Zangief's Bearhug
Short's Brewing Company in Elk Rapids, Michigan, United States 🇺🇸
Stout - Imperial Rotating|
Score
7.21
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A pitch black Russian Imperial Stout with a dark brown milk shake lace. Thick and full on the palate, rich cocoa and roasted malt flavors create a bold bitterness that lingers into a warming dry finish
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8.4/10
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Appearance 8
Aroma 8
Flavor 9
Texture 8
Overall 8.5
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.
Tried
from Bottle
on 15 Mar 2018
at 00:31
7.6/10
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Appearance 8
Aroma 7
Flavor 8
Texture 8
Overall 7.5
Bottle. Inky opaque black body, thin medium-dark brown/cocoa head. Rich, complex nose with sweet and roasty malts, plum pudding, and wisps of alcohol. Body drier than anticipated, heavy on the inky charred sugars and roast; bitter, with chalky cocoa flavors predominating. Long, bitter finish. Not a style I'd expect Short's to nail but this was a very good beer.
Tried
from Bottle
on 08 Mar 2018
at 18:17