REVIEW #32: Emelisse Imperial Russian Stout (Bierbrouwerij Emelisse)

Pours jet black with honeycomb head. Rich, tar-like chocolate and pungent cocoa and blackstrap molasses on the nose. Initial chocolate cream, orange and honey notes blend with a digestive biscuit, woody, oaken taste. Curiously this beer seems lighter in body than many others of the style, perhaps due to a lack of unmalted barley in the mix. For what it lacks in body it makes up for in taste; with an intensely drying, hazelnut finish. The finish is something special in its potency; the alcohol and phenolic notes almost makes one gasp for breath!

Bierbrouwerij Emelisse is a brewery in the heart of Zealand, the western most province of Holland. However they use little in the way of Dutch produce in their beers; for example they use Belgian water, foreign hops (often New World) and proclaim Dutch barley unsuitable for their heavier beers. The use of the Amarillo hop variety in their Imperial Russian Stout is interesting as it has a distinct orange citrus flavour whilst being of intermediate bitterness. Its well known that chocolate and orange complement each other wonderfully so perhaps this is an angle the brewer's were going for.

• MALTS: PALE, CARAMEL, OAT MALT, biscuit malt, roasted malt, 

• HOPS: AMARILLO
• IBU: ?
• ABV: 11%`
• aLSO CONTAINS HONEY

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