5Day Imperial Stout Spree: Day 5.

Day five came around quick didn't it!

Today's Imperial Stout comes from Brewdog.

AB:09 - 17.1% - 37.5cl - £14.49

Say what you will about Brewdog, I've always maintained that those guys know how to brew a dark beer, and in that regard I've never been let down by a bad dark dog. Just look at some of the previous examples: Riptide, Tokyo*, all the Paradox range... All winners.

AB:09 is a fresh sample having been bottled on the 2nd of April this year, and shows obvious signs of a buzzing and lively carbonation. With a small self sustaining cappuccino like head, it truly invites curiosity from the senses.

All the classics are in the nose. Charred Oak, vanilla, raisins, mocha, dark chocolate - all the usual stuff that tells you it's going to be pretty powerful, even before any has even passed your lips.

It's thick, it's heavy. It's resinous and it's outrageously bitter. It's immensely warming, and it's really woody like a Single Malt. It's incredibly drying and moorish, and while the flavour drops away quite abruptly after a big flavour explosion, you're left with that warming soothing effect. Dark forest fruits are complimented by black burnt rubbery malt flavours. There's some sweet liqourice and tar with some leathery hazelnut, but it's mainly about the oak.

I didn't really know anything about this "Cranachan" Imperial Stout, so I decided to give it a look up. The flavours made much more sense once I'd found out Brewdog's process. This beer has been aged in single grain Whisky and other Oak barrels , and is brewed with "a mountain of dark malts, loads of oats, Scottish heather, honey and local raspberries." After that description, all the flavour profiles and complexities make much more sense to me, but I'm no more, or no less impressed - it's a truly beautiful beer.

Let's look at the price now. £14.49 ((we're still looking at Beer Ritz prices if you've been following along (..see post 1)) and yes it's a limited bottle (number 1374 of 5754), yes it's got lots of crazy ingredients in it, is 17.1% and has been finished off in an expensive way, but the whole range in the Abstrakt series has been this price. Surly some were more expensive to make than others. And if so you're not really paying for the beer here, you're paying for the name that goes on top of it. It may well be an excellent beer, really excellent indeed, but I won't be rushing out to buy another anytime soon.

I guess that's the end of my 5Day Imperial Stout Spree. It's been fantastic fun, and I've got a great insight into the breweries in the list and I've taken much inspiration from the week. The week's over now though.

Or is it....?

5Day Imperial Stout Spree: Day 4.

This is a big one.

A well known brewery, very close to home. I pour the bottle out and immediately feel worried by my observations.

The recipe comes from a Courage formulation from the 1850's. The brewery you must have heard of. It's our own Thornbridge, and it's the turn of their Thornbridge Hall Courage Russian Imperial Stout.

Looking at the bottle stats I have a beer brewed in April 2011 and bottled in December 2011. Malts are Maris Otter, Amber and Black Patent. Hops are Apollo, Hallertau Hersbrucker, and the beer is 9.4%. It comes in a 33cl bottle and was £13.19 of my hard earned cash.

Why was I worried? Well as I poured the precious liquid out, it looked thin. I was expecting a completely opaque devil of a beer, but what I saw was a very dark brown with ruby hints liquid. Was I to be disappointed? I really hoped not, I really wanted this beer to be good.

The taste?

A revelation.

Any thoughts of body or conditioning were thrown straight out of the window in the first mouthful. It's perfect. And that flavour! It goes on for an age. It changes, it evolves, it becomes something that's so much more than just the sum of it's parts. Maybe I'm waxing lyrical here, but I can only speak the truth. It's thick, it's rich, it's outstanding. The different layers of flavour complexities range from the vinous, dried fruit bouquets on the nose, to the first sip where it's sweet malts, honey and hazelnut. This moves to a big full on body. Black malt burnt notes providing dry dark chocolate bitter tones, mixed with a big fruity rum essence. Then you're left with the huge long finish. It lasts for an age with it's immense bitter but warming effect, as if you've just had a sip of your most expensive Single Malt as you sit back and say wow.

Just wow.

But we have to talk about that price. £13.19 for this bottle of beer? It seems almost daft... Thornbridge must have had their reasons though, I'm just finding it really hard to place them right now. It wasn't finished in any expensive barrel or had any crazy ingredients into it. It wasn't aged for 5 years before release, and it really hasn't travelled that far to get to my door. I could hazard a guess that they may have had to pay a lot to get the rights to reproduce this recipe?? Maybe they just thought that's what it was worth? It is their beer after all... maybe they might tell me...

Would I buy this again though?

In a heartbeat.

5Day Imperial Stout Spree: Day 3.

The sun is shining on this lazy Sunday afternoon, it's time for another Imperial Stout hit to continue on this journey... and it's my 250th post too, Woop!

Today's edition comes quite similar to yesterday's. Same size 25cl bottle. Same finishing production being aged in Cognac barrels. Similar sort of strength too at 10.9%... but twice the price of the Nogne O, coming in at £12.19.

It's time to indulge in some Mikkeller Beer Geek Brunch Weasel Imperial Oatmeal Stout aged in Cognac Barrels... or, you know, MBGBWIOSCB for short.... whew!

Much different in appearance to the previous Nogne O. Perfect conditioning is obvious with the beautiful dark tan head forming and lasting outright. Aromas are desert personified.

Vanilla, dark chocolate, espresso, Brandy with caramel, cocoa powder, a little wood and dark dried fruits. It's absolutely fantastic.

As I hold it up in the light it looks like a block of solid black jet, it's quite amazing, time to dive in. This works really well together, I think it's the addition of the weasel coffee that bulks out the body and manages to bring the whole thing together. The rich decadence is positively alive with flavour; rich forest fruits, oaky presence, black treacle and obvious drying Cognac. Bitter chocolate, with the oats working really well here too.

It's easily the pick of the bunch so far, but there's just something about my personal tastes that say to me that Brandy barrels (be it Cognac, Armagnac or other) just do not work as well as Whisky barrels when it comes to beer aging. It's probably just because I prefer my Scotch to my Brandy though....

What about the price though? 12 quid for a 25cl bottle of beer? A couple of years back I would of expected it to be a limited addition of about 500 bottles for that price. I looked at the possible reasons for cost in the Nogne O bottle, and this is a very similar beer. Could the sole reason it's twice the price factor in from the cost of this weasel coffee?? I can't be sure, I just know it's pretty damn good. Would I buy again though?

No. Once is enough at that price.

Join me tomorrow when things start to get really expensive, from a pretty local brewery too!

5Day Imperial Stout Spree: Day 2.

Day two kicks off with beer which you could say is small but mighty. This brewery is pretty well recognisable by the label and comes over to us from Norway. Yep, it's Nogne O.

Nogne O Imperial Stout. Aged in Cognac barrels for 1 year. 25cl bottle. £6.39

It's got what I really look for in my preferred I.S. aromas; loads of oak, sherry, vanilla, burnt raisins, roasting rubber, lots of woody pine and some charred caramel and honeycomb.

It pours flat as do most barrel aged beers... The mouth feel is a little thinner than I was expecting and it starts a little sweet, but then this moves into a huge woody drying effect matched with bitter Cognac flavours and roasted warming goodness. It wasn't what I expected it to be, the Cognac dominates a little too much maybe and doesn't really work well with the beer in my opinion, but it's not too bad. It's a good beer for multidimensional properties. Woody and leathery, rich roasted coffee and dark chocolates, some vanilla and liqourice. If I was pressed though I'd say take the regular Imperial Stout version over this one any day... it's twice the size for less money and a better beer.

Speaking about the price; this beer's almost twice the price of yesterdays goo goo g'joob, and it's in a smaller bottle too. Could this be because of the year aging in Cognac barrels? After all, it costs a lot of money to store beer, and C-barrels don't come cheap either. Could it also be the transport costs to get it shipped over to us. It certainly isn't our stupid strong beer tax, this one's only 9% compared to yesterdays 11%. Maybe Nogne O just like to charge a little more for their beers? I personally think it's a combination of the first 3...

Join me for Day 3 tomorrow where I'll be looking at a same size bottle which will be twice the price of tonight's, once again!

5Day Imperial Stout Spree: Day 1.

After all the fun I had with my 5Day Barley Wine Spree, I thought it was about time I had a little spree on my favourite beer style as they're starting to pile up a bit at home at the moment.

Bring on the Imperial Stouts!

Over the next 5 days I'll be trying 5 new additions to the cabinet, whilst looking at the beers themselves, and the aspect of price. I'll begin that the price of all the beers to be drunk vary massively. I can also state that they all came from Beer Ritz. Now, as a Beer Ritz employee, I can confirm that we do not charge more for some beers than others. We have a standard mark up on all the beers we sell. If some are more expensive, it's because they were more expensive for us. I will be looking at price as a big part of these next 5 days.

First up comes from Arbor Ales and was brewed to celebrate their 5th birthday.

goo goo g'joob is 11%, comes in a 33cl bottle and is £3.69

It initially looks like it's going to pour flat, but then an incredibly thick and close nit foam erupts forth. Aromas of roasted hazelnut and burnt caramel are mixed with some burnt rubber and toast. It's got a very interesting flavour. Quite dry and tart with some vinous and fortified wine hints. There's a big bitter essence coming from the intensely roasted malts and a great full rich body which is greatly complimented by the addition of oats and maple syrup in the brewing process. The finish is long and intense but has the alcohol well hidden, a lovely start to this little trip.

Worth the £3.69? Yes, again and again. A bit of a bargain for such a nice 11% beer, in today's world, in my opinion.

Join me for day 2 won't you? I'll be looking into what happens when you have a smaller bottle at twice the price!