I have a soft spot in my heart for the People’s Pint, the little brewpub located in Greenfield, Mass. that I first discovered many (many) years ago when I was an undergrad out in the Pioneer Valley. The local beer scene was really just taking shape then, and I loved the People’s Pint’s combination of good food, relaxing atmosphere, and reliably good beer.

I moved out of the area a while back, and my last couple of visits haven’t been as fulfilling as my previous ones, even owing to the vagaries of memory. I still thought the food was good, and the atmosphere nice, but the beer was a bit of a let-down. On each occasion I’ve been there in the last couple of years, the beer was really just ok. Some pints seemed a bit low on carbonation, even for English styles, and others just lacked a real zip of flavor and personality. But hey, I’m happy to give them a pass, since I’ve only been able to go on a couple of occasions in a long time, and have many more happy memories than disappointing ones.

The People’s Pint brews all English-style beers, including a bitter, oatmeal stout, and IPA. They offer a couple of winter seasonals as well. This is the first time that I’ve ever seen their imperial stout in a shop before, and I’ve never had it on draft either, and so it seemed like a great time to give it a go. Like I said, that soft spot in my heart really spoke up and insisted on giving this beer a try.

Information on this beer is tough to track down. It’s brewed to an original gravity of 1.110, finishes at 9.2% and has 100 IBUs. The label looks like it was printed on a laser printer (nothing wrong with that from a small, local brewery) and has the year the beer was made (2009), and the bottle number hand-written on it (#233 – no indication how many bottles in total).

It pours jet black, lightening to a hint of rusty brown at the edges. A thin wispy tan head rose to the top but didn’t last long, leaving just a trace behind. The nose has notes of cocoa, coffee, chocolate covered raisins, and a whiff of smoke. Subtle overall, but pleasant and inviting. The palate has a warming, soft texture with delicate carbonation. Flavors of chewy black licorice, roasted malt, and milk chocolate are most prominent, with just a faint note of bitterness. On the whole, the palate’s not as sweet as the nose, a bit more earthy and restrained. The finish opens up with a surprising amount hop bitterness that takes a bit to fade, giving way to lingering notes of coffee and cocoa.

A good, well put-together imperial stout. Nice combination of flavors, good texture. A bit bitter on the finish, but I liked how it then segued to the coffee and cocoa flavors. I’d love to try this on draft sometime, and it goes without saying that tasting this made me look forward to my next visit to the People’s Pint. It’s been a long time since I was last there, maybe a year and a half, and I hope to be able to go again before too much more time has passed. If you’re nearby be sure to stop, and try the turkey burger with cheddar cheese, always my favorite sandwich there. The desserts are always very good too.

North Coast Brewing Company, located in Fort Bragg, California, has been producing their Old Rasputin Russian Imperial Stout for almost 10 years, during which time it’s earned a reputation as one of the top imperial stouts being brewed today. This reputation is all the more remarkable in that it’s a year-round offering from North Coast, and the great reviews that it regularly receives are evidence of the consistency with which they brew it.

I go back and forth these days in my mind debating the question of which style of imperial stout I prefer: straight-up or bourbon-barrel aged. Not a cosmically important question, and one largely of interest just to myself, but interesting nonetheless. A great imperial stout brings so many flavors to the table: coffee, chocolate, malt, vanilla, etc. The best of them are dynamic and exciting, sip to sip. In contrast, some bourbon barrel-aged imperial stouts can occasionally be overpoweringly rich, and actually less dynamic, owing to the overpowering influence of the barrel.

Interestingly, this is not a phenomena unique to barrel-aged beers. The exact same thing occurs with wines. If you compare a red wine aged in used barrels vs. one aged entirely in new barrels the differences can be startling. The new barrels overwhelm the wine’s delicate fruit flavors, overriding them with oaky vanillas, spices, and tannins. This is a definite style of wine, the highly-oaked, highly-alcoholic red wine, most often in the form of a cabernet sauvignon, syrah, or zinfandel.

I don’t actually think one approach is “better” than the other. To a large extent, this is a matter of preference. My personal preference is for a wine that exhibits vibrant and fresh fruit and terroir, and less oak. But there’s no doubt that a big, monster of a red wine can be pretty fun sometimes.

In the case of imperial stouts then, I remain torn. I haven’t identified my preference as leaning one way or the other yet. But, during the road trip that we are currently on, I’ve had the chance to sample a number of beers both bourbon barrel-aged and not, and I may be coming closer.

The Old Rasputin is one such opportunity that I had. This article concerns the straight-up Old Rasputin Russian Imperial Stout. Like I said, North Coast has been brewing this for nearly 10 years. It weighs in at 9% and 75 IBUs, a slightly higher ABV:IBU figure than most other imperial stouts that I’ve tried.

It pours with medium viscosity, pitch black with slight amber highlights and a creamy coffee-colored head. The nose has notes of french roast coffee, notably strong hops, and anise, on top of a base creamy vanilla undertones. The palate has flavors of black coffee, hop bitterness, bittersweet chocolate and vanilla, and a hint of creme caramel. The beer has a medium velvety texture with ample carbonation. The finish is bitter with hops, roasted grains, and a tinge of iron.

I like Old Rasputin, but find it a bit too bitter and hoppy an imperial stout for my taste. Definite layers of flavor that really opened up as the beer warmed, but the hops and acrid roasted coffee notes clashed with the sweeter tones.

Stay tuned for my next writeup, which will discuss Old Rasputin’s special-release kin, Rasputin XII. This is the bourbon barrel-aged version of Old Rasputin, just recently released. Should be an exciting comparison!

From the start they set themselves apart by choosing to can all of their beer. This was at a time when hardly any craft brewers were canning their beer, with the Oskar Blues Brewery being one of the other notables doing this. According to owner Rob Leonard the decision was initially a purely economical one, owing to the cost of purchasing glass bottles. In the end though, the brewery really got behind this idea and has stuck with it throughout the growth they’ve experienced in the past few years.

Each year they brew a special release beer, and Imperial Stout Trooper first appeared in 2007 as part of this series. It instantly began receiving rave reviews, and initial batch quickly sold out, and the beer itself quickly became a cult item.

Its cult status owes in no small part to its name, borrowing from George Lucas’ Star Wars series. No doubt, choosing the name Imperial Stout Trooper was genius, and as a homebrewer who struggles to choose interesting/fun names for my beers, I could only hope to ever hit upon something so brilliant. My favorite part is that when asked whether they would brew Imperial Stout Trooper again, Rob Leonard remarked, “We thought the Imperial Storm Trooper would be a one time only brew, as we expected a cease and desist order from Lucas Films. It never came, though, so you’ll probably see it again next year.”

Lo and behold, they did brew the beer again the following year, and released it in December of 2008. This is one of those many elusive beers that gets incredible ratings on sites such as Beeradvocate and which you rarely, if ever, see in a shop. And yet, somehow I was lucky enough to land two bottles of this rare bird. Needless to say, not only does the name rock, I’m smitten by the fabulous label too:

The statement on the label says: “Brewed in a brewery not too far away and not too long ago…Imperial Stout Trooper is a full bodied stout with a majestic blend of seven different malts and Northern Brewer hops.” The brew date is indicated as 2008.

The beer pours beautifully, thick and viscous with a thin creamy looking, chocolate-colored head forming. A thin, persistent layer of head sticks around for the duration. The nose has rich notes of rum, black licorice, coffee, and black-strap molasses. A whiff of alcohol is in there as well. The palate is luscious, thick and velvety textured. A simply amazing texture to this beer, easily right up there with some of the best beers that I’ve drunk. Flavors of roasted coffee and dark, bittersweet chocolate (think 85% dark) flavors dominate, accompanied by flavors of black licorice, salted caramel, and a very noticeable malty backbone. The alcohol flavors are pretty well-masked by the texture, and are not very prominent. The finish wraps things up perfectly, with pronounced flavors of flourless chocolate cake, dark chocolate pots de creme, and chocolate-covered raisins.

Holy moly. This beer really did live up to the hype. It’s so seldom that a beer manages to do that, but the Imperial Stout Trooper totally knocked this one out of the park. The flavors were incredibly well put-together for an imperial stout, but it was the texture that left me awed. I hate to say it, on account of the extremely limited availability of this beer, but it is a must-try for anyone who loves imperial stouts.

It was inevitable that Great Divide’s Oak-Aged Yeti would eventually become part of this run of tastings. Strictly speaking, it’s not a barrel aged beer (bourbon or otherwise), but is instead aged on French oak chips. French oak chips will impart some of the same flavor elements as a bourbon barrel, most notably some oaky vanilla and tannins, without the additional flavors of whiskey, caramel, and spiciness from the bourbon. So I was in store for a very different beast than the other wood-aged beers I’ve tried thus far.

I really like Great Divide’s approach to this beer. The Yeti Imperial Stout is a great base beer that they then age on French oak chips and release as Oak-Aged Yeti. A third variant is this beer, the Espresso Oak-Aged Yeti, to which they add fresh brewed espresso. They’ve also aged a small amount of Yeti in Stranahan’s whiskey barrels for 20 months and released this as Barrel-Aged Yeti. And lastly, they just announced the release of Chocolate Oak-Aged Yeti, a version of the Oak-Aged Yeti that uses cocoa nibs and cayenne in the brew.

It would be a fantastic tasting to work your way through samples of all five versions of Yeti, if only you could get your hands on the ultra-rare Barrel-Aged Yeti (less than 500 bottles were released). Unfortunately, with Great Divide located in Denver, CO, chances of that are pretty slim here.

The Espresso Oak-Aged Yeti is a seasonal offering from Great Divide, and it hit store shelves a couple of months ago. It rolls in at 9.5% and comes only in 22-ounce bottles.

The beer pours viscous and black with ruby hints at the edges. After a mildly vigorous pour a thick chocolate-colored head forms that slowly drops, leaving generous lacing on the glass. The nose has notes of carob, oak, coffee, roasted grains and wood resin. These flavors are pretty well integrated, with no single flavor being dominant. The palate has a moderate amount of prickly carbonation to offset the warm, velvety mouthfeel. Flavors of oak are notable, with some drying tannins added in to boot. Alongside this are notes of roasted grains, subdued coffee, bittersweet chocolate, and a hint of vanilla. As with the nose, no single flavor particularly stands out. The finish opens up with milk chocolate that gives way to a bitter espresso bite.

I was surprised by how dry and mellow the beer was. Expected flavors of coffee, chocolate, espresso, and a hint of vanilla all appeared, but were really balanced against one another and the oak finishing to create a beer that has no one dominant personality. If anything, I think this may have been a slight drawback, simply because I found the oak-aging to have dried the beer out quite bit, with the tannins being surprisingly strong. Yes, the flavors were in balance, but I wonder if this actually kept the beer in check, preventing it from expressing a pronounced personality. I’d like to give this one another chance though, since it showed a lot of promise.

On the whole, I thought the beer was ok. I’d still like to do the full tasting of Yeti expressions, and if I ever get my hands on a bottle of the bourbon barrel-aged version I think I’ll just have to organize that. It may mean sitting on the beer for a while until each of the seasonal releases have come out, but I would be willing to bet that it’d be worth it.

And I’m definitely hoping that during our road trip this Summer we can swing through Denver and drop in at Great Divide. If nothing else, I think the Yeti t-shirts are great. “I believe”.

I don’t mean to take away from the brewery’s beers, as I’ll readily admit that this is just a stylistic approach that I don’t fully appreciate. My preference is generally for beers that are lighter on the palate while still delivering lots of flavor. Therefore, I was surprised when I had Port Brewing’s Older Viscosity at this year’s Extreme Beer Fest and found that it was one of the best beers I tasted at the event. Here was a beer where the big, substantial body worked in its favor, supporting a rich collection of flavors and well-integrated notes from aging in bourbon barrels. The beer was pretty incredible.

Ever since then, I’ve had it in the back of my mind to give Older Viscosity’s younger sibling a try at some point, and so when I ran across it in a shop recently I picked up a bottle. It was only then that I learned just what an interesting beer Old Viscosity is.

This is a blended beer consisting of 80% of the base imperial stout, and 20% of the same beer aged in bourbon barrels. It is produced using two-row, crystal, carafa, and wheat malts, and magnum hops for bittering. The original gravity is 1.092 and the final gravity 1.014, resulting in a beer that is 10.5% and has a nice, viscous texture.

Old Viscosity pours pitch black, with a thick brown head that quickly dissipates leaving a thin layer on top of the beer and a bit of lacing. It pours thick into the glass, but relative to some of the imperial stouts that I’ve had recently (such as the Goose Island Bourbon County Stout) the body appears to be medium-weight for an imperial stout. The nose has flavors of pipe tobacco and espresso, with a bitter bourbon note and a thread of bittersweet chocolate. Picture a cup of espresso in front of you, add a piece of dark, bittersweet chocolate to it and let that melt, and then add a dollop of bourbon, and you’ll get a good picture of the nose on this beer. Bitter,warming, and enticing all at once. The flavors open up with bitter roasted coffee and spicy, black peppercorns. Creamy bourbon and vanilla flavors have a big presence up front but they quickly give way to a second wave of coffee, peppercorns and bitter malt flavors. The body is medium textured, slightly thick with a prickly carbonation. As the beer warms it becomes much more rich and mellow, but the bitterness never fully subsides. I definitely found the ideal temperature for this beer to be between 55-60. The flavors were really most in harmony there. The finish is intriguing with malted milk balls at first, quickly giving way to a lingering flavor of bitter roasted coffee and grain.

I liked this beer, but definitely wanted to like it a lot more than I did. As good as some of the flavors were, I found the persistent bitter notes to distract from the beer’s overall harmony. I wonder to what extent the 20% of the beer that was aged in bourbon barrels had to do with this. I’ve certainly found that aging in bourbon barrels can lend some beers a bitter element that they don’t normally have, which I imagine comes from a combination of the tannins from the barrel and the slightly astringent bourbon flavors. But at the same time, the bourbon barrels definitely added an interesting level of complexity to this beer.

In the end, my impression was that the beer never really hit its stride and never fully came together in the glass. Unlike Older Viscosity, it’s 100% bourbon barrel-aged brother, the sense that I came away with was that this beer was caught in the middle somewhere, one foot in one flavor spectrum, the other in a different one.