Posted By Kevin on Feb 19, 2012 | 1 comment

Maybe it’s the cool weather, but I’ve been enjoying stouts lately and just had Founders Imperial Stout. I was feeling like doing another beer review on this lazy Sunday night, so I looked into the beer fridge and this beer was sitting right up front.

The bottle says, “Sierra Nevada original stout is brewed with generous amounts of deep roasted malts, providing a bold, roasted coffee and dark chocolate flavor with a hint of sweetness. This full-bodied American version of the traditional black ale is perfectly balanced with big malt flavors and earth the whole cone hops.”

Location: Poured from the bottle into a glass, at home in Bloomington, IL.

Numbers: 5.8% ABV, 50 IBUs, 15.4 Plato Starting Gravity, 5.0 Plato Ending Gravity, 225 Calories

Ingredients: Bittering hops: Magnum; Finishing Hops: Cascade & Willamette; Malts: two-row pale, Munich, Caramel & Black; Yeast: Ale Yeast.

Appearance & Aroma: It’s black in color and I could see some ruby colored hues when I held it up to the light. There’s a creamy three-quarter-inch-thick cream-colored head on it, and the aroma is a mix of toasted malts and breadiness, with hints of caramel.

Taste & Feel: The body is medium and the mouthfeel is smooth, with a mild carbonation crispness. There’s a malty flavor dominated by bready toastiness up front, followed by a roasty chocolate and coffee flavor with hints of roasted coffee bitterness in the middle.  It finished with a mix of roasty chocolate and coffee flavor with a decent amount of coffee-like bitterness.

Food Pairing: This was smooth and chocolaty with coffee flavors, therefore, I would match it with something like a chocolate dessert.  As for a pairing that would complement this beer, I think it would add a different dimension to a hearty meal like a steak.

Overall Impression: I’ve been having a lot of imperial stouts recently, so I had to remind myself that the body and flavor would not be as bold as those I’ve been having.  The bready toastiness up front was incredible, and I really enjoyed it.  The roasty chocolate and coffee flavors in the middle were very nice as well.  The coffee bitterness was not overpowering, but was more noticeable over the hop bitterness.  I thought this was a nice, smooth, stout, and with a touch of creaminess, I think it would be incredible.

My Rating:

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