Ale Chyerniy Admiral
Banfi

I discovered this bottle in a Moscow grocery store - what a surprise. A real live Russian ale, bottle conditioned no less. There may be hope for this country yet. Came in a fairly tall brown half liter bottle with a cartoonish label featuring a pirate with a mug in hand, pipe in mouth and parrot on shoulder. The back label explains that "ale is a favorite of youth in Britain, Ireland and Belgium - now in Russia." Best before stamp read 10/15/03, I opened mine on 8/25/03. The list of ingredients includes sugar and, rather than hops, "hop extract." Hmm...

Poured a dark reddish brown color under a thin purplish head with lots of bubbles. The head disappears quickly, leaving no lace. The nose is sweet - raspberry, cranberry, currant. The mouth is bubbly and heavy with fruit sweetness much like raspberry syrup. The fruits come on strong in the taste, dominating the experience from start to finish. There may be just a touch of malt in there somewhere, but no hops. The aftertaste is sweet soda.

When I saw stout, I thought Storm King. Wrong. Labeled a sweet stout, it reminded me a bit of Belgian fruit ales. Going from that yardstick, this was a good effort. Not my favorite style by any means, but hats off to our friends in Dubna (home of Russia's biggest nuclear physics facility) for boldly going where no Russian has gone before (at least not recently).