December 22 - Founder's Imperial Stout
Reaching into the back of the fridge this evening...what did I find? We're going vintage tonight! All the way from January 2013. Hey, that's a lot in "beer time." I found a 10.5% ABV Founder's Russian Imperial Stout! I got this bad boy (and its 23 friends) from my brother and sister in law for birthday #31. Why do I still have it, you ask? Because I forgot I even had it to be quite honest.
This beer pours a deep black color with some dark brown head that doesn't show up until the beer settles down in the glass. Something I don't usually see with beer very often. The quality ingredients used by this brewing company leave a very fancy lacing on the inside of the glass. The aroma gives me huge roasted chocolate as well as sweet coffee notes.
Founder's recommends drinking this at cellar temperature (50-55 degrees), however I decided to go against the grain and start drinking at about 38 degrees. To be fair, I decided to drink this slowly (not just to pace myself) to see what changes there were as the beer warmed up. There were definitely some to be noted.
From the fridge (at 38 degrees) this beer gave me a dark roasted coffee flavor with a complex malt profile (10 varieties of barley) which confuses, yet entertains the palate. There is a strong alcohol bite at the end of this beer that warms and quickly mellows due to an offsetting hop bitterness.
As the beer warmed in my stout glass, the richness of the coffee flavor became much more robust. The alcohol bite at the end nearly vanished into a slightly hoppy espresso bite. It almost made me want another, but I figured one of these was enough for tonight.
Overall, if you're a stout lover and haven't had this beer yet (RateBeer gives it a 100 rating, for what it's worth...) I have one word for you: Must-Have.
That's two words you say? Nope, it's hyphenated (at least for tonight).
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| Since this is a Russian theme now, I give this beer 4.5/5 matryoshkas...pretend the smallest one counts at 0.5. |
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