Old Rasputin tastes far more pure than some of the other non-flavored stouts in the tourney. The lack of sweetness is almost surprising after doing so many other tastes for this tourney, but it is by no means disappointing. This is a medium-bodied beer, not as light as the Guinness/Young’s/Samuel Smith crowd, but nowhere near the weight of the Ten FIDY group. It has a fair amount of carbonation, and it maintains its espresso-colored head fairly well. Despite some other reviews I’ve read, I’m not getting much in the way of hints of chocolate or coffee. It’s entirely possible that I’m just not tasting the subtle additions after having so recently tasted things like Founders Breakfast or Brooklyn Black Chocolate where you couldn’t miss the flavors if you tried. This is a pretty pleasant stout, very good for relaxing. The aftertaste is slightly more bitter than I’d prefer, but still very satisfying. I might be imagining things, but the malt almost tastes a bit toasted in comparison to the field.
In any case, a solid beer from a solid brewery, North Coast. North Coast makes a lot of wonderful beers, from the delightfully wheaty Le Merle (a Belgian farmhouse style ale) to a handful of pale ales and even a few more stouts (definitely check out Old No. 38 if you’re a fan of the genre). They also make Brother Thelonius, a fantastic darker abbey-style ale. They’ve been around since 1988 and have won tons of awards for their craft – I recommend giving them a try. If you’re in the Mendocino Coast area of CA, stop by and see the brewery itself.
The bottle itself is quite cool. Thanks to Mark R. At North Coast for sending me some nice graphics – this is actually a photo I took that was a little easier to format for the web, but I appreciate all the help I get. I also totally dig it when I get emails from brew masters, one of the most fun parts about putting on this tourney.
Now for the prediction: this beer certainly deserves to go far. In fact, if I were as to rank them by personal preference, this would easily be in the top half of the standings, maybe even top five (BeerAdvocate ranks Rasputin 5th overall in our tournament). Unfortunately, though, as the seedings stand, Old Rasputin has a date with Oak Aged Yeti in round one – talk about a bad draw. I just don’t see it beating out one of my favorites to make it all the way into the final four. To be fair, the gurus at BeerAdvocate agree with me – they have Oak Aged Yeti at 3rd. Had we seeded the tourney by the BeerAdvocate ratings, Rasputin would get a matchup with Schlafly that I think they’d win, and then have to face Southern Tier Choklat in the next round (most likely). That one would be pretty close to a toss-up, IMHO.
Anyhow, best of luck to Old Rasputin, and sorry about the killer matchup. We’ll see how they do on Saturday!
Duff Out.
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