I received this beer in a 22oz steep shouldered bottle with a slightly bulbed neck and crimpcap. The label is one of their standard rough paper labels which says "Unlimited Release" "Lagunitas Imperial Stout" "brewed and bottled by the Lagunitas Brewing Co. Petaluma, Calif. and Chicago Ill." and at the very bottom has the Lagunitas dog, who says this beer is "Doggone Good". It has two little hammer and sickles on either side of the word Stout, I suppose to imply Russian. On the side epitaph (one of the things I love about Lagunitas beer) it says "Having downed his fourth imperial stout of the day, the wild eyed charlatan from Voldvostoganiaky belched and hollered for the Czarina to enter his chamber and bend herself to his will. The economy was a wreck and revolt was just around the corner. Nicky the Czar dude was off playing soldier like ny pale nobleman with a hemmorrhagic skin condition would. Such were the final days of the old empire. Reactionary, decadent, sputnik, stroganoff, weird, and drunk. But even as the proletariat countryside labored under inhuman conditiones and a trheat of being sent to a futile war in the east, they wisely took time to slam back an imperial stout or two. After all, life can be a real "suka", as they said in the old country. Big, black, bourgeois, bolshoy, belligerent, buxom, and scary- this is our version of the chaotic end of an era in a bottle". 72.45 IBU's, 1.092 Original Gravity, 9.9% ABV. I'm using my tall Hacker mug, a big beer like this need room.
Nose from the bottle is roasted malt, a little boozy, maybe some caramel. Color is black, It makes a fluffy brown beige heat, large bubbles. Nose from the mug is a sweet caramel with roasted malt and some fruitty esters. On first sip, it's boozy but smooth. It starts caramel, then to dark roast malt, a little bit of coffee, and slight bit grapefruit throughout. Finishes sweet with a bit of a burnt, boozy aftertaste. Full bodied, no acidity, really smooth.
I think I should say something about some of the behind the scenes projects of Beerverted. I'm currently in the product development stage of my Viking Brewing Sticks with the intention of it being the first product of the Beerverted store. I'm also in the inital stages of designing a Water Denaturing Kit as well as a miniaturized homebrewers version of a Yorkshire Square. I think I'll also start looking into building Yorkshire Round Squares, but I'm afraid that it's a product that will be immediately copied if I put it out there. We have to get the ball rolling first and make enough product to fill a warehouse before product release, that way we can sell those things like hotcakes while everybody else has their thumbs up their butts and when by the man gets wise we will be mostly out of inventory and we can move on to the next thing. But first things first, Viking Brewing Sticks. I can't reveal our product Idea on the blog, but I can give you an idea of what they are. So back in the day when Norsemen were making their mead they would use what they considered a magic stick to stir it. This stick would cause the wort to ferment because it had yeast on it (although they did not understand that) and a particular stick would be used for every batch a village produced, giving each village's mead a particular taste. Anyways, there is a little more to it but that would be having the cow but giving the mild away for free. Anyways, Hilgar is in this venture with me, and it's going to be awesome
Final thoughts. Man that's tasty! And I can't get over how smooth it is! This is a beer to be had ladies and gentlemen! Although who am I kidding, I have an entirely male readership. Such is the life of a beer blogger. I give this beer my blurry seal of approval.
