Catherine The Great Imperial Stout
Brouwerij Smisje in Mater, East Flanders, Belgium 🇧🇪
Stout - Imperial Regular|
Score
6.87
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Bottle fermented. Brewed with water, barley malt, hops and yeast.
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3.3/10
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Appearance 6
Aroma 4
Flavor 2
Texture 2
Overall 3
Reviewed from notes.
Bottle to tulip.
Appearance: dark purple to dark brown color with no head and no lace
Aroma: Belgian chocolate water, dark fruits, earthy to woody character, dead grass
Flavor: tries to blend the prior noted aromas to some kind of sweetness; no finish
Texture: light bodied, not really sessionable or a sipper; no smoothness but this is extremely watery with an earthy grit floating around and making me wonder what exactly the grit is
Overall: one and done for me, I seriously doubt of ever coming back to this beer.
Bottle to tulip.
Appearance: dark purple to dark brown color with no head and no lace
Aroma: Belgian chocolate water, dark fruits, earthy to woody character, dead grass
Flavor: tries to blend the prior noted aromas to some kind of sweetness; no finish
Texture: light bodied, not really sessionable or a sipper; no smoothness but this is extremely watery with an earthy grit floating around and making me wonder what exactly the grit is
Overall: one and done for me, I seriously doubt of ever coming back to this beer.
Tried
from Bottle
on 04 Mar 2026
at 12:22
7.5/10
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Appearance 8
Aroma 7
Flavor 7.5
Texture 8
Overall 7.5
330mL bottle, undated, drunk 1/14/25.
Clear, dark purple-violet-burgundy. Small, dark beige head, moderate retention.
Smells like a BSA/Quad. Big dark fruits. HUGE dark fruits, rather. Hint of oxidation, lots of fruity yeast and moderate phenol. Almost no stout character.
In the mouth there's a rather ridiculous attempt to provide some stout character. Hints of smoked malt and roast fall before the Belgian yeast, light candi sugar-like character and huge dark fruit character. Medium-bodied, no thinning with, perhaps, not quite as much flavor as I'd want for its size. The real issue is this is another one of these ridiculous "Imperial Stouts". No, this isn't an Imperial Stout, it's not a stout. It's through-and-through a dark strong Belgian ale with a marginal amount of roasted barley/malt. That said, pretty clean, fruity, not crudely-phenoled, good attenuation and texture. Not boozey. Grew on me a lot over the course of 45 minutes or so, as it breathed.
Rating it to the BSA style. As an Impy stout it would fare very poorly.
Clear, dark purple-violet-burgundy. Small, dark beige head, moderate retention.
Smells like a BSA/Quad. Big dark fruits. HUGE dark fruits, rather. Hint of oxidation, lots of fruity yeast and moderate phenol. Almost no stout character.
In the mouth there's a rather ridiculous attempt to provide some stout character. Hints of smoked malt and roast fall before the Belgian yeast, light candi sugar-like character and huge dark fruit character. Medium-bodied, no thinning with, perhaps, not quite as much flavor as I'd want for its size. The real issue is this is another one of these ridiculous "Imperial Stouts". No, this isn't an Imperial Stout, it's not a stout. It's through-and-through a dark strong Belgian ale with a marginal amount of roasted barley/malt. That said, pretty clean, fruity, not crudely-phenoled, good attenuation and texture. Not boozey. Grew on me a lot over the course of 45 minutes or so, as it breathed.
Rating it to the BSA style. As an Impy stout it would fare very poorly.
Tried
from Bottle
from
Julio’s Liquors
on 15 Jan 2025
at 01:19
6.5/10
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Appearance 6
Aroma 7
Flavor 7
Texture 6
Overall 6
Bottle at home. Just a random grab. Not prettiest hue of brown I’ve seen. Nose is dark fruits and earthy chocolate. Tastes of figs, plum, soy sauce, chocolate, licorice, rootbeer, port wine. Finish is wine. Slick palate.
Tried
from Bottle
from
Julio’s Liquors
on 12 Jan 2025
at 03:52
7.4/10
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Appearance 6
Aroma 8
Flavor 8
Texture 6
Overall 7.5
Poured from 330mL bottle (bb 2013; brewed 2008; fiulijnator cellar beer). Dark brown with minimal off white head. Dark fruits, some roasty chocolate and honey, a bit odd for today's standard of imperial stout, but in and of itself, it's decent.
Tried
from Bottle
on 03 Oct 2023
at 04:56
6/10
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Appearance 6
Aroma 5
Flavor 7
Texture 6
Overall 6
330ml @ Ryan's shared by Alex. BB 2013, bottled 5 years before. Appearance: hazy a bit ugly brown with a weak beige head. Aroma: quite disgusting bready notes, some sweetness. Taste: dark fruits, moderately sweet, finishes with some brown sugar notes and a bit of strange bitterness. Overall: meh.
Tried
from Bottle
on 03 Oct 2023
at 04:50
Tried
on 30 Oct 2022
at 12:28
6.8/10
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Appearance 6
Aroma 6
Flavor 7
Texture 6
Overall 8
11/11/2018 @ sample of 33cl bottle @ Vergeten Bieren tasting, Brouwerij Smisje shared with Koen and the brewer himself. 2009 version. Dark brown colour with medium light tanned head. Nose is lots of port, malts but no roast. Taste is portorised. Roast comes up, even pretty nice, but only in the aftertaste. Would've imagined this would've aged better.
Tried
from Bottle
on 12 Nov 2018
at 13:37
6.4/10
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Appearance 6
Aroma 6
Flavor 7
Texture 6
Overall 6.5
Bottle from HomeBrewStuff. Murky brown, lively bottle, huge billowing head. Earthy and smoky aroma. Taste leans towards a quad, figs, licorice. Lightly toasted malts, fruity. Light for a 10% beer. Not a typical stout.
Tried
from Bottle
on 17 Sep 2017
at 18:26
4.1/10
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Appearance 4
Aroma 5
Flavor 4
Texture 4
Overall 3.5
Bottle, a murky medium brown. Quick livelt light tan head. Strange carmelized malts, light dates and raisons, and a slightly sour tannin bite at the end. Very strange, not a stout, and not good
Tried
from Bottle
on 01 Apr 2017
at 00:45
7/10
Tried
on 31 Aug 2015
at 15:07