North Coast Old Rasputin Russian Imperial Stout

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

’Dark as the inside of a cow’. Large frothy chocolate head, tons of lace, a nose that simply reeks of toasted grains, chocolate, caramel. Big sweet malt start, top ’Don’t get no fuller than this’, finish is hop spicy, light to moderate carbonation, dry. Just can’t remember having a better ’Imperial than this’. A must try for all ’Lovers of the Dark side’, and if your a ’Stout’ lover, ’Baby your ship just came in’.

Complex. Nice roasted rum-raisin flavor. Not overpowering, but I probably wouldn’t drink more than 2 at a sitting. I’m going to ding this a little for lacking a stacked head, but otherwise, it’s a 4.4-4.5 beer.

Thick, solid black with a nice light, creamy, light brown head. Full-bodied palete with an upfront coffee flavor and bitter aftertatse. I didn’t notice the 9% at all (other than 20 minutes later). Very enjoyable.

Pours thick black with a nice thick brown head. The aroma is intensely thick with chocolate predominating and a hint of fruityness. I has a huge flavor! It’s able to possess such richness, yet be highly drinkable. Thick and robust, richly malty, choclatey, creamy, milky, licorice, warming peppery alcohol touch, mocha chip, creamy cappucino, hint of underlying fruityness (passionfruit?) The roastyness is perfect, with an oakey aspect. The slightly sweet chocolatey viscousity is beautifully balanced by the smokey pineyness and roasted aspect which are followed by a slight hoppy dryness. The aftertaste is prelonged, but smooth and unabrasive. Amazingly complex, balanced and smooth.

Pours a thick tan head on a black body. Nice and sweet fruity and malty aroma with tones of coffee, oranges and dry fruit. Delicious flavor, sweet and full and very smooth. Notes of coffee, bitter chocolate, hops, roasted malt and plenty of fruit. An extremely tasty stout and really my kind of beer!

Dark black color with a frothy brown head that dissipates quickly. Aroma of roasted malts. chocolate and coffee aroma.

[2288-20090618] 12floz bottle. Roasted coffee malt aroma. Black brown body with a medium-lasting foamy tan head. Roasted malt flavour is a little bitter. Full body. Great balance!
Overheard: "I don’t like the idea that my eyeballs are French."
(w/ DuctTape, jerc)

Re-rate. All right, going to try this one again. Bottle obtained in a trade with Blankboy. Looks really nice - black, really creamy beige head, perfect symmetrical streaming bubbles at the top. So that goes from 4 to 5. Aroma I’ll probably keep at 7 - it is nice, some roast, a few hops, but there are far better in this style. Taste - some roast up front and than bam, tons of hops. More roast, coffee, more hops giving way to a bitter finish. Mouthfeel is nice and creamy / frothy - I’ll take palate up from 3 to 4. Taste is quite nice, but I still found it a bit unbalanced - torn between a 7 or 8 there. I liked this much better the second time - the alcohol never really comes up, but I still find it just a tad too hoppy for an impy. Lovely stuff though, always nice to see how your taste changes... Original 7/4/7/3/14 Bottle. Black pour, small tan head. Roasted flavours and hops in decent aroma. Small to medium mouthfeel. Taste dominated by hops, which surprised me. The roasted flavours stay firmly in the background as the beer is dominated by hops, making it unbalanced in my opinion. I found it too thin for the style as well, more of a big porter than anything. Not overly complex. Nice and enjoyable, but rather disappointing given its stature on this site.