Lagunitas Cruising with Ruben and The Jets

I picked up a bottle of Lagunitas Cruising with Ruben and The Jets ale last week and decided to crack it open today. I see most websites listing it as a Imperial Stout. The bottle makes reference to an ale but that is it. It is dark, roasty with a brown head so IS it is. This is much more complex that most Imperial Stouts I run into. Very spicy taste with a good bit of sweet raisins in the nose. Very little of the roasted nose that I would expect. There is a roast to the taste but this is almost secondary to the spicy sweetness. It does have what I would call a Lagunitas quality to it, probably from the use of a proprietary yeast strain. It is interesting enough to keep my attention, but not something I would seek out.

Just wanted to note that I purchased my tickets to the Mark Haugan Birthday Beer Bash 2009 aka Mesa Strong Beer Fest. They are holding it at the end of Feb (day before my B-Day) this year. Lagunitas should be there with tastes of Maximus if I so desire. Some great breweries are announced and I can't wait to post about them. Check back in a month. Next up for homebrewing is the Belgian blonde. Look for me to brew this next weekend or the weekend after.