Samuel Adams Imperial Series Review - Double Bock & Imperial White

The Samuel Adams Imperial Series was released some time ago and recently I found two of the three at my local Publix supermarket - the Double Bock and the Imperial White. Ironically, the one I actually wanted, the Imperial Stout, was and still is, nowhere to be found. But, being the hardcore Sam Adams fan that I am, I decided to try them anyway. Hindsight being 20/20, I should have waited for the stout.

These beers are a special run of high alcohol beers sold only in four-packs. They average about 10% abv and are found for about $9 and some change. The first one I picked up was the Double Bock.

Done in the style of a German Doppelbock, which already has a high abv, this is a 9.5% abv brew that pours a reddish brown mahogany color and gives a good pinky finger of head.

It smells like caramel. Sweet caramel malt. A lot of it. And it tastes like malt, alcohol and hops, in that order. Thick, sweet malt upfront followed by alcohol and finishing with alcohol and vague hops.

This beer does not hide its high abv well at all, although, it does go down smooth. It still has the lager crispness but it is somewhat thick and almost stoutish, without the roasted malt coffee flavors.

It is a very straight forward brew, well made but too sweet and malty for my taste. I am not a huge fan of doppelbocks but I'm sure the malt lovers out there can appreciate this one. It's not for me but it's not crap either. A fair example of the style and a Glass 1/2 FULL.

click the picture to read the box

Now we move on to the Imperial White, a 10.3% abv brew that is supposed to be a 'roided up whitbier (wheat beer).

It pours a cloudy, diry, golden color and gives about a half inch of head. As soon as I smelled it I asked myself, 'This is a whitbier?'

It smells of caramel malt with a touch of alcohol and maybe a vague hint of orange somewhere behind the maltyness. It's very sweet and it reminds me more of the Double Bock than of any wheat beer. How a wheat beer gets this malty and sweet is beyond me.

Tastewise, we have malt and alcohol with very faint underlying citrus. Forgive me for being repetitive but if this is supposed to be a whitbier then what is all this caramel malt doing here?

This is a very sweet and puzzling brew. You can really taste and feel the high alcohol content. It is also thick, syrupy and unappealing. I didn't really enjoy the Double Bock but I'm not really a fan of the style and that's not the beer's fault. The problem here is that I really like wheat beers and this one was a complete disappointment. This is nothing lke a wheat beer at all. I'm sorry, Mr. Koch but you have really let me down on this one. This is a Glass EMPTY beer and a misleading, mislabeled mistake from the folks at Samuel Adams.

Try it at your own risk for this beer is not what it claims to be.

click the picture to read the box

The Yard House - Great food & 100+ beers

So, my girlfriend and I ended up in the upscale mall, ahem, village, of Merrick Park here in Miami, excuse me, I meant, Coral Gables, Florida. We were in search of a place we had recently heard about called the Yard House. We had been told this place had a large beer selection and, coincidentally, we had just seen a billboard on US-1 which reminded us about it so we decided to pop in for beer and dinner. Smart idea indeed.

Goral Gables in general, and Merrick Park specifically, is a bougie place full of snobbie people in designer lables, high-end cars, botox and silicone. If I didn't know better those facts would be enough to keep me away from this place. Fortunately, I rolled the dice and discovered an great restaurant with amazing food and over 100 beers on tap.

http://www.yardhouse.com/

I had a burger, she had an ahi tuna salad. I know my burgers, she knows her tuna. We were both blown away. Be advised, the place is pricey but well worth it.

Now to the beer. I'm not reviewing anything but I want to show how lovely the beer menu is: I had a Fullers ESB, a Stone IPA and an Arrogant Bastard. She had a Bell's Oberon, a Spaten Optimator and a Samuel Adams Summer Ale. All were Draughts and all were served in standard pint glasses, except the Spaten, which was served in a goblet.

Arrogant Bastard

The Yard House, as the name implies, serves half yards and also offers a 'six pack' beer sampler. They have locations in 9 different states including several in California, Las Vegas and Hawaii.

Check it out, the food kicks ass and it's a beer drinkers paradise. Cheers!

Beer of the Day - Avery India Pale Ale

Well, here it is, my first I.P.A. review. To be completely honest, I've been looking forward to this review, even though I wasn't much of an India Pale Ale fan until tonight...

What we have for today's beer is the India Pale Ale from the Avery Brewing Company in Boulder, Colorado. Their website is http://www.averybrewing.com/ for those that are interested.

For those that don't know, India Pale Ales started off as regular British Pale Ales, but in the 1700's a certain style of Pale began to gain popularity with the British troops stationed in India. Some say it was because that style was just popular with the troops, sailors and Indians of the time, while some say it's because beers with higher hop content and alcohol content just preserved better during those long ocean voyages. Either way, because of those long voyages from Britain to India, this style of beer has beer a popular mainstay for over 300 years.

Nowadays, I.P.A.'s seem to be very popular with west coast breweries. Many micro-breweries offer an I.P.A. or two in their line-up. I chose the Avery I.P.A. as my first IPA review mainly because I like their label (it pays homage to the history of the I.P.A.) and because it was readily available at one of my local Winn/Dixie supermarkets. Winn/Dixie's slogan has recently been: "Getting better all the time" and it's no bullshit, specially when it comes to the beer selection.

Now lets get to the beer. It pours a nice amber color with a couple fingers of white, chunky, creamy head. It's a head that never completely disappears and leaves some lovely, thick lacing on the glass.

This beer smells like hops! Floral, orange, grapefruit, sweet & sourness, with a hint of malt under it all.

The taste has a sharp hop bite upfront. It is piney, sour and citrusy, with traces of malt underneath towards the backend. It finishes relatively dry with some hop oil resin on the tongue that leaves a bit of an aftertaste which is not unwelcome.

It is pretty light bodied and is very refreshing and can be downed easily on hot summer day. Just be careful with the 6.30% abv.

India Pale Ales may not be for everyone and they certainly weren't for me a few months back, but for those like me who's palates have broadened and now like hops or for those adventurous souls who are just willing to try, these are quality, refreshing beers that deserve a taste. If you were already a fan of the style then pick up Avery's offering, it is a well put together brew that deserves a try.

This beer is hoppy and bitter but also refreshing and smooth. Avery has done a great job putting together a tasty, easy drinking I.P.A. I call it a Glass 1/2 FULL and recommend it to any beer fan in general or I.P.A. fan specifically. Keep an eye out for it. Cheers!

The Beer of the Day

Beer of the Day Review - Paulaner Hefe-Weizen

Man, it was hot today. A typical hot, muggy, steamy South Florida afternoon. By the time I left work I was tired and dehydrated and in need of some liquid refreshment. If you have read some of my earlier posts then you know this is the perfect time for a wheat beer. Enter, Paulaner Hefe-Weizen.

Hefe-Weizen is basically German for wheat beer. If you want you can go here for more info on wheat beers in general: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wheat_beer. I have had, and have reviewed, a couple of wheat beers in the past and have found them to be very, very refreshing brews, so today I decided to go straight to the source and try a German one.

Paulaner is a highly regarded Munich brewery who's beers are widely available in the States. This 6-pack was picked up at my local Publix supermarket. Interestingly enough, this was my first Paulaner beer but not the one I originally wanted to try. I had the Salvator Doppel Bock in line to be my first Paulaner but this heat and humidity made me change course and go for the Hefe. It is a decision I do not regret.

This unfiltered 5.50% abv beer pours a cloudy, deep, dark, hazy, yellow, almost golden color. The head is creamy and a few streams of carbonation are visible bubbling up from the bottom of the glass. A hard pour will net you almost 4 fingers of head, eventually it will fizzle down to about an 1/8 of an inch that will stick around for the duration.

It smells like wheat. Along with some citrus/lemony hop, some slight malt and strong hints of sweet fruit (banana, pear + others).

The taste is much like the nose but with more fruit and less malt, combined with some subtle hints of citrus and a light, hoppy aftertaste that doesn't hang around very long.

This is a light, crisp beer that is carbonated just right. It is incredibly refreshing after a long, hot day and goes down so smooth that one can knock down the whole glass without even realizing it.

Then, once the glass is empty, you realize that the beer leaves some thick trails of lacing that are reminicent of a nitro-beer...

Those Germans do not mess around. Paulaner has been brewing beer for 360 years and it shows. This is a very clean and complex beer that is a pleasure to drink, specially on a hot, sweaty day. One of the better wheat beers around. It won't knock your socks off but it will quench your thirst and then some. A solid Glass 1/2 FULL and a beer I would recommend to any fan of the style or anybody working out in the sun. Cheers!

(Oh, and a big thanks goes out to my lovely girlfriend for turing me on to wheat beers in the first place and to the nice lady who gave me the elegant Glenlivet pen I used to take my notes =)

The Beer of the Day

Beer of the Day Review - Old Speckled Hen (Nitro-can)

I have been looking forward to this one.

What we have today is a 4-pack of Old Speckled Hen, an English Pale Ale from the Morland Brewery in the United Kingdom. Of course, these are nitro-cans, which, much like Guinness or Boddingtons, have a nitrogen filled widget inside which releases nitrogen gas as it is poured to help create the creamy head. The Youtube.com video link at the bottom of the post may help explain that a little better.

This is from the Wikipedia entry on Old Speckled Hen, for those that are wondering the reason and history behind the name of this beer:

Old Speckled Hen took its unusual name from an MG car which was used as a runaround for workers in the MG factory. Over years of service, the car became covered in flecks of paint, gaining it acclaim in the town and earned it the nickname "Owld Speckled 'Un", translated into Old Speckled Hen by Morland in 1979 when the brewery was asked by MG to create a commemorative beer for the factory's 50th anniversary.

Now on to the review.

This beer pours a lovely copper color that becomes visible once the nitrogen cascade is finished and the beer has 'settled'. Thanks to the nitro, the head is about a finger's worth and hangs around all the way to the end, typical of any nitro beer, like Guinness. Oh, and it also leaves some very nice lacing, visible even when you pour a fresh beer in the glass... (click on the picture to get a closer look)

Also usual for a nitro-beer, the nose is a bit subdued. I get hints of biscuit, malt, and a bitterness that is slightly hoppy and definitely metallic.

Once I taste it everything changes. Wow, this is smooth and tasty. Sweet malt and biscuit come through strongly up front, it goes down super smooth, then a strong (but nowhere near overwhelming) floral hop finish. It finishes with a clean hop bitterness that is in no way overpowering and leaves not much, if any, aftertaste.

Those sweet malts up front are surprising because they taste like the roasted malt one would expect from a nitro stout, particularly Beamish. Not as strong as they would be in the stout, but definitely there. Also, the metallic smell that is present in the nose amazingly does not present itself in the taste, unlike Boddingtons I can detect almost no metal taste in this beer at all. Most definitely a good thing.

You can definitely notice that famed British hard water element in this beer. Subtle and hard to describe, the cold, hard water feel and texture is there, if you know what to look for.

Like most nitro-beers this one goes down super smooth with a light, creamy mouthfeel. Alcohol is listed at 5.20% abv but it is not very noticeable and these beers are very easy to put away.

There's not much else to say. This is a fine beer. A proper English Ale to be exact. Well made, tasty and easy to put down, this brew is a must for all fans of English Ales. My only complaint is the slight metallic smell and even then, it doesn't make it's way to the taste of the wonderful brew. This may not be the best English Pale around but, considering it's a nitro-can, I call this beer a Glass FULL. Tasty, well balanced and well put together, this beer is a must for any lover of English Ales or just good nitro-beers in general. I will be having this again very soon. Cheers!

The Beer of the Day

Crappy Beer Alert - Mississippi Mud

Well, where do I begin?

I had been wanting to pick one of these up for some time and the other day I finally did... regretfully.

The bottle says Mississippi Mud and it is produced by the Mississippi Brewing Company in Utica, New York. Hmm, I didn't know there were swamps in upstate New York...

The bottle also says this is a Black and Tan made from a Continental Pilsner and a Classic Porter, another very suspect statement.

Let's cut the crap. This is sh!t beer. This thing pours a coca-cola color with a head that dissapates quickly and leaves no lacing whatsoever. The smell is a clean pilsner smell with a touch of roasted malt and something metallic.

The taste is of vague malt with some heavy adjunct/cereal and something almost metallic that is very unpleasant. It does have a very clean lager-ish feel, it is crisp, over-carbonated and very, very watery. Sure, it goes down easy and feels very light for a beer this color but the nasty taste makes it all for nothing.

This is basically a very cheap dark adjunct lager. Very cheap. This is a novelty beer, period. You buy this beer for the bottle only as it is a cool bottle but the beer is pure garbage. No more, no less. Stay away from this brew, the understaste is really bad. Glass Empty all the way. You have been warned.

Beer of the Day Review - Samuel Adams Brown Ale

First off, let me apologize. This was Thursday's Beer of the Day and I've taken a few days to post the review. But yes, what we have this time around is a beer from the Samuel Adams' Brewmaster's line-up, one I absolutely loved the first time I had it - The Brown Ale.

This is an English Brown Ale at 5.35% abv. Regardless of what I think about this beer now, this is the beer that made me fall in love with English Browns. It is one of the more widely available Samuel Adams Brewmaster's beers, along with the Black Lager, Cherry Wheat and Boston Ale.

Before I begin, I must preface this review by stating that this beer had a freshness date of May, 09, and I bought and drank it in mid June, 09. Hopefully the beer was not compromised by age, if it was I noticed no obvious indicators.

This beer pours a beautiful reddish-brown color, kind of a light mahogany. It smells mostly of nutty caramel malt with a touch of bitterness.

Taste-wise, it's mostly malt again, the toasted/roasted kind, with some biscuit and nut flavors in there as well. It is well belended, with some hops and some biscuit riding strongly on the backend.

This Samuel Adams brew is incredibly smooth and complex with a medium body and light carbonation. It is an easy to drink beer and it is one I will be returning to every once in a while.

As I stated before, I loved this beer the first time I drank it. But now, after having tried quite a few other Brown Ales, I have realized that even though this beer is good, it is not up there with the best Browns. It is well made, well balanced, but still a bit pedestrian. So, with that in mind, I call this beer a definite Glass 1/2 FULL. All Brown Ale lovers should check it out and all Samuel Adams lovers should check it out. Enjoy it and let me know what y'all think. Cheers!

The Beer of the Day

Beer of the Day Review - Anchor Liberty Ale

Today we're drinking a beer that I've been wanting to try for a while... Liberty Ale from the Anchor Brewing Company in San Francisco, Kalifornia. Check them out at anchorbrewing.com.

This beer was first brewed in 1975 to celebrate the 200th anniversary of Paul Revere's historic ride. It is categorized as an American Pale Ale and seems to be held in very high esteem by the folks at Beeradvocate.com.

After a long sweaty day I felt like something light and hoppy so I picked this up at my local Publix. This 6'er went for $9.99 and was worth it without a doubt. (Though I do wish good beer was cheaper.)

The beers pours a cloudy golden-amber color and will give you almost 2 fingers of incredibly creamy, sticky head no matter how gently you pour. This smells drifting up are of malt, biscuit and citrus hop, with an underlying hint of sweet fruit. Inviting, to say the least.

Once I tasted this masterfull brew I noticed mostly some light malt and some piney, oily hop up front. The finish was of hop bitterness with a touch of oily hop resin on my tongue.

There are no standout flavors in this beer but it is well blended, well balanced and extremely well made. Considering that it is a west coast pale ale one would expect a whole lot of hops but this brew is not over hopped at all. You do notice the hops more than the malt but the mixture works together perfectly in this instance, at least in my opinion.

The mouthfeel is of a light-to-medium brew. It is smooth and crisp with a slight hop oil aftertaste that never wears out it's welcome and makes this 6.00% abv beer go down smooth as hell. Oh, and it leaves some great lacing too...

Conclusion, this is a kick-ass American Pale Ale. Liberty Ale indeed, it lives up to its name and is a great example of what an all original American beer should be. It is not a complex brew, but a well balanced Ale that is as great for a session as it it is for a hot sweaty afternoon of yard work. Memorable and easy to put down, I call this a Glass FULL. Cheers!

The Beer of the Day

Beer of the Day Review - Dead Guy Ale

Welcome to the newly christened, www.BierBreath.com. To celebrate our new official web address we are going to start things of with a very special beer. Today I give you, Dead Guy Ale.

The Dead Guy comes to us from the Rogue Brewery in Oregon, a great company that specializes in making great beers with in-your-face artwork and packaging. See for yourself at www.rogue.com.

Personally, I love the name and the logo of this beer. So much so that I had to buy the pint glass when I came across it. The 22 oz bomber you see in the pictures comes from my only other experience with Dead Guy Ale several months ago. 

Now, before I review this beer I want to clarify something. Even though it is called Dead Guy Ale, it is not an ale. This beer is a Bock, and a bock is a type of lager, which means your going to get a more crisp taste and feel along with a bit cleaner finish, all common traits of a lager. I'm sure the folks at Rogue know the difference but I guess with a name like Dead Guy we can allow them a little creative liberty. Now on to the review...

This beer pours a lovely orange-amber color, almost like a good apple juice, with a good finger or more of head, depending on the pour. The smells drifting up from the glass are very, very inviting. Heavy malt, some citrus-hop, and sweet fruit (mangopearpinapple) let me know right from the start that this beer is going to be special.

The taste is not as in-your-face as one might expect but it is subtle and delicious. The malt comes out strongly in the front and the hop comes out almost as strongly in the back with a hint of citrus all the way across. It has a light-medium body that goes down really smooth leaving a lingering floral hop aftertaste that is not unpleasant in the least. This brew is crisp and very refreshing in a very lager-like way.

Dead Guy Ale is a simple but well put together beer that is incredibly easy to drink. Don't take it lightly though, it is 6.50% abv and will kick you in the ass if your not careful...

When I first tried Dead Guy I couldn't understand what all the hype was about. I thought it was no big deal, just a plain beer with a cool name. Maybe I just needed some time, maybe I needed to broaden my palate, but this second time around I can appreciate this beer a whole lot more. It is simple but has a beautiful balance of flavors and amazing drinkability for a higher abv beer. Combine that with the name and the cool logo and you have a beer destined to have a cult following. I am definitely a believer now and I consider this to be a Glass FULL beer all the way. Get yourself some Dead Guy and see what I mean. Cheers!

The Beer of the Day

Special Review - Samuel Smith Oatmeal Stout

I wasn't supposed to be reviewing, much less drinking, another beer today but the adjunct lagers from earlier left me feeling unfulfilled, to say the least. That's why I call this a 'special review' because I bought this beer on a spur of the moment whim. Man, I am so glad I did it...



I have been dying to try a Samuel Smith beer for quite some time now, they get great reviews but they are a bit pricey. Now I see why. I paid almost 5 dollars for this 18.7 oz bottle of Samuel Smith Oatmeal Stout and it was worth every penny.

This beer comes to us from Samuel Smith's Old Brewery at Tadcaster, North Yorkshire. They are one of the few remaining independant breweries in the U.K. They've been using their own strain of yeast since the early 1900s and the water used for brewing comes from a well sunk at the brewery over 200 years ago. Samuel Smith was first introduced to the U.S. market in 1978.


I took some of the foil off this big British bottle, popped the cap, and proceeded to pour it into my authentic British Imperial Pint 20 oz nonic pub glass. This beer poured black and thick and immediately gave me almost 3 fingers of abundant, khaki colored head. It is black in the glass but shows a red tinge around the edges when held up to the light. The nose is of sweet chocolate, roasted malt and a touch of coffee. The smell is similar to, and as inviting as, the aroma of fresh baked chocolate chip cookies. Then the time comes to taste it...

Heaven..!

Sweet, thick, deliciousness. Chocolate and oats and espresso with some drying bitterness on the finish. Wow.

This beer is full bodied and the mouthfeel reflects that. It is thick but in no way syrupy, it coats the tongue beautifully. It coats the glass beautifully too, I'm down to the last inch and there is still almost a 1/4 inch of head...

This is possibly the best stout I have ever had. It is most definitely the best oatmeal stout I have ever had. Ever.

I don't know what else to say. Obviously, I'm a fan of the style to begin with but wow, I didn't expect this. This is simply an amazing beer and an unequivocal Glass FULL beer, so full in fact that the glass is overflowing. This beer and the Oaked Arrogant Bastard I had on tap a few weeks ago are sitting alone at the top of my Utterly Amazing Beer list. Go see for yourselves, you won't regret it. Cheers, and thank you Mr. Smith!

Goodies from Argentina! Brahma, Schneider & Fernet Branca

I have a very good Argentinian friend who travels back and forth from there to here on business. Since he knows I'm a beer aficionado he has been bringing me back some goodies...

The can of Quilmes you see on the left is from last trip, I drank that one many moons ago. What we have up for review today are the can of Brahma, the can of Schneider and a bottle of Fernet Branca. Let's start with the Brahma.

*Note - pictures are deceiving, beers are a lighter color than they appear!

It pours a straw yellow color which gives some fizzy head that recedes quickly. It has a tipical pilsner smell with a little something sweet in there that I just can't place. Adjuncts and a touch of malt for the most part.

Like the nose, the taste is of cereal with a touch of malt at the beginning and on the back end. There is a definite taste of cereal grains in there, more strongly noticeable in the aftertaste.

This beer is very light and drinkable but no strong smells or tastes are present. It's pretty much an American-style light adjunct lager.

Next up is the Schneider. It calls itself a Cerveza Rubia, Blonde Beer, and with the beer I knew exactly what to expect. The can actually lists the ingredients: agua, malta, cereales, lúpulo.  That translates to: water, malt, cereal, hops. Cereal indeed.

It pours a light, golden yellow, lighter than the Brahma, and produces a finger or so of nice fluffy head. The head retention isn't bad and it does leave some very scant lacing. Sadly, and as promised, the nose is a heavy cereal smell. Pretty much a light American-style adjunct lager all the way here.

This beer has a light body but it is a bit richer than the Brahma. The taste is of cereal with a vague hint of something hop-ish, then more cereal on the backend and cereal in the aftertaste. There is nothing to be found here worth writing home about. A blind taste test with this, Bud Light and Miller Light would surprise and confuse a whole lot of people... Yup.

Finally, we have something that is not a beer. I had to look this up because I wasn't sure exactly what this was. It turns out that Fernet is a type of amaro, a bitter, aromatic spirit, popular, and produced, in Italy. The label says 45% which, if that is abv, means that it is 90 proof.

Fernet Branca with Coke is a regional favorite of Cordova, Argentina, and I was given the bottle along with the recipie- 2-3 ice cubes, an ounce of Fernet and the rest Coke. So I did pretty much that...

Woah. Being used to the usual spirits popular in the states- rum, vodka, whisky, brandy, gin, this stuff takes a second to get used to. I won't try to review from memory (as I cracked it open about a week ago) but the closest I can get is peppermint liquer. It goes great with coke but the taste of mint is unmistakable, unfortunately my palate isn't sophisticated enough to pick out all the other spices it's made with. Good stuff though, and when mixed with Coke it creates a real thick, creamy head that leaves behind some foamy lace that Coke could never do by itself. 

I really enjoyed it and plan to enjoy the hell out of what's left of the bottle. I suggest that anybody who is curious about Fernet either look it up on Wikipedia or just go pick up a bottle. A big thank you goes out to my buddy Federico for the liquid gifts and another thank you goes out to everybody reading this. To everybody in the States and in Argentina, Cheers!

Peg Leg Imperial Stout Review

I do love Russian Imperial Stouts. They make for a lovely after dinner drink. Here we have another offering from Clipper City Brewing Company's Heavy Seas line, this one called Peg Leg. I hate to review two beers from the same brewery back-to-back but it just happened. I really can't complain though, Clipper City makes some good beer (www.ccbeer.com).

This beer is 8.00% abv, on the lower end of the spectrum as far as Imperial Stouts go, but it hides it's higher abv quite well. The alcohol isn't unnoticeable but it blends in nicely.

It pours pitch black. Light will not make it through this brew, not even around the edges, not even with a strong LED flashlight held up to the glass. There's not a lot of head to speak of, a slightly warmer bottle or rougher pour will get you about a half-finger, but it will still be completely gone in a few minutes and will leave no lace whatsoever.

There are some sweet alcohol notes and chocolate and roasted malt smells drifting up from my glass. The nose isn't too strong on this beer but sweet chocolate alcohol is obviously present, much like in a box of Godiva liquor chocolates.

Taste-wise, the same bitter-sweet chocolate alcohol is prevalent, along with a touch of roasted malts and just a hint of coffee. This is a slightly sweeter Imperial Stout than what I am used to but that is not a complaint. It goes down smooth with a lighter than expected body. 

Unfortunately, even though one would think a beer this dark and this strong would be heavier, the mouthfeel is medium with very little (as in not enough) carbonation. It goes down smooth but leaves me wanting more. Something thicker, something fuller, something more... stout.

This beer tastes wonderful but the light body and lack of head and carbonation leave me feeling unfulfilled. In all fairness, these bottles had a Best Before Date of May, 2009, and I got them and cracked them open at the end of May, early June, so the beer may not have been at it's freshest. With that in mind I will call this beer a glass 1/2 FULL, as it is a tasty well made stout, even though there are much better Russian Imperials out there, like Old Rasputin. I do plan to give Peg Leg another chance with a fresher sample. I'll keep ya'll posted, but until then, Cheers!

*I had to come back and add this. Close to a week after posting this review I had my last bottle of Peg Leg. This one poured with some very nice head, tasted crisper, had more carbonation and left some beautiful lacing in my glass. I am forced to conclude that some, but not all, of the beers in the pack were effected by age and when fresh this is definitely a kick-ass RIS. Glass 1/2 FULL and then some. Just remember to keep an eye on the Best Before date...