Anastasia's Imperial Stout
Ascot Brewing Company

 

 

Coming in a 330ml slim brown bottle, BB 02/2011, served cool in Gulden Draak's branded tulip-shaped sniffer.

A: pitch black, light and smooth fizziness, topped with a creamy tan froth settling slowly to a thin sheet to last.
S: a smooth aroma of vanilla-chocolates with a pronounced touch of pear-ish, grapey and goose-berry-ish fruit esters dominates the nose, on top of quite understated black/roast malts. Pleasant overall, but unbalanced for a RIS and rather too light.
T: light-bodied, rich taste of black-prune-ish fruitiness + unsweet maltiness prevails upfront, but quickly giving way to licorice, vanilla, bitter chocolates, sweet-scented wood, and charred-nutty undertones to linger, with random doses of rough bitter feel mixed of yeastiness, mild spiciness and roast-bitterness in the finish.
M&D: smooth, finely carbonated, light bodied for a RIS and almost no alcoholic warmth is felt in the aftertaste. Somehow I fail to relate this to a traditional RIS, and definitely not to the American interpretations. This is an easy-drinking strong stout with a touch of special edge maybe due to the unexpected yeasty intervention during the bottle-conditioning.

It looks like an imperial stout, that is to say, little but very dark foam, completely black opaque body. Aromatics are slight, but dark chocolatey. Taste is bitter and rich in chocolate, but not very complex. Moutfeel is thick and the aftertaste is long lasting. Nice drinking beer, but nothing to go crazy about.