Oliphant Undiscovered Worlds

Oliphant Undiscovered Worlds Russian Imperial Stout. 9.5% ABV. Oliphant Brewing, Somerset, Wisconsin.

This is one purchased some months ago, and left in the fridge until now. Should I have saved it longer? Maybe next time, I just had to taste it. If I remember right, though, I did try it on tap on the day of purchase, and I recall enjoying my glass quite a bit. Now, to crack the mini-growler.

Dark as sin, roasted brown head above.

Spills out the darkest aromatics, teeming from the glass. On closer inspection, roast and toast, cocoa, coffee and cream, lush and delicious in the nose.

Now, to drink it up: Nicely even-ly balanced RIS. Not too overboard, fine and mellow. Full-bodied but not over-powering. Plenty of malt, but not too boozy. A mere 9.5%. A pushover. Some smoke and tobacco.

This one can be safely called a middle-of-the-road RIS. Not too big, not too little. Yeah, you could wish it to be bigger and ballsier, but it is what it is, and what it is is just fine. Although, yeah, I'm yearning for just a bit more, here and there. I picture this one as a preamble to something greater on the horizon.

Undiscovered Worlds as sampled at the taproom.

Like many of the beers at Oliphant, the name comes from a sketch out of the Wareheim and Heidecker ouvre, the same one as Tittleman's Crest and Graumann's Center. They're calling this the Universe Series.