Thu. Oct 3rd, 2024

Reviewed by Ken Carman

How do they get this much grain into one bottle? This ale, weighing in at 9%, is thick, chewy: a champagne-sized Grolsch-style bottle filled with liquid luxury. Normally I would type that it’s extract-y, but the complex malt mix of pale, many darker malts and a lot of dextrinous malts are so velvet upon the palette it is irresistible for those of us who desire a 2 by 4 malt weight upon the tongue.

The hops, though present, get a bit lost in all this malt, but the beverage doesn’t suffer. And it’s not malt-bitter in the way that such multi-grain concoctions can be. Debittered dark malts?

The advertising on the bottle, and some reviews, push the hops a bit too much, in my opinion. Not that they’re absent by any means, just not quite the “explosive finish” as some claim; especially for those of us who are also fans of over 100 IBU Imperial IPAs. Just enough to balance off the darker, sweeter, malt notes. So what exactly do would I call this style? Even the brewery claims it’s a Russian Imperial, but I don’t get any sense of roasted, unmalted, barley. The usual, at least slight, astringent notes are absent and, to be honest, it’s just too complex even for Imperial Stout. I think they went so far with this in the “smooth” category they went beyond Imperial Stout. Perhaps a bit more of a spin off of Baltic Porter, sans lager yeast?

Whatever it really is, it’s delicious.

By Professor Good Ales

Mythical poster at The LTS Good for What Ales You Beer Journal. Loves good beer. Hates same old, same old. Muses that Bud and Miller might as well be brewed in urinals. Drinks lagers too, if they are complex and interesting.

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