Beer of the Weekend #298: Sprecher Russian Imperial Stout
Let’s hope the inaugural Big Ten championship game is more competitive than its Pac-12 counterpart.
The plan for tomorrow night is to watch football and drink leftover Thanksgiving brew with Bobblehead. Frankly, I may spend the night on his couch. I do not like couching it, but I may need to. Either way, I will not be chez moi tomorrow night and do not want to neglect any remaining BotW bottles. So I bought a four-pack that should be easily — or not, given the ABV — drinkable tonight.
The beer of the weekend is Russian Imperial Stout, brewed by the Sprecher Brewing Company of Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Ah, Sprecher. I forgot all about Sprecher. My first BotW after returning to IC in July 2010 was Sprecher’s Abbey Triple and I have totally neglected the brewery ever since. It has not been intentionally, though. Given the unbelievable selection at John’s, I have overlooked Sprecher, which I suppose is understandable. However, I will not make any promises to try more in the near future. I have resolved to do many things in past BotW posts, but forgot most after a few beers.
As you can see I have added yet another piece to my beerware collection: the Aecht Schlekerla Eiche snifter. “Eiche” apparently means “oak” in German; the beer is, according to the brewery webpage, a Christmas doppelbock. (I will look for it the next time I visit John’s.) Anyway, I will be using the snifter for Belgian brews and imperial stouts. (According to the guy at John’s, it is good for “95 percent of beers.”) I have been meaning to get a snifter for a while and decided today was the perfect time.
Serving type: Sixteen-ounce bottle. There are cryptic batch codes printed on the shoulder, but no easily discernable freshness date.
Appearance: Poured into a snifter. The color is a beautiful, opaque black; no light passed through when I held it to a lamp. About one finger of very tan, almost brown, head dissipated quickly to leave a thin film and bubbly ring around the edge.
Smell: Very dark and imperial. Exhibits a roasted character that is not overpowering. Dark chocolate, coffee, caramel, brown sugar, molasses, and black licorice. It is very enticing. It has a brandy-like edge, which is very faint and sexy.
Taste: The mouthfeel is pretty dry and on the thick side. It basically mirrors the smell, but the flavors do not stand out as much as their aromatic counterparts; they overlap deceptively. The roasted character, though, is more pronounced. The dark chocolate, caramel, brown sugar, molasses, and black licorice are also present, and each sip is punctuated by a little alcohol sting.
Drinkability: I am not an expert on imperial stout, but this is good stuff. It is not excellent, but is quality stuff. Leave it to a brewery from a city with deep socialist roots to brew a good Russian stout.
Fun facts about RIS:
-Style: Both Sprecher and BA concur that it is “Imperial Russian Stout.” Here are the details from BA:
-Price: $7.99/four-pack at John’s Grocery in Iowa City.
-Serving temperature: Sprecher recommends 55ºF.
-Alcohol content: 7.9 percent ABV. According to the Sprecher website, the ABV has been boosted to 8.5 percent “to meet int'l standards for contests.” This four-pack is obviously a little older, which I suspected from something I will mention later.
-Food pairings: BA just recommends chocolate.
-IBU: 32.
-Gravity: 20º Plato.
-First introduced in 1994, RIS is aged 12 weeks.
-Why else was I able to tell this four-pack was a little old? The bottles were really dusty. The row of RIS was next to a row of Sprecher Irish Stout, and I actually took a pack of Irish Stout from the shelf. However, I replaced it when I noticed the back bottles were covered in dust-caked cobwebs. Nasty. The beer inside was obviously safe, and was probably still good, but one should generally avoid beer with dusty bottles. Dust means the pack has been sitting around for a while, and you have no clue where or under what conditions.
-RIS had a twist off cap. You do not see that too often in the craft beer world.
-Yes, I could not resist the socialist-Milwaukee connection. Milwaukee was the home of Sewer Socialism.
The Quiet Man’s grade: B+.
The plan for tomorrow night is to watch football and drink leftover Thanksgiving brew with Bobblehead. Frankly, I may spend the night on his couch. I do not like couching it, but I may need to. Either way, I will not be chez moi tomorrow night and do not want to neglect any remaining BotW bottles. So I bought a four-pack that should be easily — or not, given the ABV — drinkable tonight.
The beer of the weekend is Russian Imperial Stout, brewed by the Sprecher Brewing Company of Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Ah, Sprecher. I forgot all about Sprecher. My first BotW after returning to IC in July 2010 was Sprecher’s Abbey Triple and I have totally neglected the brewery ever since. It has not been intentionally, though. Given the unbelievable selection at John’s, I have overlooked Sprecher, which I suppose is understandable. However, I will not make any promises to try more in the near future. I have resolved to do many things in past BotW posts, but forgot most after a few beers.
As you can see I have added yet another piece to my beerware collection: the Aecht Schlekerla Eiche snifter. “Eiche” apparently means “oak” in German; the beer is, according to the brewery webpage, a Christmas doppelbock. (I will look for it the next time I visit John’s.) Anyway, I will be using the snifter for Belgian brews and imperial stouts. (According to the guy at John’s, it is good for “95 percent of beers.”) I have been meaning to get a snifter for a while and decided today was the perfect time.
Serving type: Sixteen-ounce bottle. There are cryptic batch codes printed on the shoulder, but no easily discernable freshness date.
Appearance: Poured into a snifter. The color is a beautiful, opaque black; no light passed through when I held it to a lamp. About one finger of very tan, almost brown, head dissipated quickly to leave a thin film and bubbly ring around the edge.
Smell: Very dark and imperial. Exhibits a roasted character that is not overpowering. Dark chocolate, coffee, caramel, brown sugar, molasses, and black licorice. It is very enticing. It has a brandy-like edge, which is very faint and sexy.
Taste: The mouthfeel is pretty dry and on the thick side. It basically mirrors the smell, but the flavors do not stand out as much as their aromatic counterparts; they overlap deceptively. The roasted character, though, is more pronounced. The dark chocolate, caramel, brown sugar, molasses, and black licorice are also present, and each sip is punctuated by a little alcohol sting.
Drinkability: I am not an expert on imperial stout, but this is good stuff. It is not excellent, but is quality stuff. Leave it to a brewery from a city with deep socialist roots to brew a good Russian stout.
Fun facts about RIS:
-Style: Both Sprecher and BA concur that it is “Imperial Russian Stout.” Here are the details from BA:
Inspired by brewers back in the 1800's to win over the Russian Czar, this is the king of stouts, boasting high alcohol by volumes and plenty of malt character. Low to moderate levels of carbonation with huge roasted, chocolate and burnt malt flavours. Often dry. Suggestions of dark fruit and flavors of higher alcohols are quite evident. Hop character can vary from none, to balanced to aggressive.
-Price: $7.99/four-pack at John’s Grocery in Iowa City.
-Serving temperature: Sprecher recommends 55ºF.
-Alcohol content: 7.9 percent ABV. According to the Sprecher website, the ABV has been boosted to 8.5 percent “to meet int'l standards for contests.” This four-pack is obviously a little older, which I suspected from something I will mention later.
-Food pairings: BA just recommends chocolate.
-IBU: 32.
-Gravity: 20º Plato.
-First introduced in 1994, RIS is aged 12 weeks.
-Why else was I able to tell this four-pack was a little old? The bottles were really dusty. The row of RIS was next to a row of Sprecher Irish Stout, and I actually took a pack of Irish Stout from the shelf. However, I replaced it when I noticed the back bottles were covered in dust-caked cobwebs. Nasty. The beer inside was obviously safe, and was probably still good, but one should generally avoid beer with dusty bottles. Dust means the pack has been sitting around for a while, and you have no clue where or under what conditions.
-RIS had a twist off cap. You do not see that too often in the craft beer world.
-Yes, I could not resist the socialist-Milwaukee connection. Milwaukee was the home of Sewer Socialism.
The Quiet Man’s grade: B+.
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