Bolshoi!
Sixpoint Brewery in Brooklyn, New York, United States 🇺🇸
Stout - Imperial Rotating Out of Production|
Score
7.60
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Big. Huge. Massive. Gargantuan. Bolshoi means “BIG” in Russian.
This is an ancient recipe (by craft beer standards) carrying the torch for centuries-old tradition. The Russian Imperial Stout (the most luxurious brew we've learned to create). Layers of bittersweet chocolate, coffee, malt richness, dark fruit, vanilla, earth...
What will the next sip bring?
"Like navigating a Siberian blizzard we find our way by putting an arm out and bumping into things"
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beastiefan2k (4724) reviewed Bolshoi! from Sixpoint Brewery 19 years ago
Appearance - 10 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 8
Bottle provide by gotmos. Split 4 ways into snifters. Pours with the biggest head of any Impy Stout I have ever seen. Big frothy tan head that fades into a thick lacing. Aroma is HOP BOMB and even though usually I wouldn’t enjoy that, in this case its kind of cool. Out of all the hoppy Imp Stouts this just goes way over the top. Its all hop, mainly pine. Taste is a milky hop. I feel it has plenty of room for growth. Mouthfeel is a bit fizzy for an Impy Stout. Aftertasteis hoppy bitter. Medium body but light for an Imp Stout.
Rerate: Draft-Mugs-Split Thy Skull-4 oz snifter. This was even better on tap, the mouthfeel was not as fizzy. Still all hoppy aroma, taste shows a bit more range in hop flavors, and overall the best hoppy Imp Stout I have ever had.
Clarkvv (16523) reviewed Bolshoi! from Sixpoint Brewery 19 years ago
Appearance - 10 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7
2 draught tumblers at Redbones on 3/17/06 for $4.25 each
Mountains of creamy, dense, very well retained medium-tan head that is retained very well (especially being on draught) and laces quite profusely. Blackish-brown body is opaque, not much more I can say about it.
The nose is a little muted, malt wise at least, with a touch of bitter, astringent, scorched coffee punching at the nostrils, while the green, leafy, bitter hops add a wintergreen/minty and light hickory nut-like note, working even more bitterness in to the nose. Fortunately, deep molasses, somewhat offset by light cinnamon-flecked brown sugar begins to creep in with a vanilla and light bourbon element that is quite tastefully done, but perhaps not offset by enough malt.
Flavor is immediately hoppy (green, bitter, leafy and minty) followed by dry molasses, deeply roasted grains, sticky, salty toffee and semi-sweet baker’s chocolate. Appropriate carbonation level keeps a balance between not being too sticky, syrupy or too loose and aerated. Well-extracted malts are comforting and coating. Some deep soy, light tar astringency on the end, and a growing chewy, lightly vinous raisin and plum note continues to keep interest. The hops slowly, albeit never fully, build to a very dry, bitter level. Though for how young this is, I must say, I’m impressed by the lack of going overboard on the hop bitterness. Alcohol is fairly well-concealed in flavor, though does add a bit of rawness. Should smooth out very well in another year. You can tell Shane put alot of effort in to this one.
notalush (7339) reviewed Bolshoi! from Sixpoint Brewery 20 years ago
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7
This beer was supposed to be released (bottled) before Thanksgiving, and it took until after Christmas for me to find it (on tap) at Barcade - I was, naturally, quite excited - quite a turbid, dark brown appearance out of the tap - small tan lacing - aroma is actually quite piney/hoppy, with hints of cocoa, some coffee, most of the "classic" impy aroma traights - flavor has lots of chocolate up front, some caramel malt as well - but then a very juicy hop character settles in - very woody, even a touch of citrus/pine hop flavor, which obliterates most of the "imperial stout-like" flavors - it’s like it starts as an imperial stout, and ends as an imperial IPA - this in an of itself is no reason to complain, but because of it, what the drinker is left with is a confused beer that never really makes a solid "statement," if that makes sense (I’m using a lot of quotation marks in this rating, aren’t I?) - lacking complexity and, in the end, palate-confusing - good, but still a bit of a disappointment.