Cisco Brewers - Island Reserve - Russian Imperial Stout

One good beer I brought home from NH was all I had on Monday because I got cheap on myself when I visited a beer store up that way over the past weekend. I stopped in a distributor on Sunday, on my way home from the Sixth Annual NE Bloggershoot, and hemmed and hawed over the decent selection they had available of local New England beers. I had never before seen some of the beers and ales they had for sale and it was a tough decision. I finally decided on two bottle of Cisco Brewers, Island reserve, Russian Imperial Stout. The bottles each contained 1 pint, 9.4 fluid ounces of beer that was 13% alcohol.

I am someone who enjoys good to excellent biers, ales, stouts and such but certainly am not much of a connoisseur (nor any sort of Frenchman). Still though, I will describe it in my own way. As for the color, I will say the color was really dark brown. Others might say it looked like melted dark chocolate or that it had the color of dark roasted coffee beans, but that kind of a description is mostly not for me. Suffice it to say it was really dark brown. The consistency was a bit creamy. The head was decent and grew slowly after I poured up to the fill line in the glass (German bier glass that has about an inch and a half beyond that line). As for the taste, I cannot, and even if I could, I would not, tell you that it had hints of mocha, dark chocolate, raspberries and honey or any frilliness like that. What I will say about the flavor was that it tasted to me just like it should taste - like a nice dark stout, not very hoppy but mm-mm good. It went well with dinner. I liked it and would rate it a 7 out of 10.

Really though, to rate it properly, I would need to have had at least two or three more of them because in order to rate an alcoholic beverage one of the most important factors beyond taste is the buzz factor. I am pretty sure though, at 13%, three or four of them would have had me blasted. Just the one certainly took off the edge quite nicely.

Shame on me for not buying at least 4 of them, two for me and two for my son and shame on me for not buying at least two of three other types of beers local to New England. Next time I have the opportunity, I think I will do just that.

All the best,
Glenn B