Portsmouth Kate The Great Russian Imperial Stout

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

Bottle shared at Noogfest High 5. Poured a dark brown color with a large frothy brown head that lasted with excellent lacing. Moderate to heavy roasted chocolate, caramel and alcohol aroma. Heavy bittersweet roasted black coffee malty flavor with a heavy bittersweet and small alcohol bite finish of long duration. Full body with a smooth texture and flat carbonation. This is a standout beer.

Original review date 2/10/2009...directly after KtG day... Served on-tap by Tod (my bad for misspelling your name in the Official KtG day thread - sorry Tod!) himself at KtG day a few minutes after the first tapping...into a Portsmouth snifter. Finally! Let’s see if Kate can bring it...and how... Pours an ultra-dark brown - more than dark chocolate or espresso. Maybe combine those with licorice or Sambuca black and you goddit. A bit of viscosity but not terribly thick. Ginger head is just under a finger - sticks OK with a bit of lacing. Brown sugar is front and center on the nose with a good alcohol burn. The dark roasted malt is so clean, though, on the backdrop. In a word...silky. I’m at a loss for words here and can’t really describe this...incredible! So much vanilla and roast combines in Beautiful Chemistry with the mild brown sugar and a little milk chocolate. Hops are on deep background but there’s a nice woody, grassy quotient that dries this up nicely. Absolutely perfect. The palate feel is perfectly balanced. Not too light, not too heavy. Not too much of anything but just enough of everything, as overabundant as this may be. It doesn’t come off as a caricature - all elements fire on all cylinders. Now the warning. Because this is so smooth, it drinks way, way WAY too easily for its ABV. Goes down quicker than (insert name of decrepit cherished female relative of your mortal enemy here) on the 29th of the month with rent due. This has got to be the best beer I’ve tasted to date. I guess it has the sweetness of Dark Lord with the dryness of Darkness, and it all ends up in perfect balance. Out-friggin’-standing. The trip to Portsmouth was well worth it.

Noogfest High 5. Sample from a bottle thanks to TheBeerSommelier. Dark brown to black with a thin tan head. Aroma is coffee and chocolate, rich malt. Taste is a light distracting soy, big sweet chocolate malt, licorice, roasted malt.

@Noogfest High5 Thanks thebeersommelier-22oz bottle-pours a brown head and black color. Aroma is dark malt/oat-rich/molasses. Taste is dark malt/oat-rich/molasses/chocolate, some sharp/earthy hops, dark fruit. Full body.

Bottle courtesy of tendermorsel. A big thanks to Mike for his generosity. I was looking to hang on to this for a little bit and share but I had to move my beer fridge to let contractors put new windows in my apartment. After pushing it back and not hearing anything move I opened the door to make sure and the Kate came tumbling out and land hard on the cap. At the risk of a leak or oxidation I decided to open it on a random Monday. I guess I am now celebrating my new window! As for the Kate... Pours a creamy milk chocolate with a medium brown head. Sweet coconut, cotton candy, toasted malts, bourbon. Mouth is thinner then I would of guessed it to be, still very hot (why I wanted this to age a bit!). An excellent IRS. Upper class for sure. A little different in flavor profile then most. Closer to Black Albert then anything that come to my mind. A nice way to start the week for sure.

A Mes rate. Bottle at J’s, HUGE thanks to Grant for this one.
Shit the bed, this was a belter. A real stop you in your tracks beer. So many of these highly rated nutter beers fall short for me. This one most certainly did not. Pitch black with a thin but excellent tan head. Amazing rich, complex malt aroma. Perfect oaky notes accompanied with some faint but adorable vanilla. Amazing dried fruit and U.S. chocolate are a given. Some incredible strawberry type sweetness too. Odd, but awesome. I really couldn’t stop smelling this one. The flavour is equally stunning. A massive hit of sweetness had me a little worried for a millisecond but it is barged brutally out of the way by an even bigger hit of almoust sour, funky wood. It’s like Hendrix playing Good Times. Incredible thick, complex malt. So chewy and almost sticky but somehow so bloody clean at the same time. Really, how do they do that? Suddenly a whole family sized bar of chocolate is forced into your mouth. Then more funky sourness appears, it’s almost boardering on tart in places. Christ on a motorbike, it’s all over the place. The fact that it all seems to balance is a real feat of brewing if you ask me. Palate is perfect. I mean that. So so smooth, masses of body but just when you think it’s gonna be thick and cloying, it melts away leaving an incredible journey of an aftertaste in it’s wake. Each sip is the same assault of madness. Each swallow brings the same embrace. Huge, stunning, elegant. I had a wopping serving of this thanks to Grant. This is usually the sort of thing, I’d get a nip of at a big tasting. Mate, you seriously kick ass. So does this beer.

Sampled at Noogfest High 5. The body was black with a khaki head. The aroma was milk chocolate and tobacco. There was also some molasses. The taste was strong milk chocolate with some raspberry notes in the finish. While this was good, I was not overly impressed.

Sampled at Noogfest High 5, 2009 bottle. Pours black with tan head. The aroma is chocolatey with some ash notes, a little bit of latté, and a hint of bourbony barrel char and vanilla. The flavor is chocolate, a sweet liqueur (Irish Creme, maybe?), some vanilla, and a stray raspberry note once in a while. The finish has alcohol, some ash, and coffee. This is an excellent beer, but not the icon it’s made out to be.