Avery The Czar Imperial Stout review

I tend to get a little excited every time I get to try an imperial stout and when I saw a bottle of Avery Brewing's The Czar Imperial Stout on my local store shelf I just grinned ear to ear. This time of year I'm very partial to the dark brew and I'll almost never say no to one, particularly from Avery.

The Czar is a strong brew indeed and is clocked at 10.77% ABV. It is also a brew worthy of a vintage year. I've started to see more and more big beers marked with a "vintage" year as this may be one that you would consider putting an extra bottle away for a year or two. But for tonight, I decided 2008 was a good enough year for me and the heck with waiting.

Avery pours extremely dark, yet you'll most likely see some dark rusty red highlights on the edges of your glass. This brew was opened cold and poured with a thin tan head. Typically, I can drink dark stouts like this at most any temperature from 40 degrees up to about 65, but I'd prefer to have it slightly below room temperature.

Immediately upon pouring, I could smell a huge aroma of alcohol right up front. Along with the whiff of ABV, I could pick out the wonderful scents of chocolate, coffee, black licorice and hops. I let the brew sit in a wide mouth pint glass for several minutes before tasting. I find that as an imperial stout warms, the flavors and aromas really start coming out big time.

After about 5 minutes of anxious waiting, I took the first sip. Wow. There was a very noticeable hop hit in the middle of the taste. I had swirled the brew around in my mouth to get the full sensation. Hops everywhere! This was definitely a newly bottled batch that's for sure. Typically in a big brew like this the hop affect will mellow over time but since this bottle was just born a couple of weeks ago there was still an abundance of hoppiness there. Bitter brew but good.

Along with the hops there was a taste of roasted coffee, caramel malts and a bit of sweet molasses. There is also a sense of dark fruits in this beer, perhaps of raisins or currants. I noticed that this beer didn't give me an initial warming effect right away like other big beers of the style have. It took a good 1/3 of a glass before all of the rich tastes started coming out and numbing down the hop affect.

By the 2nd glass out of this 22oz bomber, the warming affect finally started kicking in. I could really start feeling it now. I figure that consuming the entire bottle was the equivalent of 4 regular beers. Woah. This brew packs a punch that hits you with a delayed reaction. I suggest having this beer close to home as you definitely don't want to drive after experiencing this big brew.

I've got a soft spot for Imperial Stouts and Avery's The Czar is definitely classified as one of the best in it's class. I'm giving this beer a very big Thumbs Up and a recommendation to stock up a couple of bottles for your beer cellar. Does anyone have a 2007 bottle sitting in their cellar? If so, I'd love to hear what you thought of it after a year.

Related articles:
- Avery Ellie's Brown Ale review.
- Avery White Rascal review.
- Avery Salvation review.
- Avery Hog Heaven review.
- Avery Collaboration Not Litigation Ale review.
- Avery Fifteen Anniversary Ale review.
- Avery The Reverend review.
- Avery The Kaiser Imperial Oktoberfest review.
- Avery Ale to the Chief review.
- Avery Redpoint Ale review.

This article came from FermentedlyChallenged.com
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