Rasputin Bourbon BA

Black color. Very sweet stout, lots of vanilla, caramel, chocolate, barrel, creme brulee, a bit hop bitterness, awesome.

Caña en el señor Lupulo Gijón 09..09..2016. (r170). Color negro intenso con poca espuma beige oscuro Aromas y sabores maltosos intensos tostados y con gran dosis de bourbon que le da gran aspecto de licor fresco. Toques de maderas empapadas algo avainilladas y cacaos. Cuerpo intenso con 11 vol y gran sensación de licor, liquida y fina fácil de beber. para repetir sin duda. un auténtico licor para un largo rato.

Vintage bottle of about three years old, bought online. Moderately lacing, pale greyish beige, loose head retaining very well as a thin rim around the glass and some small patches of foam in the middle (still present after more than half an hour), sitting on top of a blackish beer for a long while (though eventually vanishing), with a nevertheless translucent mahogany brown core - in fact, more translucent than normal for an ’impy’. Very strong aroma - noticeable from a yard away - of soy sauce, sweet cherry, coffee liqueur, warm chocolate sauce, whisky (or, in fact, bourbon), molasses or even Worcestershire sauce, toffee, vanilla-like oak, wet wood, stewed beef, nutmeg, very old Saint-Emilion wine, candied fig, dried banana, fried forest mushrooms, raisin bread, bayleaf, old dried orange peel, varnish- or even glue-like solvents. Lots of candied sweetness in the onset, candied date or fig, raisin, candied cherry even, countered with an undercurrent of fresh blackberry-like sourishness and, more than anything, a strong beef broth cube-like umami flavor, in a thick and oily, softly carbonated physical environment; these flavors play along over a deep, layered malt body, filling the mouth cavity with initially nutty and caramelly, but eventually mildly toasted bittersweet flavors, evolving into a ’grand finale’ which combines the candied sweetness and malt bittersweetness with beautifully drying wood tannins, even retronasal vanilla-like oak aromas, a touch of spicy hops (probably having lost some of their pungency in three years time) and the expected wave of heating, bourbon-like alcohol, very much present and even subtly noticeable from the start, but somehow remaining gentle and not imposing obnoxious astringency - it’s as if the bourbon features decide to blend in with the (already fantastic) basic beer in the end phase, which is exactly where they belong. The soy sauce-like ’umaminess’ lingers and accompanies this warm alcohol effect, drying wood tannins, candied cherry sweetness and big bittersweet maltiness downwards into the throat. This is a thing of beauty and apparently a joy forever: De Molen rarely disappoints, but in this case the splendid features of the basic beer are mixed with a bourbon factor which remains relatively ’drinkable’ (in terms of smoothness and physical ’easiness’) yet adds a whole dimension of wood and alcohol to it. A true delight, though perhaps a bit intense for non-stoutheads.

Bottle at Hair of the Dog, Bangkok. Poured a clear medium brown with a bubbly round light tan head. The aroma is rich sweet bourbon malt. The flavour is moderate sweet with a smooth oily rich, sweet malt, yeast, light sugary alcohol bitter palate. Medium to full bodied with flat carbonation.

Bottled on Nov. 28th. 2013. Loads of bourbon. Well balanced aging.