Brewed with brown malts, an English traditional specialty malt, we created an Imperial Russian Stout that has won prizes at festivals across Europe from Sweden to Italy. It’s big (10% ABV), black, roasted and complex. We are convinced that not trying this ale will be a mortal sin to your taste buds and beer experience.The third RIS, Rasputin a Belgian IS. Tsarina Esra a Scandinavian/US RIS Now Hel & Verdoemenis, used old malts for this one like brown malts. (!)
The usual 330ml bottle, of this a 10%ABV beer - which is 2.6 standard drink units in NZ. Coming in at around 300 calories. This particular bottle was bottled on 9th November 2012 and good for seemingly 25 years.
This is the beer after a hard act to follow. the Kopi Loewak. I'm game though.
This has a much deeper coffee/chocolate aroma on opening. Pouts a deep dark black, with no head at all, There is a really soft carbonation in this because you can see it dancing in the glass. It must be me.
Settles to much more muted aroma in the glass, again with a background of fruits and raisins, might be the malts I might be daydreaming.
That is much bitterer and sour like than I was expecting, which makes no sense.
The sourness is almost almost "the beer" but it shouldn't be so. There is some coffee, and there are some steeped fruits, like raisins, in this. Not sure where the sourness comes in, because it's not bitterness, but it is really pronounced.
There's no hint at the alcohol content with this either. I am however resigned to the fact that, and I may have mentioned this, that this is sour.The pdubyah-o-meter frowns the frown of the confused. Of the two beers this is the one I thought would be the better. I'm confident that I wouldn't be thinking differently if I'd had these beers in different order.
So, not for me, sadly, but I'm going to be arbitrarily objective. But it is arbitrary and I'm not sure I'm to far from the centre in my opinions. The pdubyah-o-meter then creaks it's weary way to 7, good, because it is actually not all bad. The underlying sweetness is there, the fruits and sweetness in the carry is nice, it's just the journey is carried on a sourness that again I wasn't expecting.
I'm thinking though that the sourness might be coffee bitterness, which is like trying to find a justification, but I really didn't enjoy this and I have been a lot harsher on better beers. This didn't live up to billing, as it warms up I don't expect it to get better. I'm going to have some cheese and crackers.
Related articles
- Beer - #265 - De Molen - Kopi Loewak (pdubyah.com)
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