The "King" and I
This week’s beer comes from a local brewery that has yet to disappoint me. All of the beers they offer are very diverse in style and are made with a unique take. I’ve tried many of their beers but have actually avoided one in particular…up until now. I realized that if I’m going to review beer, I’ve gotta be open towards trying everything – even those styles that I’ve historically hated. Save one or two specific beers, I’ve really been disgusted by stouts. But here goes nothing: this week’s style is the Russian Imperial Stout.
The Russian Imperial Stout dates back to the 1800’s from you guess it, China. Just kidding – I figured I’d throw in a cheap joke/see if you were actually paying attention. Brewed specifically to win over and impress the Russian Czar at the time, these beers have higher ABVs and strong, malty backbones. Generally darker in color, this style’s tone derives from the roasting of the barley used in the beer making process. In association with the barley used, roasted, coffee, chocolate, and burnt flavors are apparent. Hop character and darker fruit flavors can appear, but range in presence. One other quick note: these beers are astringent, meaning that they dry the palate as they go down the pipe hole. Victory Brewing Company, has developed its own version of this style: Storm King.
Storm King Stout’s label portrays a bird (my guess is an owl) with a crown on it, proving that it is indeed some kind of king. It pours very nicely and looks very pretty. The beer is onyx in color and is topped with a chunky, milk chocolate colored head. This beer is a lace machine as it retains it nicely around the sides of the glass. Stout guy or not: this beer looks nice.
To my surprise, the smell of the beer was not as strong as I had imagined. Chocolate and toffee flavors as well as some hops came through, but were not powerful. All other flavors blended well, which made it difficult to identify anything else specifically.
The taste was a crescendo of flavor as it went down. Hops were noticeable and a burnt popcorn taste ended each sip. No alcohol bleeds through and every flavor was carefully designed and thought out, even though it was hard to pick out many specific ingredients. However, I totally disliked the strong aftertaste. If you like coffee, you won’t have this problem. But for people like me, tea drinkers, who can’t stand that coffee breath/coffee feel in their mouth (insert a joke about your mom and her mouth), you’re not gonna be a happy camper drinking this. The second things I disliked was the mouth feel (insert a different joke about your mom here). The mouth feel, was thick, a typical characteristic of stouts, which is one of the reasons why I dislike this style. I’ve always felt the need to drink this beer with the use of a fork and knife, just because it’s so much more solid than others. Additionally, it was astringent, which felt weird on my tongue and turned me off (insert a joke about your dad here…just seeing if you’re paying attention still). Simply, this is not an easy beer to drink if you’re not into this style.
Admittedly, I didn’t finish my beer, which was only delight to Kraiggles “The Bagels”. My rating is definitely skewed due to the fact that this style does not appease me. But if you can tolerate coffee breath, want a well composed beer, and likes a stout, I don’t see how you can go wrong with this beer. Additionally, I look at this beer as a gateway stout. It was relatively approachable, even for someone that’s a hop head like myself. Here’s my skewed rating:
C / 2.95
look: 4 | smell: 2.5 | taste: 3 | feel: 2.5 | drink: 2
Unfortunately, I don’t know what I’ll be reviewing next week, since I’m not doing a review for the paper; I’m doing a beer 101 article. Maybe I’ll pop open one my favorite beers: La Fin Du Monde.
And of course, here are some pictures:
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- The “King” and I
As per request, here is the link to the article I wrote for The Triangle.
‘EY.