Portsmouth Kate The Great Russian Imperial Stout

Brewed by Portsmouth Brewery
Style: Imperial Stout
Portsmouth, New Hampshire USA

One of the highlites at EBF. Poured black with small head very high coffee and chocolate tastes. extreemly smooth! I want more!!!!!!!

Sample Hotshots Feb Indy tasting - Aroma is roasted chocolate malts and coffee, alcohol and burnt wood. Pours black with a small head and decent lacing. Flavor is a mix of the noted aromas along with the addition of dark fruits and a little smoke. Considering how strong everything is with this brew, the palate is exceptionally smooth. Very nice indeed.

Feb 08 Circle City gathering, brought by ayahee: A happy surprise to try the highly regarded impy, will it live up to the hype?

Nearly opaque with a small frothy head and spotty lace. The aroma has big charred and smoky vapours along with coffee, chocolate, ripe fruits, almonds, herbal hops, anise and a touch peaty (medicinal) as well. The taste has a a fresh coffee bitterness with prune and plum tones at first. Then a herbal and liquorice character show in midstream. The finish shows a bit of smoke and nutty notes. Some alcohol is noted but hardly interfered with the overall flavor profile. The mouth feel is the weakest part of this beer, not heavy enough to match the flavors, aggressive and biting, highly carbonated.

All that and more when compared next to Ten-Fidy and then Stone 2003 IRS impys. This is very good and met the expectations. Impy haters avoid, everyone else should seek it out.

Thank you BrianK. Not disappointing but I would like to put some age on this. Very big all around. Aroma is huge of rich malts and sweetness. Taste is very sweet and has a lot of alcohol and is a bit hot. Wonderful, some indescribable, flavors balance out the huge amount of alcohol. Very smooth.

Simply put, one of the best Imperial Stouts I have ever had. Oily, rich in Coffee and Chocolately overtones, with a smooth bitterness dancing softly on the backside. The Mouthfeel is viscuous, and grainy, almost chewy. has a very small nutty flavour hidden in the palate as well. A superb brew.

From a hand-bottle from BrianK. Finally a chance to try BA’s #3 beer. A bit of a disappointment it is. Warm, caramelly aroma is very one-dimensional. Pretty plain but clean and refined stout flavor. Buttery. Lacking in complexity. It sits in that perilous place between being too big and not being big enough.

Bottle: Very dark, near opaque pour with a khaki ring for head. Salty, tarry aroma with lots of charred barley. Creamy dense body with lots of licorice in the flavor. Salty and rich. The finish has a nice amount of bittering hops and residual roast. A decent Stout.

nto a chalice she goes, this Kate, pouring a solid black, with a slim brown ring of head on top. Blackety, black, black, black. In the nose, bittersweet espresso, dark chocolate, ...didn’t impress at first, but grows as it sits in the glass and warms. (This was poured about 15 minutes after taking it from the fridge.) Roast becomes more evident in aroma, favor gets bigger...deep, spicy, earthy, and warm. Let’s drink, shall we? Enters the mouth and fills it full tilt, to the hilt, big boned and bodacious, our Katie. And there’s no simplicity here, it’s an intriquing stew simmering on the palate, some roasty malt, some bright tingly hops, some dark fruit...plenty of beans, cocoa and coffee, but mixed smoothly and adroitly, sliding down the throat with easy, and urging further partakings. Chocolate is in charge of the next sip, but the the sweet is matched with roast, and the bittersweet coffee kicks in next. Nice. But then along comes blackberry, and and raisins, and more...mmmm, tasty...bold, but fuzzy, fierce, but mellow, calming, a tonic for a tough night. Full bodied as they get, with a long, long finish...finish doesn’t work, as there is no termination. Just a long languor. That’s a good word for it. languor \LANG-guhr; LANG-uhr\, noun: 1. Mental or physical weariness or fatigue. 2. Listless indolence, especially the indolence of one who is satiated by a life of luxury or pleasure. 3. A heaviness or oppressive stillness of the air. #2 fits best for our purpose here. Call me satiated by this decadent, luxurious, fruity, hoppy, chocolatey, mellow, deep, dark, and stronger than you think Imperial Stout...what not as strong as I what? I didn’t...wait, there it is... beautiful girl, Kate, lovely, lovely lass!