This beer was brewed to celebrate the 25th anniversary of brewing by Alaskan Brewing Company. It was initially released into the wild in September of 2011
And this “limited edition Imperial Stout is brewed with glacier-fed water, birch syrup from the Alaska Birch Syrup Co., fireweed honey from BeeAlaskan Apiaries, brown sugar and an array of different malts including malted oats and a dash of our world famous alder-smoked malt”
Let’s see how the years have treated this rarity from up north…….The initial aroma is full of that alder-smoked malt almost to the point of bacon. The aroma is, quite frankly, a bit off putting. Some beers you just get sucked into and this one is doing the opposite. The taste is considerably better. The combo of the syrup and honey goes a long way to ameliorating the smoke notes.
The texture is quite smooth and for a Russian Imperial Stout surprisingly light. The combination of the sweet and the alder almost make for a minty type aftertaste. I double checked the BJCP Off Flavor Flash Cards to double check myself and see if the cellaring had gone sideways but from what I can tell, this probably hasn’t run into trouble. It may just be that the sweetness has faded more quickly than the alder smoke, unbalancing the beer.
I let the beer warm up a bit and the flavors did drop a notch in intensity with some licorice notes adding in as well. And my overall rating rose based on that fact. But it still is quite the Alaskan Rauch to it. I just wish it had a bit more muscular malt body and an easier hand on the smoke to balance the competing flavors. As it is, this is not one of my favorites.
Verdict? I have never had this beer before so I do not have a benchmark. I was darned lucky to find this on sale a year or so later. I would say that there wasn’t any issue with where I bought it nor with the aging but it would be interesting to see how this beer gets reviewed in years to come as others pull their bottles out of their cellar.