Pours a thin head. Nice orange amber ale with a butterscotch nose and liqueur (ameretto is right kindestcut). Nice warmth of alcool, spices, faint bitterness, but nice body. Enjoyable.

Pours an almost clear yellow/gold. Medium amount of white head. Smells faint and somewhat like hay, maybe a touch of hops. Initial flavor is medium to light bodied, and tastes honey sweet. A little bit of hops kicks in, and it adds to the nice sweet flavor. The finish is clean, no bitterness/sourness. No acidity. Not much of anything. A light, mildly sweet/hoppy drinkable beer. As it warms, the body goes watery, and there is a trace of sourness, but just a trace. Not the usual saaz hops pilsener. Interesting without saaz. Nothing terribly exciting, but nothing bad about it.

The flavor is sweet with strong chocolate notes. The color is dark brown and it has a fantastic brown head - looking like a stout should. The flavor is dominated by chocolate and coffee with sweet notes - all coming from a great malt blend. All in all a great beer.

(draught) Dull-hazy orange; little white head. Nose is just a little malty, and some citrus. Taste is fruity, quite orangey, bit yeasty. Retronasal quite typical orange zest. Mouthfeel is rather thinnish. I'm not overly impressed with this legendary beer. It's run-of-the-mill Belgian. (second try, draught also - version probably for competition purposes) Better version, especially in the nose, much more estery-fruity. The beer is supposed to be deliberately tart, which I cannot find back. Nose rating would be 7/10, anyway, overall also +2 points.

Bottled. Black, or at least very dark ruby, beige, dense head. Rich aroma of licorice and chocolate. Dry and salty with clean but rounded mouthfeel. Fairly roasty, coffee and aromatic citric hops dominate until a salty, bitter finish. Excellent hop profile and decent malt profile. Like most US microbrews it's an extrovert, flavourful beer, focusing on loads of flavour than subtle complexity.

Hazy golden colour with some darker highlights. Thin white head consisting of bigger bubbles. Smells of hops, caster sugar, a bit of malt and a slight aroma of metal. Light-bodied; Very citrusey taste (lemons & grapefruits) with hints of hops, malt and some light spiceyness. Finishes clean with some slight citrus flavours and a no sign of the metallic twang. Overall, a bit better than average for a pils, and definately worth trying more than the Red Seal! I bought this twelve ounce bottle at Total Wine in Chantilly, Virginia.

Bottle #2:
Amber colour with a dense (3 centimetre tall) white head. Very nice aroma of a good combination of perfumey, floral, piney and grapefruity hops. If smelling this beer during the pour, you smell tons of great characteristics. Medium-bodied; Nice mouthful, subtle hop flavour while providing a decently strong malt backbone. Aftertaste a bit bittered from the hops, but very pleasant. This bottle was much better than the first, and I was glad to try this again! I got this twelve ounce bottle from madoney in Florida...Thanks again Matt! I sampled this one on 11-September-2003. Rating for this review: 9,4,7,3,14

Bottle #1:
Amber in colour with a fairly dense tall light tan colour head. Smells of malt, a very small amount of hops, a strong offensive metallic aroma and finished with a small amount of sour milk. Medium to Light-bodied; Initial tastes of malt, a very small amount of hops and a slight metallic twang. Aftertaste simply a bit of each of the hops & malt... fading quickly and leaving almost nothing. Simply a normal beer with no crazy characteristics, just a fairly good combination of the two major ingredients. Overall, a decent beer and one that is readily available, so before you go off trying cave creek, try this one! I bought this twelve ounce bottle at Total Wine in Chantilly, Virginia and sampled it on 3-September-2003. Rating for this review: 6,3,6,2,10

One quarter-thousand ratings later, I finally try the Old Rasputin. Unfortunately, there is nothing too spectacular to remark upon. Pours dark brown, with a thin tan head. Aroma is of roasted chocolate, sweet malts, and molasses. Flavor is of dark fruits, molasses, sugar, and roasted chocolate. Thin-bodied. Reminds me of Left Hand Imperial Stout; all of the elements of a superior Imperial are here, yet they are not exploited to full potential. Second-tier material.