Monday Night Brewing of Atlanta, Georgia has rolled out an interesting brew - a Russian Imperial Stout that has been brewed with hazelnuts from Georgia (the country next to Russia, not the state). I am going into Georgian Imperial hoping for the complexity I enjoy in a good RIS as well as hopefully actually tasting the hazelnuts. What can I say, but if I grab a Ritter or some other fancy chocolate bar, I will commonly search out one with hazelnuts. To say I had high hopes for this beer is not overstating things.
My patience to allow the chilled bomber to warm up was not so great, so when I poured out my first glass and didn't see hardly any carbonation, I reached for my thermometer and found the beer at 46.5 degrees, quite a bit cooler than recommended. I decided to go ahead and give it a drink. At this temperature, I mostly smelled dark chocolate and dark roast coffee...maybe some nuttiness. The aroma was kinda faint. The taste was mostly coffee with a slight dark fruit in the finish. This made is mostly one-note with a swirl of that dark fruitiness at the end. Had I judged at this point, I would have given Georgian Imperial 3s for both smell and taste. I set the glass down and did a quick chore.
A little while later, I poured a second glass and this time it was up to 55 degrees. What a difference that temperature shift made! The warmer temperature brought out the nuts when I took a sniff. It is mostly coffee with nuts and the chocolate is in the mix. When I take a sip, it is very smooth and creamy blend of the coffee, chocolate, and nuts. But I can't say that I distinctly taste the hazelnuts at this point, either. It is yummy, but am feeling a little disappointment that I couldn't get a hazelnut taste that stood out. Despite the lack of carbonation in both pours, the stout didn't feel flat at all. There was enough tickle on my tongue to maintain textural interest. Mostly, though, this felt like a thick hot chocolate on my tongue.
I vacuum corked the remainder of the bottle and put it into the fridge for the night. The next evening I pulled it out and poured a final glass. Georgian Imperial looks basically the same. The smell was nuttier than I recall from the night before. The taste, however, had an even bigger change. On the second day, the beer had a greater complexity of taste. Coffee and chocolate were there and this time was joined by a definite hazelnut flavor and the dark fruit finish I had originally tasted in the finish permeated the whole sip. While it isn't up there with Old Rasputin and some other RISs I've had with lots of complexity, the second day serving hit closer to what I was hoping this would be like. Maybe this is an indication that a growler may be a better option than a bomber for bringing Georgian Imperial home. Maybe it should be fully decanted from the bomber upon opening.
I highly recommend Monday Night Brewing's Georgian Imperial to anyone who enjoys stouts. I certainly plan to buy more of this whenever it is released again and would consider aging this next time, too.
