Stone Brewing Co. - Espresso Imperial Russian Stout

It's finally Friday! I don't know about the rest of you but this weekend has been absolutely shitty. It seemed to have dragged on forever and it just seemed to be filled with a little bit extra bullshit. Clearly, someone wanted us to suffer this week.

But enough about the week! It's the weekend! Time to let loose. Time to crack open some beers and wake up tomorrow not knowing our own names or where we left our pants. OK. Maybe that's just me. Oh well.

So tonight I'm drinking another "odd year" release from Stone. One of my previous reviews was the Smoked Old Guardian. Tonight we've got the Espresso Imperial Russian Stout which is just like the name says. It's their awesome IRS brewed with Espresso. So let's get this opened and get into it!

The Espresso IRS comes in at 11% abv and poured out a pitch black color with a really creamy looking slightly mocha head. Not as dark as some but definitely not white or even off white. There was about 2 fingers worth and it's sticking around nicely. Once it starts to dissipate it leaves behind a really sticky lacing. This looks like a really nice russian stout. Let's get the nose.

First thing I notice on this beer is the espresso. It's very prominent up front. It's not over powering though but you can't miss it. Right behind that I'm getting some nice chocolate malt characters and some regular coffee. There's quite a bit of dark fruits here too. Most notably, figs and dates. I'm picking up more chocolate. Bitter dark chocolate, creamy milk chocolate, maybe some cocoa nibs too. I'm picking up a slight hint of alcohol. At 11% that's nothing surprising. This beer smells fantastic. Let's do some drinking guys.

Right away you get hit with espresso, just like the nose. It's rich and bitter. I like it a lot. That bitterness lingers throughout the entire mouth. Exactly how it should be. There's a creamy chocolate I'm picking up that does a nice job getting that bitterness all the way across the palate. I'm getting some darker chocolate in the middle of the mouth. Just a lot of espresso bitterness throughout. It's really nice. Back end I'm picking up some tobacco and dates. There's a slight nutty character at the back end. Sort of reminds me of a walnut flavor. It's pretty over powered by the espresso bitterness but as things settle I'm getting hints of that nutty character.

Overall, this is really nice. I've seen a few reviews on Youtube and read a few things here and there about people getting bottles that are very subtle on the espresso. Honestly, this bottle is not lacking the espresso at all. It really makes the Stone IRS a different beer. I'm a big fan of the regular IRS and this is right there with it. This is totally different though. The Espresso in my bottle just really transforms this beer. So needless to say, pick this up if you can find it. Shouldn't be too difficult.

Rating: A