“A big, heavy Russian imperial stout aged for two years in American bourbon barrels. A regal brew fit for evil empires of all shapes and forms, inspired by poetry and raised to the sounds of industrial heavy metal.“

Glassware: Snifter.

Appearance: Jet black with a fizzy short brown cap which slowly recedes. It eventually settles at the rim with a wet lace dragged down the glass.

Aroma: Ok well we weren’t expecting this slightly sour quality. We’ve let it settle now and it still displays a rather strong cherry-infused sourness which is far from what we’re after in a BBA Imperial Stout. It’s strange though coz the Bourbon/barrels do come through and it works in to the cherry quite nicely but it still begs the question.. why the hell is a BBA Russian Imperial Stout sour? Especially when there’s no mention of it anywhere in its description.

Flavour: We really don’t understand what angle they’re coming from here. If it were a BBA Imperial Stout with some sort of souring yeast or fruit then it would be shaping up to be a decent beer but there aren’t so it only leads us to believe the beer is infected. But to add more confusion it seems as if they meant for it to be slightly sour coz in a strange way it comes together. The downside again is that we didn’t buy a sour stout, we bought a BBA Imperial Stout!

Mouthfeel: Slick, relatively smooth and oily but with a discernible pursing of the lips. Mild-moderate Co2, medium-full body. 12.6% ABV.

Overall: One big old WTF?! It’s hard to know if they meant it or not. We know 8 Wired really ate up the sour movement years ago so it would kinda make sense that they did. We’re traditionalists…don’t mess with a BBA Russian Imperial Stout unless you’re sure it’s gonna come off. Unfortunately this one hasn’t.