Czarist
New Holland Brewing Company

Took home a growler of this from the brewpub. Pours a standard Imperial Stout color. Thin, tan head with decent retention. The head sticks around, but leaves no lacing. Smells of dark roasted coffee, raisins, and dark chocolate. Taste is dominated by the dark chocolate, complemented by the bitterness of a dark roast coffee, and with a cocoa and caramel aftertaste. Medium-bodied mouthfeel that seems appropriate to the style. Not an exceptional stout, but a strong one nonetheless. Would gladly take home another growler of it!

On-tap at the brewery, this Russian Imperial pours black with no real visible highlights. The creamy mocha head holds well and leaves some decent lace.

The aroma includes sweet cocoa and lots of roasted malt and a hint of espresso. Very prominent nose.

Sweet, decadent flavor. Lots of chocolate syrup and black coffee. A bit of bitterness in the finish; baking cocoa. Malty none-dry finish. Sweet mocha and caramelized sugar.

Thick and creamy texture with a little warmth. Moderate carbonate. High gravity. I like it a lot, a very pleasant surprise.

Nice big and black. Small tan head retents for a good while while enjoying the weather (thunderstorms).

Thick roasty alcohol aromas. Gooed lurching amounts of dark bitter chocolate. Hints of mint, vanilla, mocha, and machiato. Nice nose.

Well I was somewhat complacent about trying this based on previous reviews but upon tastin I'm quite delighted. Huge charred roasted barley. Dark bitter chocolate galore with a dark fruit dessert. Black currant out the ass, hints of smoke, hot fudge, bits of malted caramel, prune, and slight heavan. Thick smokey and long lasting.

Ran into this in a random trip to New Holland...served in a narrow top goblet style glass, I'm not sure exactly what you call it.

Appearance was fairly standard Russian Imperial: opaque, off-tan head. Not much head though, and not as much lacing as I would expect for this style. Smell was nice, roasted malt tones were definitely present, some coffee, again, what I am looking for in the style.

The flavour was all about the roasted malts and coffee from the nose with the barest hint of dark fruits in the background. Nothing else present in the flavour that I noticed, which means the beer was hitting the big notes right, but it wasn't really delivering anything exceptional either.

Mouth, ok. Not huge, not a massive hop bitter, but at least some hop bitter. I admit that I was a little disappointed on that. Drinkability was fairly smooth on this though, not difficult to drink.

The bottom line is that I expect a lot from beers in this style, because it is one of my favourites and I've had a lot of them. Czarist isn't a bad beer, but in comparison to some of the other beers in its category it ends up looking quite average.

Served in a mini pint at New Holland 2/3/07. Thanks to Killer for the assist!

A: Pure opaque black. Tiny light brown head recedes to a nice fat ring.

S: Aromas of roasted coffee, roasted malt, and sweet corn on the cob (?)

T: Coffee, roasted malt, tart cherries, sour grain, medicinal cough medicine, with a welcome bitter coffee finish.

M: Very dry and thin. Pleasant but could use some fattening up.

D: Not bad. It loses points for the thin body and the odd aromas and flavors. Served way too cold at the brewery.