Courage Russian Imperial Stout

Aroma: 10 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 7 | Flavor: 9 | Overall: 8

A black colored beer as one would expect. Big frothy textured dark tan head rises robustly above. There's good hang time on this one. Settles eventually into a thick ringlet and nice presence of film. In nose and on the palate, big, bold presence of bitter roasty chocolate delight. Medium bodied, effervescent.

Aroma: 7 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 7 | Flavor: 6 | Overall: 7

Vintage 1993 - A pitch black appearance with no head. The aroma is soy sauce, chocolate, coffee, and some dark fruits. The flavor is rather sour with some soy sauce, grapes, chocolate, and noticeable alcohol. This was ok for a small amount but nothing I would drink alot of.

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 8 | Overall: 8

Pitch black colour, big brown head. Aroma is chocolate, roast and a lot of vinegary hints. Flavour is coffee, roasted malts, alcohol and chocolate. Some vinegary hints also. Enormously well aged (early 80's vintage).

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 9 | Flavor: 9 | Overall: 8

Vintage bottle 1983, Sampled September 2004.
The cap pops off of this beer with a bit of a hiss. There is some light carbonation left, and the beer itself is pitch black in color. The nose has notes of cherry, thick rich plum, molasses, sherry, and malt in the background. Surprisingly there is only a hint of dark malt left after all this time. There is some acidity left here from the dark malts, it is not roasty up front, but there is a nice long finish with solid notes of coffee. The fruit notes are not as evident in the taste as in the nose. The acidity definitely dominates up front, but this is not an acidity from an infection.

Vintage bottle 1983, Sampled October 2002.
This was a 6-pack of the 1983 picked up from the Kulminator in Antwerp, for $7! Thick black and wonderful looking. Tasted of sherry, burnt caramel, and raisin. Very full mouth feel, yet you could tell that the body has thinned noticeably with age. This beer has held up very well, despite being obviously oxidized. This in my opinion just added to the character and complexity of this beer.

Aroma: 10 | Appearance: 10 | Mouthfeel: 10 | Flavor: 10 | Overall: 10

~1992 Vintage:

An exceedingly rare bottle, that I picked up via eBay, to spoil myself over the holidays. And while the 170mL bottle (complete with a far amount of dust over the past dozen years) took months to get shipped over from the U.K., the rsulting beer was more than worth the wait. In a word, this is superb.

A minute "pfft" was the one and only herald to announce to the world that this beer had been popped open. My biggest fear was that the beer would be infected and gushing. No, this gentle giant slumbered contentfully in one or more dark and quiet cellars overseas, only to be awakened half-the-world away, on a cool and rainy Southern Californian Wednesday afternoon.

Gentlly poured the entire contents of the bottle into my George Gale's stemmed glass. Minimal if any yeast sediment. Absolutely nil carbonation, but that was certianly no surprise -- and definately forgiveable, considering the age. In fact, I would think that any spritziness to this beer would get in the way of the more complex undertones in the flavor profile.

And complex this is -- most certianly sir. Please alow me to put this into terms that may just fit this almost Napolenically massive beer. Immeditately hits the mouth with an opening barrage of raisins and figs, with the cavalric flanking charge of port wine and maybe dates. Then, to continue the assault, a certian intriguing nuttiness goes Over The Top, through the wire, and brings the fight to your own frontline. Your taste buds fight the good fight, but there is no getting out of this combat. With the wave of flavor sweeping on to other parts of The Front, your taste buds can only put down their muskets and bayonnets, and surrender to the almighty bliss that this beer brings to the war... ;)

By far the most perfect Imperial Stout that I have ever had the fortune of running across. And while even the sample size is ideal, this beer's rarity is not. Worth spending cold hard cash on? Absolutely -- that is, if you ever happen to see it. Seeing that I do not expect to ever see or sample this ever again, it will haunt my memories and torment my dreams.

A world-class beer, without a doubt.

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 8 | Overall: 8

1983: Pours with a black body topped by a medium thick head with some lacing. It’s slightly sweet and malty yet sour and vinious with a slight roastiness. Medium to full bodied and smooth.

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 9 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 10 | Overall: 9

1992 vintage, sampled 04/2004 - dark black colour with absolutely no foam, very strong and complex aroma of nut, black chocolate, cocoa, alcohol and plum, very thick and oily, solid bitterness, the finish is long and chocolaty

Aroma: 6 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 8 | Overall: 8

1989 bottle – drank in 2004: Very dark beer with no head or carbonation. Aroma is mostly comprised of alcohol and a subtle smell of coffee. Taste can be described as a mix between roasted malts, coffee, subtle chocolate and ends with some bitterness and a warm alcohol taste. Very intriguing beer, it almost feel like a mix between an old ale (Gales Prize Old Ale) and a Russian Imperial Stout without extreme hops (Sam Smith Russian Stout) without any carbonation but with a good warming feeling from the alcohol as you drink this. I feel lucky I had the chance to taste this but a vertical tasting of this beer would be paradise…

Aroma: 6 | Appearance: 10 | Mouthfeel: 7 | Flavor: 10 | Overall: 9

I've waited years to try this beer. This 1993 sample was verky dark brown, with absolutely no head or carbonation. Seemed off because of this. As it warmed up, the aroma was amazing. Very flavorful, with notes of coffee and dark chocolate. Very thick, and I couldn't detect the alcohol. I think this beer was incredible, but seemed a bit odd. Maybe it was just past it's time.

Aroma: 10 | Appearance: 9 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 8 | Overall: 10

1984. Jet black with no apparent head. Aromas were a sour dried grape, coffee and bittersweet chocolate. Taste was still hoppy with cocoa, alcohol (rum?) and roasted malt. What a gem.