Old Rasputin Imperial Stout

Name: Old Rasputin Imperial Stout

Brewer: North Coast Brewing Co. (California, US)

Type: Russian Imperial Stout

ABV: 9%

Label: 4

Look-Cs: 18 

Snout: 13

Texture: 18

Flavor: 28

X-Factor: 9

TOTAL: 90

If this beer were a doomed institution, it would be marriage.

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An object in possession seldom retains the same charm that it had in pursuit. 

 ~Pliny the Younger, Letters

After six months of chasing elusive dark beer around South America, it was time to come home and settle down for a short spell. Within the first three days back in a snow-covered Washington, DC, I realized the chase was over.

Friends in all the right places.

My new apartment was steps from a beer bar with 3-4 stouts on draft at all times, and a beer store with a refreshingly current rotation of beers was an even closer stumble. While I was away, the homebrew scene continued to take hold and several friends were brewing their own beers, and more than happy to share in their craft. I was inundated with guaranteed creamy deliciousness. Much like online dating, I could wrap my lips around a different gorgeous brew each night of the week, if I so desired.

The challenge had vanished.

I was no longer hiking 10 miles with double the weight on my back so I could chill a 6 pack of local beers in a Patagonian mountain stream, darting around a rainy white-washed city searching for a brewery on a grid of unnamed streets, or dodging Peugeots on a bike sweating my way up twisting lakeside hills with the promise of a rare brewery around the next bend. I was worried that the romance might be dead. My wild oats were sowed, malted, gulped down, and I found myself staring at the bottom of a lacy empty pint debating my next move.

He's not getting any younger.

At the same time, my friends were beginning to “get serious.”  They were getting married, having kids, buying homes, and generally embracing a more settled lifestyle. I was worried that my beer-drinkin would run a parallel course, and I might be subject to the easy contentment of grocery store Guinness for the rest of my existence.

Then, one conversation with an old friend changed everything. As we mused about monogamy and commitment late into the night, he spoke of his long-term boyfriend, saying “he just feels like home to me.” As he opened up about the man I long suspected to be the love of his life, I felt a familiar warm feeling. It was big, bold, and hauntingly complex. Almost scary in its richness. Overwhelming in its intensity yet oddly calming. I tasted Old Rasputin Imperial Stout. It was heavenly. I was home.

I reflected on the time I spent with my Old Rasputin since my return, and realized that it was the only beer I kept coming back to. When it was on draft, there was no other stout I desired more. Sure, I was always looking to branch out and try something new, but when it was around, I always ended my night with an Old Rasputin. If Guinness was my gateway beer into stouts, Old Rasputin is my drug of choice.

While no label could do justice or give fair warning to what the imbiber was about to experience, the badass sketching of Rasputin and bold Russian phrases hint at the power in the stout little bottle. The snout is burnt malt and alcohol with coffee and chocolate becoming more apparent as the beer warms up.

Old Rasputin is just as beautiful as it is substantive, with an oily black pour and a frothy tan head that leaves minimal lacing.

The flavors are nicely balanced and highlighted as the temperature slowly changes. There are strong dark chocolate and coffee notes with a generally bitter finish punctuated by recognition of the alcohol. Not too sweet for an imperial stout.

The silky, oily texture of this beer is absolutely magnificent. While the flavors are bold it is wondrously smooth and creamy.

Dark, bold, dangerous, with the propensity to evolve over time—Old Rasputin is a beer worth committing to.