Zangief's Bearhug
Short's Brewing Company

 

 

 

 

12 ounce bottle into snifter, bottled on 11/10/2017. Pours dense pitch black color with a 1-2 finger dense tan head with amazing retention, that reduces to a nice cap that lasts. Thick soapy lacing clings around the glass, with a fair amount of streaming carbonation. Fantastic appearance. Aromas of big dark chocolate, cocoa, coffee, nuttiness, caramel, molasses, brown sugar, toffee, toasted dark bread, smoke, and charcoal; with lighter notes of raisin, prune, fig, licorice, leather, tobacco, herbal, pepper, pine, and roast/toast/smokey earthiness. Damn nice aromas with great balance and complexity of dark/black/bready malts and light-moderate earthy hop/fruity yeast notes; with great strength. Taste of big dark chocolate, cocoa, coffee, nuttiness, caramel, molasses, brown sugar, toffee, toasted dark bread, smoke, and charcoal; with lighter notes of raisin, prune, fig, licorice, leather, tobacco, herbal, pepper, pine, and roast/toast/smokey earthiness. Light-moderate pine/herbal/peppery hop and roast/char bitterness on the finish. Lingering notes of dark chocolate, cocoa, coffee, nuttiness, caramel, molasses, brown sugar, toffee, toasted dark bread, smoke, charcoal, licorice, dark fruit, leather, tobacco, herbal, pepper, pine, and roast/toast/smokey earthiness on the finish for a while. Incredible complexity, robustness, and balance of dark/black/bready malts and light-moderate earthy hop/fruity yeast flavors; with a great roast/hop bitter/sweet balance; and minimal acrid/astringent flavors after the finish. Lightly increasing dryness from hop/char bitterness. Medium carbonation and fairly full body; with a very smooth, creamy/silky/bready, and fairly sticky/chalky balanced mouthfeel that is great. Minimal warming alcohol for 9.5%. Overall this is a fantastic Russian imperial stout! All around outstanding complexity, robustness, and balance of dark/black/bready malts and light-moderate earthy hop/fruity yeast flavors; very smooth and dangerously easy to sip on for the big ABV; despite the increasingly bitter/drying finish, never overly aggressive. Extremely rich malt complexity, with balancing earthy hops and fruity yeast presence in the background. A highly enjoyable offering, and perfect style example. Would love to see this in 6 packs. Would definitely age amazingly.

 

 

Wow, this one is amazing, and truly tge sleeper in the current variety pack. Poured from bottle to tulip glass. Midnight black in color with a few fingers of thick, mocha head. Everything is big with this beer: big aromas of roasted malt, coffee grounds, plums, dark bitter chocolate, dark bread. Big flavors of dark fruits, figs, prunes, with bitter chocolate, roasted coffee grounds, bread, and a boozy bite. Giant while still remaining balanced and in-style. Fuller feel, dry. Deserves its own release.

 

 

I picked up a bottle of Short's Zangief's Bearhug in their new variety pack last week at The Lager Mill. I've been working my way through this variety and I'm interested to give this one a try and see what it's all about, so lets see how it goes. 2017 Vintage. Poured from a brown 12oz bottle into a snifter.

A- The label looks nice, it's weird and I like the street fighter reference, it's pretty eye catching. It poured a dark black color that didn't change when held to the light and it had two fingers worth of creamy and slightly fluffy darker tan head that died down to a thin ring that eventually faded away and it left a little bit of spotty lacing behind. This is a good looking beer, it's just how I expect a good RIS to look like.

S- The aroma starts off with a higher amount of medium sweetness with the malts being the first to show up and they impart some nice chocolate, coffee, dark malts, roasted malt, lightly charred malts and sweet malt like aromas. Up next comes a very light amount of anise like aroma that goes into a fruit aroma that imparts some nice dark fruit and dark cherry like aromas that goes into a little bit of creamy aroma. Towards the end there's just a little bit of a boozy aroma with a little smokey aroma. This beer has a good aroma, it's fairly complex and all the aromas work well together.

T- The taste seems to be similar to the aroma and it starts off with a higher amount of medium sweetness with the malts still being the first to show up and they impart all the some aspects, but this time there's a little more a charred aspect coming through with a little more grainy flavors. Up next comes the dark fruits which impart that same dark cherry flavor with a little bit of creamy flavor and that goes into a little bit of noticeable alcohol. Towards the end comes the hops which impart some generic hop, herbal hop and little bit of a spicy hop flavor that lingers towards the end with a higher amount of bitterness that lingers with a roasted malt, charred, lightly fruity and hoppy aftertaste. This is a good tasting RIS, all the flavors work well together and there's some good complexity,. but it's just a little overly bitter.

M- A little smooth, the alcohol is hidden a little well, a little overly bitter, silky, a little creamy, a little crisp, on the lighter side of being full bodied with a medium amount of carbonation. The mouthfeel is pretty nice, but it's a little overly bitter and the alcohol could have been hidden just a little better.

Overall I thought this was a good beer and it's a good example of the style, it had pretty much all the key aspects that I look for in a RIS, but I thought the balance could be just a little better. This beer had decent drinkability, one is enough for me, anymore than that and the bitterness would start to wear on me. What I like the most about this beer is the complexity, there's a good amount of different flavors and aromas going on. What I like the least about this beer is the mouthfeel, i just thought it was a little to bitter and the alcohol could have been covered up a little more, those two thinks would have made it smoother and helped the drinkability. I would buy this beer on it's own and I would recommend to anyone looking for a good RIS that's on the bitter side. All in I enjoyed this beer, but I thought it was still just a little rough around the edges and I think maybe some age might help with that. It's not a favorite Short's beer, but it is one of the better RIS's that I've had from them and it's a good example of the style. Good job guys, this is a tasty and intense RIS, keep it up.

 

 

 

 

This might be the darkest beer I have ever tried. There is no light going through this beer. Nice lacing on the glass. Drinking this from a crowler from Short's Brew Pub. Not much foam when poured hard in to the pint glass. Probably should be in a tulip but I was lazy. Taste is bitter and cocoa. After a few sips you can notice the 10.2% ABV. If you can make it up to the Brew Pub make sure to try it. Keep in mind the 109 IBU's.

 

Enjoyed at Joe Short's 37th birthday party at HopCat GR 12/16/15