Of course since I haven't belted out one of these in a while I was going to bring an off-kilter heavy beer to the plate. For those who've never sampled Stone Russian Imperial Stout is a strong black stout, full-bodied, with a nicely balanced sweetness. A solid Russian Imperial Stout (PS best of the bunch is still Old Rasputin from North Coast). What do you do with a recipe like this, kick it in the balls and create something totally unique. Reading through my blog entries most of you know I love nothing more than a brewery willing to throw the dice and try something totally different. That said the addition of the anise gives this beer the black taste to match the color. It has a strong fragrant odor, most likely from the belgian yeast having done the fermenting. The beer gives off a piercingly sweet, yet strong, smell that gives your mouth a good heads up before you plunge head first into this baby. The anise lends much to this as well, the scent as well as the taste give the brain a nice road map to match taste with color. Too much and this thing could have tasted like black licorice, but just right like in this ale give a deep bold sweetness to match. The flavor blends excellent with the bold sweetness of a russian imperial stout to give it a new dimension of flavor. To be quite honest though I have no idea why more breweries don't sneak a little more of this herb into beers such as this. Now the point I feel could maybe be changed, the belgian yeast. It gives the beer a nice frangrance true, but the yeast simply leaves an even funkier than normal aftertaste on the tongue. Not terrible (I am a fan of many belgian styles FYI), but gives it just kind of a weird smoothness and aftertaste that just doesn't mesh to make this the perfect beer. Then again that's part of why I love it though, definitely interesting and definitely worth a try, though I would love to see what a UK ale yeast could do with this Anise mixture. I picked mine up from 99 bottles, but believe some ended up at the Beer Junction as well, this is one that may pop up in like a QFC, Top Foods, or Tacoma Boys so keep your eyes open. My opinion though skip the same ol same ol (unless your just a stark traditionalist fan) of the regular russian imperial stout and step up to the un-neutered version for something new and different from Stone.
