Episode Notes

Episode 77: Russian Imperial Stout by East Brother Beer Company in Richmond, CA

It’s the Two Minute Beer Review!

I’m Andrew Burkum and it’s that time again where we take on that massive craft brew aisle to find the hidden treasures waiting for us there.

This week we’re taking a look at Russian Imperial Stout by East Brother Beer Company in Richmond, CA. Is this one good enough to keep us warm during those long Siberian nights? Let’s find out!

By way of full disclosure up front, East Brother provided me with a sample of this beer as well as a few others that will be showing up on the show in the coming months. That won’t affect my reviews in any way, but a huge thanks to them for the samples! If you have a beer you’d like to see featured on the show be sure to drop me an email at [email protected] and I’ll let you know how you can submit it for tasting! Now on to the beer!

East Brother’s Russian Imperial is a no-nonsense beer in the glass. Just like it doesn’t need a fancy name to tell you what kind of beer it is, there’s no question about this one when you look at it. It’s as opaque as a starless night. Giving it a sniff I get all kinds of really awesome stuff. There’s baked bread in there, along with caramel, a little coffee and a touch of molasses. It smells deep and dark and warm and after the sensory overload I got here I couldn’t wait to get right into the tasting!

So what about the taste? This beer comes on strong and stays that way all the way to the end. There’s a powerful bitterness up front that is offset brilliantly by a molasses sweetness right around the back edges of my tongue. It’s thick and rich in the mouth and just drinks like an absolute dream. The balance of the flavors in East Brother’s Russian Imperial is top-notch. Because of the high ABV on this one I was expecting a strong flavor of alcohol but there’s absolutely none of that. It’s just a perfect balancing act of bitter and sweet from the beginning to the very end.

Final analysis? Give me some eggs, bacon and a glass of this beer to start my day and I’ll be ready for anything. This would also be an ideal beer to have out around the campfire with a nice cigar. It’s another Two Minute Beer Review recommendation from the folks at East Brother Beer Company. Have you tried it yet? I want to know what you think! You can let me know by emailing me at [email protected] (using the number 2), tweeting me @2minutebeer or responding on Facebook where you’ll find the live video of this episode. I want to hear what you have to say--and make sure to share the episode so others can weigh in as well! That’s all for this week, but I hope you’ll join me next week as we take a look at VIP Vanilla Imperial Porter by Great North Aleworks in Manchester, NH. Will this one get us past the velvet ropes? We’ll find out next week.

Look for links to this week’s beer and brewery in the show notes and don’t forget to subscribe to the show in your favorite podcast app and follow us on Facebook so you never miss an episode!

The Two Minute Beer Review is a part of the Phoenix Podcast Network and is brought to you by Zane-It, where you can find all the best costumes and makeup, Central Valley Youth Legal Services and Superfan Sandra Hay. If you’d like to support the show you can leave us a tip or sign up for a small monthly donation by clicking the link in the show notes or by supporting the Phoenix Creative Collective on Patreon. Our music is by Rialthos. You can find more at Rialthos.bandcamp.com. He also just launched a Kickstarter for his upcoming Lo-Fi Neo-Digital Jazz Compilation, entitled Repetition Legitimizes. Check the show notes for details on how you can contribute and get a copy!

That’s all for now but I’ll see you next week as we continue on our quest to taste all the beer!

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