Stone BELGO Anise Imperial Russian Stout

I picked up a bottle of Stone BELGO Anise Imperial Russian Stout from Al’s of Hampden. The beer pours a black color with an extremely lofty tan head that leaves some lacing on the glass. The aroma consists of chocolate, sweet yeast, toasted malts, pine, and lemon. The taste is smooth and creamy with plenty of sweet yeast flavors up front before chocolate, toasted malts, caramel, and a pine twist kick in on the tongue. The finish is slightly dry and bitter with hops. The after taste brings out some smoked meat flavor, which is quite interesting and enjoyable. The alcohol content is 10.5% ABV. This was a great imperial stout with a wonderful Belgian twist of yeast. I think I may like the original IRS better, but the Belgian accent was very welcome.

Stone Imperial Russian Stout

I picked up a bottle of Stone Imperial Russian Stout from Al’s of Hampden as a precursor to trying the BELGO Anise Imperial Stout. The beer pours a black color with a lofty and frothy tan head that leaves plenty of lacing on the glass. The aroma consists of chocolate, coffee, toasted malts, caramel, toffee, and pine. The taste is strong and large with plenty of toasted malts and a hefty helping of chocolate. There is a dry coffee finish with hints of cream, vanilla, caramel, and toffee. The after taste is spicy with pine and pepper. The alcohol content is 10.5% ABV. This is a quality example of an Imperial Russian Stout, but non-hop heads should beware, as it does have a spicy and peppery after taste that I loved, but some may not. It really adds an element to the beer not found in most others within this style.

Southampton Imperial Russian Stout

I received bottle 40 of 650 of Southampton Imperial Russian Stout in a bottle trade with Lee from Hoptopia. The beer pours a black color with a bubbly tan head when poured that actually turns to a foamy head as it settles. The aroma consists of dark chocolate, toasted malts, and vanilla. The taste is creamy and with chocolate, raisin, toasted malts, vanilla, and oak. The finish is smooth but dries a little bit with toasted malts. The after taste is warming with alcohol. The alcohol content is 10.5% ABV. This Imperial Russian Stouts has to be one of the smoothest and creamiest imperial stouts that I have ever had, and one of the most enjoyable ones as well.

Thornbridge Saint Petersburg Imperial Russian Stout

I received a bottle of Thornbridge Saint Petersburg Imperial Russian Stout from Lee of Hoptopia in a beer trade. The beer pours a dark black color with a frothy tan head. The aroma consists of chocolate, toasted malts, coffee, and molasses. The taste is sweet and dry with a large dark chocolate profile, some coffee and molasses accents, and a very dry and bitter chocolate finish. The alcohol content is 7.7% ABV. The deep and dark chocolate profile of the Saint Petersburg Imperial Russian Stout is quite enjoyable in a bitter and sweet heaven.