The Bottle Imp
Beau's All Natural Brewing Company

The Bottle ImpThe Bottle Imp
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From:
Beau's All Natural Brewing Company
 
Ontario, Canada
Style:
Russian Imperial Stout
ABV:
9%
Score:
89
Avg:
4 | pDev: 10.75%
Reviews:
21
Ratings:
79
Status:
Active
Rated:
Nov 30, 2019
Added:
Jan 05, 2014
Wants:
  4
Gots:
  24
The Bottle Imp is a strong, dark, roasty and rich creation. This rendition of a Russian Imperial Stout is also infused with a blend of Mexican and Ethiopian fair-trade organic coffee. Complex and contemplative, and with well-integrated alcohol warmth, The Bottle Imp is best served in a snifter, sipped slowly and savoured.
Recent ratings and reviews. | Log in to view more ratings + sorting options.
Ratings by bigox420:
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Rated by bigox420 from Canada (ON)

4/5  rDev 0%
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4

Mar 21, 2015
More User Ratings:
 
Rated: 4 by grahuba from Connecticut

Nov 30, 2019
 
Rated: 4.32 by Icka31 from Ohio

Nov 17, 2018
 
Rated: 4.08 by 322wingedfoot from Pennsylvania

Oct 20, 2018
 
Rated: 4.25 by paulish from New York

Jul 21, 2018
 
Rated: 4.72 by R_Kole from Canada (AB)

Jun 10, 2018
 
Rated: 3.96 by joemcgrath27 from Canada (AB)

Feb 10, 2018
Photo of leaddog
Reviewed by leaddog from Canada (AB)

4.12/5  rDev +3%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4 | overall: 4
Appearance - Pours a dark cola brown with three fingers of mocha foamy head.

Smell - roasted caramel malts, coffee bean, cocoa, earthy and leafy hops, hint of nuttiness, and earthy yeast.

Taste - Roasted caramel malts followed quickly by the bitterness from the coffee bean. The cocoa and hops follow suit. The hint of nuttiness and earthy yeast help to finish off the brew. Pleasant roasty flavours overall.

Mouthfeel - Medium to full bodied with low carbonation. Finishes smooth and velvety with the bitterness and roastiness lingering.

Overall - A tasty RIS that incorporates the bitterness from coffee beans and roastiness from the malts very nicely. The ABV is well hidden which makes this a true sipper. All around a good RIS!
Feb 09, 2018
Photo of biboergosum
Reviewed by biboergosum from Canada (AB)

4.04/5  rDev +1%
look: 4 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 4
600ml bottle - an imp is typically something small, not a big brew like this, but whatever.

This beer pours a fairly solid black, with subtle amber basal edges, and four fingers of puffy, rocky, and somewhat bubbly brown head, which leaves some decent tightly webbed lace around the glass as it lazily recedes.

It smells of rich artisanal coffee, lightly roasted caramel malt, biscuity toffee squares, vanilla cream, and some plain earthy, musty, and floral noble hop bitters. The taste is bready and grainy caramel malt, some free-range ashiness, acrid coffee beans, spoiled milk, a hint of dusty tanned leather, cheap cocoa powder, sort of boozy real vanilla, and a further understated earthy, leafy, and weedy green hoppiness.

The carbonation is quite muted in its seemingly ennui-stricken frothiness, the body a solid medium-heavy weight, and mostly smooth, with just a touch of java astringency maybe making a few unwelcome waves here. It finishes trending dry, the caramel, coffee, and chocolate all kind of milling about, content in their place.

Overall - this is a rather pleasant and engaging version of the style, with the complex coffee additions doing well to integrate with the whole. Add in the sneaky, near ten points of the ol' wowee sauce, and folks, we have a winner!
Jan 17, 2018
Photo of papposilenus
Reviewed by papposilenus from New Hampshire

4.01/5  rDev +0.2%
look: 4.25 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4.25
From a 600ml bottle, dated 10/20/17. Served in a tulip at concrete-basement-floor-in-New-Hampshire-in-January temperature.

Pours a dark oak brown with two fingers of puffy, tight, cafe au lait coloured suds. Retention is only so-so but leaves in its wake a soft, wispy, dreamy cloud of suds which caps the beer and continues uninterrupted right up the sides of the glass.

Smells of coffee, vanilla, caramel cremes and something green and leafy.

Taste follows the nose so precisely that it hardly bears repeating myself but, anyway, it tastes like coffee, vanilla, caramel cremes and something green and leafy. Only with the coffee cranked up two or three notches, like a quadruple-shot latte. Some super-satisfying roasted nibs, espresso bean and chicory and dry, leafy bitterness at the finish.

Feel is smooth and creamy, medium bodied and well carbonated with just a trace of boozy warmth in the gullet.

Nice. Very good coffee blend and lots of it. I'm glad I don't have anyone to share it with because I'm going to finish the bottle now.
Jan 03, 2018
Photo of Mysticmage
Reviewed by Mysticmage from Canada (ON)

4.1/5  rDev +2.5%
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4 | overall: 4
Poured into a pint glass 6668 batch. Excellent collar that lasted well - built like a Guinness does. Decent nose of coffee and earth tones. Excellent taste that lasts well throughout. An excellent stout!
Dec 24, 2017
 
Rated: 3.52 by Glorithm from Canada (ON)

Dec 10, 2017
 
Rated: 3.84 by andrenaline from Canada (ON)

Dec 03, 2017
Photo of Cramshawbar
Reviewed by Cramshawbar from Canada (ON)

3.65/5  rDev -8.8%
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 3.5
When you decide to make a coffee stout, you have to know that you will be measured against Peche Mortel. It's just the way it is, even if your style differs on some of the particulars. As such, Founders KBS or New Holland's Dragon's Milk measure up to a degree (even though they have some other distinctive qualities as well).
This "impish" attempt doesn't.
Too much roast in the coffee equals burnt coffee and that is not a good thing in any type of serving for that bean. But it also made me think as to the quality of coffee the various brewers use, because it just has to make a difference and one doesn't really read much about that aspect.
Whatever it is that make this one consumable but not too often, the fact still remains that it doesn't reach the heights it expires to reach and it ends up a bit of a mess.
Nov 02, 2017
 
Rated: 5 by StormAles from Canada (ON)

Jun 29, 2017
 
Rated: 4.24 by ikidunot from Canada (ON)

Aug 23, 2016
 
Rated: 4.5 by fortyfield from Canada (ON)

Jan 19, 2016
Photo of Jeffo
Reviewed by Jeffo from Netherlands

3.42/5  rDev -14.5%
look: 3 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3 | overall: 3.5
Got this one from hopsolutely this past summer. Thanks guys!

From a bottle into a snifter
Bottled 12 December 2014
Batch 3878
IBU: 81
OG: 21.1*P
FG: 5.5*P
Pro-Am Series

APPEARANCE: A clear brown pour yields a two finger, medium looking, slightly creamy, light tan head with good retention. Clear bistre brown body with slightly higher levels of carbonation for the style. Head slowly fades to a full wisp and sticks to the sides of the glass. A splotchy wisp remains until the end leaving some falling dots of lacing down the glass.

SMELL: Coffee, sweet cream and toffee with notes of butterscotch on the nose. Roasted espresso beans play a role as well.

TASTE: Lots of roasted malts, roasted and burnt espresso beans and sweet cream up front. Burnt notes, leather and licorice at the swallow. A bold and lingering finish of black coffee beans, black malts, roast, some caramel sweetness and sweet vanilla cream. Lots of bitter coffee and chocolate with burnt malts lingering on the palate. More bitter than the IBU would suggest.

PALATE: Medium body and medium carbonation. A little lighter on the palate than hoped for the style, creamy enough, goes down fine and finishes a bit dry for the style. A bit of a burn and some heat and bitterness lingers.

OVERALL: Pretty decent. Quite coffee heavy and pretty burnt, but plenty of other flavor and character to keep if from getting too monolithic. This is probably the best of Beau’s strong stouts to date. Give it a try if you see it. Cheers!
Dec 09, 2015
 
Rated: 3.87 by groleau from Canada (QC)

Dec 07, 2015
 
Rated: 4 by yancot from Canada (ON)

Nov 17, 2015
The Bottle Imp from Beau's All Natural Brewing Company
Beer rating: 89 out of 100 with 79 ratings