What Are Your Top 5 RIS?

Goose Island: Bourbon County Coffee Stout
Great Divide: Espresso Yeti
Epic: Big Bad Baptist
Brau Brothers: Ivan the great
Fulton: Worthy Adversary
a close 6th would be, North Coast: Old Rasputin

 

1. Parabola
2. Old Rasputin
3. Ten Fidy
4. Yeti ( All Variations that Ive tried)
5. Stone RIS

 

I know the ranking sounds ridiculous, but these are my actual favorite Russian imperial Stouts. I'm very fortunate to have a father with a deep passion for beer that gave me access to vintage beers dating back to the mid 80s. My father spend most of his adult life traveling throughout Europe acquiring vintage beers from defunct breweries. He obtained from the Anchor Brewery (Barclay Perkins) cases of various Champagne Size bottles dating back from 1935-1957. My father cellared them in our home and the never saw the day of light. We have had over ten verticle tasting's over the years of various Barclay Perkin's vintage RIS. The funny thing is, all the beers have stood the test of time. My father and I, just had a verticle tasting of Dark Lord 2004-2010 and the 2004, 2005, 2006 were surprisingly over oxidized and showed signs of negative aging. Ale aged beer should have mild oxidation; however, every aged American RIS (Surly Darkness, Southampton RIS, Goose Island Bourbon County, etc...) that I've tried seems to not holdup well.

 

Apparently it's too difficult to click on over to the the Beer 101 section and look under the RIS page.

 

You jammy, jammy bastard. Especially getting the champagne bottles.

That beer will last indefinitely. It's the Brettanomyces that makes the difference.

 

Your definitely right about the Brettanomyces. I recently graduated from the Weihenstephaner Brewing School in Freising and the big discussion is the growth of the American brewing industry and the survival of the legitimate art of brewing science. Being an American, I'm very proud of the brewing development in the States. However, looking at the U.S. industry from a European perspective, it's kind of a joke. I was quite disappointed to have a beer sharing with fellow professors and students at Weihenstephaner of American RIS/Imperial India Pale Ales only to find after clinical assessment most of the American beers were made with either adjuncts or genetically modified malt, hops, etc... People forget, that the primary ingredient in beer is water. This is what the American brewing industry lacks. The water sources in America suck compared to most of Europe. This also contributed to the taste and shelf life of Barclay Perkins RIS. The natural hard water found in most of Europe presents a suitable home for yeast proliferation and stability for years to come.

 

I'll be having a bit of a Barclay Perkins party on Friday: the new version of Courage Russian Stout, Tsar Top (brewed to an old Barclay Perkins recipe), Harvey's Imperial Stout and 1992 and 1993 Courage Russian Stout. Just a shame I have to talk as well as drink.

 

Apple brandy Huna
Huna
FBS
5050 EC
Zhukovs/speedway tie.

 

Top 5 non - BA RIP:

1. Dark Horse PT5th
2. Bells Expedition
3. Avery Czar
4. Oskar Blues Ten Fiddy
5. Alesmith Speedway

 

Founders
Parabola
Blackout stout
Old Rasputin
Doris
On a side note, its Founders RIS and then everything else

 

In no particular order:
- Darkness
- Black Note
- KBS
- Abyss
- BCBS

 

Stone, Courage, Parabola, The Abyss, and Darkness.

 

Not sure why no one has included Founders Breakfast Stout on any of their lists. It's classified as an imperial stout on Beer Advocate. Sure it doesn't have 10% alcohol but anything 8% or higher is the minimum for a double IPA or double Stout.
That being said here's my list
1. Founders Breakfast Stout
2. Dark Horse Plead the 5th
3. Founders Imperial Stout
4. Brooklyn Black Chocolate Stout
5. North Coast Old Rasputin

 

An ever changing list, but at this time:

Portsmouth Brewery Kate the Great
North Coast Old Rasputin XIV Anniversary
Great Divide Oak Aged Yeti
Marshall Wharf Sexy Chaos
Marshall Wharf Bourbon Barrel-Aged Chaos Chaos

 

KBS
Bourbon County
Founders RIS
Biscotti Break
Even more jesus

 

For my money, Michigan breweries make the best stouts hands down.

The top three are (you've already guessed it!): Pt5, Expedition Stout, and FIS.

Zhukov's is damn good, and so is Ten FIDY, but I'm really one and done in a night with RISs. They're great, but completely unsessionable.

 

Yeti
Stone Espresso
So Tier Mokah
Ten Fidy
Samual Adams Imperial Stout
Stoudts Fat Dog

 

In no particular order:

Bell's Expedition Stout
Founder's Imperial Stout
Ten Fidy
Stone

...and last but not least, Courage Imperial Russian Stout. Only had this beautiful RIS one time, but I've never forgotten the sublime experience. I've vowed to buy every wonderful little bottle I see ~ and yet I haven't seen it again. It's only a matter of time...

Honorable mention: Black Albert, Samuel Smith Imperial Stout, and a few others.

 

Ten Fidy
Storm King
Parabola
Stone RIS
Brooklyn Black Chocolate Stout