Tzar Of The Mountain
Ethereal Brewing

 

 

 

 

With everything "bourbon barrel-this" and "vanilla coffee-that", its hard to believe that there once was a flavor of stout that was in excess of ten percent alcohol with no exotic spice or wood aged treatment. It was a taste that was genuinely roast, malty, strong, stately, complex and yet quite good.

Tzar of the Mountain is one of those beers. Pitch black and rounding with a dense slight sandy head, the beer's robust scent is of dark roast coffee, dark chocolate, black walnut, burnt toast and with hints of dark fruit and dark spice. Sultry, smooth and superiorly roasty, the beer's taste leads with caramel, toffee and suggestions of roasted marshmallow.

Sweetness slowly dissolves on the middle tongue, revealing a kaluha-like spice. Growing roast flavors begin to blend into those espresso, baker's chocolate, bitter walnut realms but halt just before; allowing the toffee and molasses flavors to keep the roasty balance in check. And as the ale simmers in the throat, its rum-like nuances begin to reveal a pep of black cherry, plum and red grape along with a slight aniseed spice.

Full, lavish and robust, the beer's texture is just as outspoken as its taste. Clean, roasty and somewhat one dimensionally roasty, the ale comes shy of delivering the depth of complexity or the luscious and savory character of old fashioned Russian imperial varieties, as the ale can't help its American double stout tendencies.