Smutty Nose Imperial Stout

JeffPorter · Post by **JeffPorter** » Wed Jan 28, 2015 3:03 pm

A: Near Black, thin mocha head that fades quickly and leave a nice ring.

N: floral hoppiness, mixed with coffee, chocolate, and treacle. Black licorice. Something weird in the very back - gasoline, but not in a bad way - like the almost pleasant fumes when my dad used to put gas in the boat at the lake.

P: Herbal hops are up front followed by the chocolate, coffee "stout" flavours. Full, rich, creamy mouth feel - creme brulee -ish, with the burnt sugar. Carbonation is middle of the road, and spot on for all the other flavours.

Very little roast bitterness in the finish, but rather a nice puckering drying effect that I can't pinpoint right now.

It's like a dessert that has a savoury element buried in it - like a vanilla ice cream with tarragon or thyme mixed in.

This is what I imagine imperial stouts should taste like, but don't think I've really tasted it until now. Everything is big and bold. The hops are assertive but so is the malt. So many pieces, but no one element is shouting out, everything works together so musically, which I find more rare these days. It's like, well, a choir, I guess, as silly as that sounds.

It's one of the most complex stouts I think I've ever had. I'm 1/2 a glass in and feel like I haven't really "figured it out" yet - Going to cork it and go back to it later tonight.

spinrsx · Post by **spinrsx** » Tue Feb 03, 2015 8:41 pm

Drinking this now, holy crap is it ever good!

Jay-Brew · Post by **Jay-Brew** » Wed Feb 04, 2015 6:49 am

Picked up four of these and considering more given the positive feedback. Curious about the best by of October 28, 2015, thing though. I would think these can be aged for some time. Thoughts on why Smuttynose is going with such a short best by period? Also, curious if these were packaged in October and we are now just getting them three months later.

spinrsx · Post by **spinrsx** » Wed Feb 04, 2015 9:32 am

The smuttynose has a lot of hop taste to it - it almost drinks like a black IPA. I bet the early best before is just to ensure people taste the beer the way smuttynose intended it to be - hoppy. That's not to say that you can't age it longer and the hops fade.

Jay-Brew wrote:Picked up four of these and considering more given the positive feedback. Curious about the best by of October 28, 2015, thing though. I would think these can be aged for some time. Thoughts on why Smuttynose is going with such a short best by period? Also, curious if these were packaged in October and we are now just getting them three months later.

Jay-Brew · Post by **Jay-Brew** » Wed Feb 04, 2015 7:32 pm

Thanks! I'll be sure to have one soon and not let all of them age....

midlife crisis · Post by **midlife crisis** » Mon Mar 02, 2015 6:30 pm

spinrsx wrote:The smuttynose has a lot of hop taste to it - it almost drinks like a black IPA. I bet the early best before is just to ensure people taste the beer the way smuttynose intended it to be - hoppy. That's not to say that you can't age it longer and the hops fade.

I'll say. This has a lot of hops. Not a bad thing, but as you say it almost has elements of a black IPA, or a black IIPA if there is such a thing.

I'd be interested in the opinion of one of our experts in the history of RIS, such as Gary. I would imagine a ton of hops were used in this beer in the 19th Century, as a preservative for the long voyage to the Tsar. Perhaps this is what it would have tasted like if drunk relatively young.

Quite good, in any event.

Jay-Brew · Post by **Jay-Brew** » Mon Mar 02, 2015 7:25 pm

Had my first one of these last night. I actually thought too that it made me think more of a black IPA. I didn't feel like I was drinking an imperial stout so much. I think with this one I'll enjoy it more with some age it. Have a few I'll let go for a while.

G.M. Gillman · Post by **G.M. Gillman** » Tue Mar 03, 2015 10:41 am

Will try this soon and offer comments, interesting reviews to date. The tarragon and black IPA references make me think PNW hops are a signature in the beer, which is relatively unusual for the style even in the States.

Gary

G.M. Gillman · Post by **G.M. Gillman** » Wed Mar 04, 2015 6:17 pm

Finally caught up with this and glad I did guvs. This is a classic English-style Imperial Stout, rich and pure-tasting, with enough hops to stand up the gravity and the heavy flavour. Imperial Stout classically used 7-9 lbs hops per barrel (36 gallons), which is well over 100 IBUs, not sure what this one has but it proves that very strong stout can hardly be over-hopped - you just need it to make the beer taste right. Also, this level of hopping will assist aging: the beer now is young and in a year or two would probably show further complexity especially a winy or estery note.

I don't get a PNW character, or very little, this is English in style IMO. The sweet malty/cocoa notes still dominate despite the strong hopping, as it should be.

It's one of the best U.S. ones I've had and certainly on a par with the best UK I've had (Kernel's double stout, Harvey's Le Coq, Wells Young Imperial Russian). Similar in character as well - the roast malt richness - to Carnegie porter and Sinebrychoff stout albeit the latter are 5 and 7% or so respectively under modern Scandinavian conditions.

I must say too, without meaning to sound querulous, that when you get an Imperial Stout of this quality, it really shows why the stuff made with coffee or chocolate or chile (etc.) is not in the same league.

Gary

midlife crisis · Post by **midlife crisis** » Wed Mar 04, 2015 8:26 pm

Appreciate that excellent review, thanks. I wondered whether, in your opinion, the historic English RIS would have had a similar hop profile (when young at least). You're certainly right that it's almost impossible to over-hop this style, as the underlying flavours are so big and bold. I think I'm definitely going to age a few to see what happens next.

G.M. Gillman · Post by **G.M. Gillman** » Wed Mar 04, 2015 10:34 pm

Absolutely English RIS would have had a similar hop profile (IMO). The profile was one that did not, like pale ale, say, offer a big hop bouquet but rather an incisive bitterness.

Gary

G.M. Gillman · Post by **G.M. Gillman** » Thu Mar 05, 2015 8:20 am

The character of this mid-1800's export stout, albeit it is 7-8% ABV, would be similar to the character of the best modern Imperial stout:

http://barclayperkins.blogspot.ca/2011/ ... xport.html

If you read Kristen England's "taste note" for the recreation, I think one can see close connections to the quality many of the best ones have today. As Ron Pattinson notes, over 8 lbs hops were used for a brew of this gravity. One can easily forecast, and I have seen numbers in other articles by Ron to support it, that a 10% ABV gravity as Smuttynose achieved could entail (in this period) 10 lbs hops per barrel or more.

The Smuttynose doesn't have a winey or figgy quality but I think it might easily achieve this with a year in the bottle or more.

(The Truman stouts used brown malt, something that is not always available or used today and I'm not sure what Smuttynose used for dark malts but they got a great result).

Ron also has a 1914 Courage Russian Imperial Stout recipe elsewhere on the blog, easy to find by a search, which did hit that 10% range. The taste description is similar to what you find from the Truman Export. By 1914, the hop rates had reduced somewhat but this is something that varied over time albeit generally in a downward direction, influenced by the fact that beers were not stored (in general) as long as they used to be and also adoption of mechanical refrigeration including for hops themselves. Nonetheless classic export/Imperial/foreign stout was always notably bitter, it was part of the profile.

Gary

G.M. Gillman · Post by **G.M. Gillman** » Thu Mar 05, 2015 1:07 pm

From one of Ron Pattinson's recent books, a neat capsule of Imperial Stouts from Barclay Perkins and Truman in 1848-1850.

https://books.google.ca/books?id=mRnLAg ... ut&f=false

Estimated IBUs are 200 for the Barclay Perkins and 148 for the other, which Ron calls "lunatic".

Both are circa-10% ABV.

I looked at some mash details from 2002 for the Smuttynose and IMO the malt bill, despite using some malts not available in 1850, like crystal malt, basically is very similar: a blend of pale, amber, brown and/or black malt. Same general ballpark. Not sure again of the Smuttynose IBUs but they are up there. The 2002 spec states Cascade hops are included, but I don't get a citric character if they are still used, the PNW aroma in general is absent or subdued.

This is why I feel the beer is very close to what a classic Impy was, but also, it is based on tasting it and some great European ones over the years including some of the craft examples from Scandinavia we've seen at LCBO lately. You get a sense after a while what the classic palate was but also by reading various period descriptions. There is one from the 1960's of Courage RIS which uses terms like velvety rich, sweet, bitter tang of hops, smells like a Burgundy.

Gary