine Cellar in Escondido, CA) I seem to take this excellent Imperial Stout for granted. It’s readily available, but I never seem to buy any, even though I think it’s one of the best in its class. It has a wonderful, up-front, sweet chocolate flavor soon joined by ample amounts of dark, bitter roast which really dominate the finish. The bitterness seems to be the product not only of the strong dark roast, but also of fairly strong hops content as well. Alcohol is readily apparent to me, but far from being overbearing. The nose is mostly sweet, chocolaty and vinous with modest aromas of alcohol and yeast in the background. Full bodied without being heavy or sticky on the palate. Very dark brown in color, appearing black through the center of the glass, but a deep mahogany at the edges. Dark tan head pours to maybe half an inch in height, and soon fades to a patchy sheen. Really good stuff.