There has been some talk about the price of beer on this blog, the ascent of beer to a luxury status, and the proper place of beer. For me $9 for a 4 pack is in the realm of luxury, a special occasion beer or a once a month type of beer. Unfortunately I find a lot these beers are over-hyped and are on equal grounds with or surpassed by other beers that cost around the $8 or $9 a 6 pack range. North Coast's Old Rasputin Russian Imperial Stout and Terrapin's formerly known as "Wake and Bake" stout but now simply known as their Coffee Oatmeal Imperial Stout are worth every penny of $9 in taste.
Old Rasputin is an emperor among beers. This beer's aroma is chock full of spicy alcohol over rich notes of coffee, cocoa, and burnt cherries. It wears a thick tall cocoa head over an impenetrable black base. The beer is unexpectedly dry which allows the beer’s balance to swing more towards bitterness. Powerful cocoa, roasted grains, and charcoal like flavors dominate. At 9% ABV and 75 IBUs this beer fills your mouth with a thick bubbly body but it goes down easily with scarcely any notice of the alcohol. In my opinion its many awards are well deserved.
Terrapin's Coffee Oatmeal Imperial Stout demonstrates how two beers can both be the same style but remain very different. The aroma of this one has a fairly strong coffee not that still feels like it is a lighter note riding the heavier wave of big stout rich burnt cocoa goodness. Once again the thick body that fills your mouth so wonderfully in the wintertime is present. The difference in these two beers is that the Terrapin comes across as fairly sweet though both beers run at 75 IBUs. There's no apparent hop bitterness in Terrapin's Imperial Stout, there is a touch of alcohol poking through, and a bit of chewy malt underneath the roastiness. The aftertaste contains the bitterness of strong coffee and more roasty grains. I only wonder why they dropped the fun name, "Wake and Bake" and why my local store only stocked it for one week.
Comments
Owd Müller - February 12, 2008 1:39 am
"Wake and Bake" is a cannabis culture reference. It basically means you wake up and get high (baked). I'm guessing they caught some flak and decided to change the name. Would have been nice if they could of come up with a new name that wasn't so bland.
The Beer Nut - February 12, 2008 7:00 am
Jeebus! You wouldn't get two bottles of that class of beer for CA$9 here, and you be looking at nearly twice that for a six pack of Samuel Adams or Goose Island.
It's a good job our salaries are delivered by wheelbarrow each month.
Steve - February 12, 2008 8:32 am
I heard there was a short supply of Wake-n-Bake this year due to a bottling line malfunction. Terrapin usually makes about 200 barrels of this beer, but this year they were only able to yield 120. That would explain your shop's short supply. Also, Owd, dead on with the reasoning behind the name change. Big thanks to our local GA government for keeping us safe from those words!
effus - February 12, 2008 5:04 pm
Nine USD for four beers? That sounds like a bargain! At the local supermarket a six pack of stout will me back about 40USD. A pint of lager at the pub goes for 9 to 10 USD. That's Norway for ya, and that's why we're makin' our own.
Alan - February 12, 2008 5:39 pm
Holy Moly!!! Do Norwegians get paid 300,000 USD a year on average? We in Ontario, Canada would pay 12 bucks, say, for a six-pack of McAuslen Oatmeal Stout.
Josh - February 12, 2008 11:50 pm
I figured the pot reference was the reason behind the name change. Silly beer name laws. Wasn't there a discussion of a beer having to change it's name because the name had the word "big" in it, except as in Big Al's brew for example not Big Stout.
It's just hard for me to get to these beers that cost this much when I can get a lot of different varieties of Bell's for 9 bucks a 6 pack.
Ron - December 24, 2008 2:50 am
I agree about Old Rasputin, it is top notch in my book. Its high rating will soon be on my website Beer Blitz at www.beerblitz.com. Expedition Stout by Bell's and Siberian Night by Thirsty Dog are also awesome. Here in Ohio Expedition Stout is 15 bucks a six pack, but Siberian Night is only 8 for a six pack, probably the best stout for the money ever. I am sorry to say here in Ohio at least - Old Rasputin has jumped on the "four pack" bandwagon.