Imperial Night
Paladin Brewing

I've been meaning to try this brewery out. I've had some misses when I tried to stop there and they were closed... I work weird days so it's not really their fault. Anyway, I was excited to see this bombed at the One Stop Shop liquor store in Austintown. Reasonably priced too.

I'm easy to please when it comes to stouts, so it's rare that I give a bad review on a stout. You'd have to really mess it up for me to be utterly displeased.

That said, this is getting a better than usual grade - and oddly not because of the taste.

It's a dark beer, obviously; nicely presented with a solid top of peanut brown head. The retention of the head is particularly impressive. Usually this stuff, unless it was poured with nitros, thins and fades - but this foam sticks around for the duration of my gradual consumption.

The smell is figs, cherry, licorice, and something vaguely oaky. It smells good enough... I'm almost never a fan of licorice so it gave me some trepidation; but I'm a good soldier and I pressed on... Also I'm cheap and I paid for it so there's no way my miserly ass isn't drinknig it.

The tast was surprisingly smoky, which I loved. That licorice though... I'm just not a fan of those flavors. This isn't a knock on the brewery, a lot of people like that taste and a lot of great breweries use it... It's just a pass for me. Honestly if it wasn't for that I'd be giving a much more glowing review. Those figgy characteristics are there just as the nose picked up on, and like I said the smoke was nice. The taste was a bit on the lower end for me, I was a little disappointed.

Mouthfeel was nice and full bodied, a delightfully thick creamy presence on the palate. Really, this is what a stout is supposed to feel like. I wish all brewers got it down like this.

Overall I'm giving it a 4. I weigh taste a bit more heavily than the other categories. I'm not upset I bought it, and I'd probably recommend it to people depending on their tastes; but I probably wouldn't personally purchase it again. I wouldn't turn it down if it was offered to me either, or if there was a crazy discount sale on it. If you like Old Rasputin, which I do not; I think you'd like this stout.

"Imperial Knight is a Russian Imperial Stout which uses a magnificent amount of hops to balance out the deep, dark, and roasty malt bill. Clocking in at 9% abv this beer is much like an Imperial Soldier: big, strong, and complex. Good to the last drop with a smooth and mellow finish. "

Picked this up in Austintown actually never heard of the brewery but the bomber was fairly priced at 10 bucks. Pours a very deep dark black color can't see through it which is nice. Good mocha foam.
Smell is kind of offputting tons of infected cherry notes which fade by the second pour. Mostly sweet bitter chocolates and a good amount of roast in the taste with a mild cherry presence which kind of works.
Body is heavy but easy to crush as the bottle went pretty fast.

Overall a new in town brewery and while I wouldn't recommend their beer is at least palatable.