Stone Bourbon Barrel Russian Imperial Stout

Brewed by Stone Brewing Co.
Style: Imperial Stout
Escondido, California USA

(handbottle, thanks for bottling Stine, and thanks to Tytoanderso for getting the growler!) Pours black with a tan head; looks good enough. Aroma is very limited with a lot of bourbon, coconut, and vanilla. There’s also a little bit of chocolate and roasted malt, but none of the smells are really that strong. The taste really falls flat, with a hint of bourbon, light roasted malt, and really not much else. The flavors are there for a split second, and then they just vanish. As OSLO said, the regular RIS is far superior to this creation. I know it’s the in thing to barrel age beers, but this particular beer was not enhanced in any way by the barrel aging. The mouthfeel is also very thin. This is just not that good.

[Handbottle, thanks for bottling, Stine and huge thanks go to tytoanderso for acquiring the growler!] Pours black with a good tan head. Aroma is fairly nice, if not simple, with a lot of coconut from the bourbon, chocolate, and a hint of roasted malt. Taste is really lacking. I just had the regular RIS last night and all of the complexity and subtle nuances that I loved with that one have been flattened out and overpowered by the bourbon. Just like in the aroma, there is still a little chocolate and roasted malt, but very little else is evident. Medium-thin mouthfeel with a long finish where the roasted malt shows up most strongly. Really, 95-100 percentiles for this and the Mikkeller Black? I feel like I’m taking crazy pills when I look at the high scores. This was not good, and it’s sad because the regular RIS really is a quality beer.

5-28-08 growler shared by Charles (thickerfreakness).
Dense black pour with a thin dark tan chocolate milk like head. Smell is roasted malt and bourbon and vanilla and oak. Flavor is a hint "hot" bourbon up front but it has a nice roasted character to it. Finish is oily and slick - it actually leaves an oily coat on the tongue. Little to no carbonation. Flavor is smooth and balanced and has a nice body and character. Really becomes so much better as it warms. Yummy, super slick and creamy. I almost want a hint more body and boost to it - just perhaps a touch creamier. However, the flavor more than makes up for any weakness here. Aftertaste is nice and balanced. Very enjoyable, drinkable and I highly recommend this.

1L from Pantanap. Nice. Very nice. Damn. Damn this is awesome. Light bourbon, thick roast, though a bit tuna-fishy in the aroma. Certainly the biggest flaw in this beer. Flavor is very soft, chalky, with some bourbon . Rich and balanced. The bourbon works perfectly here, mostly showing itself in the finish, after some chocolate and licorice. Top notch stuff. They need to bottle this.

In short: A brutal sipper. Rudimentary but effective extra-strong bourbon intensive Imperial Stout. A good but very much overrated sipper.
How: From a fresh 1L growler brought back from the brewery by Francois Mtl. Drank only a few days after the growler was filled. Shared on the “Stone-Bourbon-Barrel-RIS-Hype-And-Disappointment” tasting session with the Montreal crew.
The look: Black body with a tan ring of foam
In long: Lots and lots of of barrels on the nose and taste. Attack of alcohol, bourbon, very roasted malts (slight burnt sensation) and thick molasses ending abruptly with sharp bite of bitterness and alcohol. Alcohol feels like 15%. This is a brutal sipper with very little complexity. Initial impression was 3.9 but after drinking more strong beers at the tasting session it kept going down. The absurdly high ratings has more to do with rarity than quality. This beer has a lot of alcohol, it’s Bourbon Barrel Aged and more importantly it’s rare. When a beer has those three qualities ratebeer turns into the music Billboard and the top-50 has nothing to do with quality.

Hand bottle thanks to mreusch for this Big sorry to Tom for not sharing but it was a hand bottle i was wanting in best shape. so opened it as soon as it arrived. sorry Tom, but you dont like Impys anyway ... Deep solid black ... good roast malts little vanilla ... smooth roast malt ... again little sweet vanilla... the bourbons definitly there with a bit of a bite but its much more subdied than others... in fact it blends very well ... My wife said coconut, and i agreed but not quite then she mentioned a drink we bought in africa Africoco(sp?) ( a coconut and chocolate liquer )and thats was it ... its got tones of that but so much more ... This was a beer i wanst sure i was going to enjoy ... but wanted to check out given its placing ... and was very pleasently suprised. Further in really enjoying this upping mid bottle from 3.9 ->4.4

growler - big, big thanks to weaheavySD for the trade; if i think of the pure joy that ratebeer can provide, this is the perfect example; a traded something, outrageous perhaps, for something that was equally outrageous is my mind; regardless, a growler of a bourbon-aged russian imperial stout shows up to me from some brew pub more than 1,200 miles away; and not that you need an excuse, but provided a good one to get together with a few other raterbeerians and savor in the sticky goodness of a truly kick ass RIS; poured out like motor oil with tan head varying from thick to thin; huge aromas of chocolate, molasses, teriyaki, bourbon, wood, etc. with a different combo each sniff; lots of bourbon, but never overwhelming; drinks oaty, sweet and creamy, syrupy, rich; just about everything and big in every way; wow, it really blew me away and was a beer you could get lost in as you savored each sip; memorable to the last drop; thanks jon for providing the adventure

Huge bourbon aroma with some lighter coffee notes. Black with no head. Smoke compliments the bourbon in the flavor, light alcohol in the finish. Smooth but slightly thin. Definitely enjoyable as a bourbon lover.