THE prevailing colour of St Patrick’s Day may be green, but black gives it a close run for its money in the festive stakes. This is the time when I usually tell you that stout is actually more of a traditionally English drink but this time, we’re going further east for our beer history lesson.
Yes, porters and stouts were popular in 18th century London and a Russian diplomat wanted to bring some of these new beers back to his homeland to impress the Empress Catherine the Great. Stout, which was essentially a more robust version of porter, proved a big hit with Catherine – so much so that a London brewer made a stout especially for her.
It had to have a high alcohol content for it to survive the long journey to Russia and so the Russian Imperial Stout was born.
More generally referred to as imperial stout nowadays, Whitewater have embraced the eastern influence with their new take on the style, Krem De La Kremlin. For a start, the can design has a distinctly Russian feel to it and, at 10.5 per cent abv, a 330ml serving is just plenty.
Now, I had this one in the fridge for a good while before cracking it open but it definitely benefits from being raised to room temperature.
On the pour it is jet black with a thin tan-coloured head. It fires off aromas of coffee and bitter chocolate, with a hint of syrupy sweetness. On the palate, there are some sweet malty, bready flavours before that smooth coffee kicks in.
At this stage my beer was still pretty cold in the glass, but as it warmed up there also hints of maple syrup and it is slightly vinous. The strength doesn’t even try to hide itself, but there is still a pretty smooth mouthfeel.
Of course, this one’s a bit of a sipper, given the strength, which contributes to nice warming feeling inside. No sooner had I got to the bottom of it than I discovered that Whitewater had just snuck out a limited-edition version of this brew which has been aged in Irish whiskey barrels.
A lovely black stout, with a red influence, Krem De La Kremlin is a great way to celebrate the ‘greening’ which goes with St Patrick’s Day.
