Recently in B+ Category

How to put this... Do you ever get that not so fresh feeling? This is a common beer nerd trope, so I won't harp on it too much, but it's something I've become much more attuned to over the past year or so. It's especially pernicious when it comes to beers that rely heavily on hops, but it's hardly limited to IPAs and the like. Take this Russian Imperial Stout from Dock Street, which was aged for a year on Hungarian red wine barrels (which were previously used to age a barleywine), then further aged for about 2 years in the bottle (well, technically, it was first released in 2010, but I bought my bottle in 2012). I really wish I'd gotten to try a fresh bottle of this stuff, because I'm positive that it would have blown me away. As it is, I was pretty well impressed, but it's definitely showing its age. I mean, you can pretty much tell what you're in for just by looking at the stuff:

Dock Street Oak Aged Prince Myshkin RIS

Dock Street Oak Aged Prince Myshkin's Russian Imperial Stout - Pours a thick, gloopy black color with an almost imperceptible head, just the faintest ring of light brown on the edge of the glass. Smells utterly fantastic, rich caramel, vanilla, and oak. There's a fruity character too, almost like port. The oak is so nice that if I didn't know better, I'd think bourbon was involved. Tastes follows suit with rich caramel, a less prominent but still present vanilla and oak, some dark chocolate, and a trace of bitter roasted malt in the finish. Alas, its age comes out in the mouthfeel, which is definitely way too low on the carbonation, but otherwise full bodied, thick, and chewy. It was certainly drinkable, and I put down the whole 750 without much of a thought, but if this were a bit more carbonated, it would have been sublime. As it is, it feels thinner than it should. For now, I'll hit it with a B+, though it was probably way up in the A range when fresh.

Beer Nerd Details: 9.5% ABV bottled (750 ml capped). Drank out of a snifter on 2/22/13.

Least you think I'm just wanking about this old beer crap, I was reminded to hit up my Dock Street stash last week when Rich on Beer noted that this BA Myshkin was definitely getting a little long in the tooth. And it looks like his beer didn't have quite the carbonation problems mine did - his picture even displays some semblance of head! That or Rich is more tolerant of low carbonation in his beer, which is certainly possible. I've noticed this is something that bothers me more than most. Anywho, I've actually got a few other Dock Street beers in the cellar, including the 2009 barleywine that was in these Pinot Noir barrels before Myshkin and some funky sours too, though none are in the immediate pipeline.

La Biere Des Amis

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Back in November, I went to a Dock Street bottle release and loaded up on bottles... and despite some Thanksgiving shenanigans, I haven't dipped into my stash since then. Well, it's about time we change that, isn't it?

This beer, a sessionable saison, is a collaboration between Dock Street Brewer Scott Morrison and Daniel Thiriez, the owner and brewer of a French brewery called, oddly enough, Thiriez. They claim it's the first US-French collaboration on American soil, and why wouldn't it be? Insert French joke here.

So how did this "beer of friends" turn out?

Dock Street and Thiriez La Biere Des Amis

Dock Street and Brasserie Thiriez La Biere Des Amis - Pours a very pretty, light golden yellow color with a couple fingers of fluffy head, great retention, and plenty of lacing. Smells of spicy belgian yeast, pepperery with a nice bready character too. The taste is sweet and spicy, classic Belgian yeast profile here, very well balanced flavors. Mouthfeel is well carbonated, crisp, refreshing, and dry. Clocking in at 4.5% ABV, this is a compulsively drinkable beer. It's not going to melt anyone's face, but it might raise an eyebrow here or there, and it's making a great accompaniment to my sushi dinner tonight. B+

Beer Nerd Details: 4.5% ABV bottled (750 ml capped). Drank out of a goblet on 2/22/13.

And the Dock Street jamboree continues tomorrow with a 3 year old barrel aged brew. Stay tuned.

Barrel Aged B.O.R.I.S.

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Cleaning cellar, I am. As such, I'm finding these bottles of barrel aged brews I bought last fall and wondering why in the world I didn't drink the damn things. This is another whiskey barrel aged brew from those weirdly proportioned cartoon froggies from Ohio. I've had the base beer before and loved it, but this barrel aged version seems a bit off balance at this point. I loved their BA Naked Evil Barleywine, so maybe I was expecting too much this one:

Hoppin Frog Barrel Aged B.O.R.I.S.

Hoppin Frog Barrel Aged B.O.R.I.S. - Pours a gloopy, used motor oil black color with the faintest whisper of brown head. Smells of whisky, oak, vanilla, caramel, and chocolate, a winning combo right there. The taste has a big sweetness, that caramel is there but it's complemented by some actual roast character, chocolate, and of course, whisky, oak, vanilla. Finishes with a slightly bitter roasted malt note. Mouthfeel is full bodied, but not as thick and gloopy as I expected from the pour. A little undercarbonated here, but it's not completely unpalatable either. Overall, a solid BA stout, but not blowing me away. B+

Beer Nerd Details: 9.4% ABV bottled (22 oz bomber). Drank out of a snifter on 2/16/13.

Again, would like to try me a fresh one (and maybe even sample that base beer again sometime). There's a few other variants of this stout, though who knows when I'll get to those!

Cigar City Capricho Oscuro - Batch 3

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Capricho Oscuro means "Dark Whim" and it's a series of barrel-aged, blended beers Cigar City put out once a year. What we've got here is Batch #3, released in 2009, and it's comprised of three Cigar City mainstays (Bolita Double Nut Brown Ale, Big Sound Scotch Ale, and Improvisacion Oatmeal Rye India-Style Brown Ale), blended "to perfection" (their words) and aged in Makers Mark barrels. Best-brewer-name-ever Wayne Wambles sez that this batch was meant to age a bit longer than other batches, as he wanted big barrel notes. Did he succeed? There is only one way to find out! This vintage, brewery-only, limited release comes to me by way of Dave, the proprietor of the most excellent Drunken Polack blog, so big thanks are owed to him!

Cigar City Capricho Oscuro

Cigar City Capricho Oscuro - Batch 3 - Pours a dark brown color with a finger of quickly subsiding tan head. Smells of bourbon, oak, vanilla, and fruity malts (that Scotch ale character is coming through)... Taste is very sweet, big malt backbone, light toasted malt, with that oaky bourbon vanilla emerging towards the finish. As it warms, the bourbon asserts itself even more. Complex flavors, perhaps showing its age and not as well balanced as it could be, but on the other hand, it's still really damn tasty. Mouthfeel is full bodied, well carbonated, not really dry, but no stickiness either. For a big, barrel-aged blend, this is going down pretty easy. Some pleasant warming from the alcohol, which I'm guessing is in the 9-10% range. Overall, a really good beer that I suspect was better when fresh, but has held up remarkably well. B+

Beer Nerd Details: Unknown ABV (Kaedrin SWAG estimate: 9% ABV) bottled (12 oz). Drank out of a snifter on 2/9/13. Bottled 2009, Batch #3, Bottle 454/480.

Dave sent me a whole box of goodies, so be on the lookout for some more obscure brews coming soon, including some more Cigar City. Super excited about some of those brews!

Drake's Jolly Rodger

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Historically, the Jolly Rodger is a flag flown by pirates to frighten their victims into surrendering without a fight. The most common said flag featured a skull and crossbones, obvious symbols of death (other variants included full skeletons and things like hourglasses, all symbols of death). Due to the decline in piracy in modern times, the symbol has shifted somewhat. After some prissy British Admiral described submarines as "underhanded, unfair, and damned un-English", a bunch of wiseass British sailors fashioned themselves a Jolly Rodger after a successful mission, and thus the Jolly Rodger began its continuing career as a military insignia.

These days, the Jolly Rodger seems to have been taken up by incessant copyright infringers, making "Talk like a Pirate day" into just a bunch of discussions about where to download new releases. It also seems that the Jolly Rodger has been pressed into service to help sell beer, so there's that too. It seems that Drake's Brewing out in California has utilized the Jolly Rodger for their annual Holiday seasonal. Each year is a different style, and this year's is a good ol' fashioned American barleywine. Be still my heart. Thanks to Jay for sending this my way! Ok, that's enough babbling, let's fire up µTorrent, download some porn movies, sink a Nazi vessel, fly our Jolly Rodger, and drink some beer:

Drakes Jolly Rodger

Drake's Jolly Rodger American Barleywine 2012 - Pours a dark amber brown color with nice robey tones and a finger of whitish head. Smells of piney, resinous hops, with some crystal malts and maybe a little vanilla. Taste is surprisingly bitter, plenty of those piney hops, light malt, some booze, and did I mention bitter? It's not disagreeably bitter or anything, I just wasn't expecting it. Mouthfeel is relatively heavy, but it goes down smooth. Bit of a hot boozy feel, but again, not disagreeable. Overall, it won't sink Nazi ships or scare beer drinkers into surrendering, but it's a solid American Barleywine, hoppy and bitter, and I likey. B+

Beer Nerd Details: 9.6% ABV bottled (22 oz. bomber). Drank out of a snifter on 2/8/13.

Drake's has a pretty small footprint, so I probably won't be stumbling across any more of their stuff anytime soon, but they seem to make some nice IPAs and they have this thing called a "barrel house" which sounds rather nice. In any case, I've got more trade booty coming, and, you know, local stuff too.

February Beer Club

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Yeah, so I'm still running dry on beer puns. Fortunately, there's a pretty good chance you don't care about that, so I'll just explain that Beer club is a meeting of beer minded individuals from my work who get together for a meal and lots-o-beer once a month. It ended up being a rather small gathering this month, with just the core group showing up... and yet, plenty of fantastic beer was had by all.

Beer Club February 2013
(Click for bigger image)

Despite the less than ideal conditions, I'm going to record my thoughts on each sampled beer. For posterity! Yeah, the sip test is often unreliable, so take this with a giant boulder of gourmet sea salt, you nerd (he sez, as if it's a bad thing). Roughly in order of tasting (not necessarily the order in the above picture):

  • Samuel Smith's Organic Lager - Pretty standard Euro-lager affair here, though perhaps a higher quality version of such. Nice noble hoppiness and a surprising yeast character (nowhere near a Belgian strain, but it did add character to an otherwise normal beer). B
  • Eagle Rock Jubilee - One of my contributions for the night, or should I say, it's actually Jay's contribution, as this was part of our trade. I figured I shouldn't hog all of it to myself, though perhaps I should have, as this was reallly good. Smooth, creamy, spiced but not harshly so, this was a beauty. They call it a spiced old ale, but it feels a whole lot like a winter warmer and heck, let's just call it good beer. Beer Club crowd seemed mighty impressed as well. A-
  • Cisco Lady of the Woods - My other contribution, I liked it so much the first time, that I just had to share another with everyone else. I'm always surprised at how well received sour beers are by the Beer Club crowd, though perhaps I shouldn't be. I tend to call this beer club, but it originally began as beer and wine club, and this beer certainly has a nice Chardonnay character that turned some heads. Still an A by my reckoning...
  • Heavy Seas Black Cannon - One of them semi-local Maryland breweries, this wound up being a very solid black IPA. Beautiful nose, slight roasted malt character dominated by piney, resinous hops and maybe a bit of citrus. Alas, the taste didn't quite hold up, though again, still a very solid beer. B
  • Flying Fish Grand Cru Winter Reserve - Hoo boy, I hope you like clove, cause they must have packed this thing to the gills with cloves. Fortunately, I do like that, though the beer is pretty straightforward otherwise. B
  • Ommegang Three Philosophers - One of my long time favorites, just as good as ever. Fancy new label, too...
  • Heavy Seas Bourbon Barrel Aged Siren Noire - Holy chocolate milk, Batman! Seriously, like drinking slightly boozy yoohoo. Not getting much bourbon at all, though perhaps it's contributing to the almost creamy, vanilla character that goes so well with the chocolate flavors that dominate this beer. Really enjoyable and perhaps the most interesting beer of the night, if not exactly the best. B+
  • BrewDog Tokyo* - Another beer I've had before, this thing is a total monster. Clocking in at over 18% ABV, it's a pretty potent beer, though the solid malt backbone and addition of cranberries and jasmine help even that out a bit. Still a B+ in my book.
And with that, we had to cut things a bit short. A few sad beers were left unopened, but it was starting to snow and we didn't want to crack open that bottle of 14% Samichlaus (seriously, beer club compatriot Anthony brought Samichlaus and Tokyo*, which average out to somewhere around 16% ABV, pretty badass if you ask me. As a fan of older vintages of Samichlaus, I advised him to cellar this 2010 vintage until at least next Christmas and he seemed pretty excited about that prospect). So that just about covers it for this beer club. At the next beer club, my Fat Weekend IPA should be ready to go, so I'm pretty excited.

New Glarus Serendipity

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Wisconsin's own New Glarus Brewing Company has achieved a pretty fantastic reputation amongst beer nerds, especially considering that they don't actually distribute outside of their home state. Still, beers like Wisconsin Belgian Red, a beer brewed with massive amounts of local cherries and aged in oak tanks, have piqued the interests of beer nerds all over the country. Alas, last year, a severe drought caused the Wisconsin cherry crop to fail. New Glarus brewer Dan Carey took the loss in stride, improvising a new beer using whatever cherries he could scrounge and making up the difference with apples and cranberries (which fared better during the drought). The result has been almost as well received as Wisconsin Belgian Red, and they've been calling this beer Serendipity, the "Happy Accident Fruit Ale".

New Glarus Serendipity

New Glarus Serendipity - Pours a striking, bright, clear amber color (robey tones, so much clarity) with a finger of off white head. Smells of straight up fruit juice and cherry fruit roll ups, a combo that actually works well enough. The taste is sugary sweet, lots of fruity character, maybe more cranberry flavor coming out here than the nose, but not quite the lunchtime snackfood flavor implied by the nose (this is a good thing). That fruit is a little tart, but nothing approaching real sourness. Mouthfeel is smooth but very well carbonated, which helps cut through the sweetness, though you do get a sticky sweet kinda finish. Still, it's easy drinker, bright and crisp. This doesn't taste much like beer. It's kinda like one of them fancy designer fruit-flavored sodas, though it's definitely more complex and tasty than that. I'm actually really enjoying it, though I'm having trouble rating. As non-lambic "fruit" beers go, this is probably the best I've ever had, and as someone who normally doesn't put up with this sort of fru-fru nonsense, I have to admit I'm really liking this. So let's call it a B+ and go from there.

Beer Nerd Details: 4.0% ABV bottled (759 ml, waxed and capped). Drank out of a tulip glass on 2/8/13.

My hyped-up midwest beer stash, accrued via trade, is dwindling at this point. I've got two left, and one I'm going to be laying down for a while. The other is a Mikkeller collaboration with Three Floyds, which sounds beautiful, if you ask me. In the meantime, we've got lots of other interesting stuff, including some more trade booty. Exciting stuff is on the way. Tomorrow: beer club. Don't miss it.

Daisy Cutter Pale Ale

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Half Acre is one of them hyped up Chicago breweries, but the "Half Acre" in question actually "resides along the banks of the Delaware River in eastern PA". The Chicagoans who run Half Acre actually grew up right outside Philadelphia, which is why they started distributing a few kegs to this area before they even expanded beyond the greater Chicago area. I had this on tap a while back, but I've only recently started seeing cans of their infamous Daisy Cutter recently.

Daisy Cutter is just a lowly pale ale, but it's got a pretty rabid following, to the point where folks used to propose all sorts of absurd trades with the stuff. I get the impression that that sorta douchery has subsided a bit, but then, I just saw someone asking for Kern River Citra and listing this as a potential trade, so maybe not (though it looks like there's plenty of more reasonable trades being offered these days too). Is this beer really a midwest wale? Probably not, but it's still pretty damn good.

Half Acre Daisy Cutter

Half Acre Daisy Cutter Pale Ale - Pours a clear golden color with a finger of white head that leaves plenty of lacing as I drink. Smells of dank, piney, resinous hops, with some citrus and floral notes for good measure. Taste goes more in the floral direction than the nose, but that dank pine is still prominent with some citrus tagging along too. Nice, well matched bitterness in the finish. Mouthfeel is well carbonated, light to medium bodied, darn easy to drink. Overall, this is some great stuff for a regular ol' pale ale from Chicago. B+

Beer Nerd Details: 5.2% ABV canned (16 oz. tallboy). Drank out of a tulip glass on 1/27/13.

As pale ales go, this is a pretty solid choice, definitely something I'll get again sometime, and if Half Acre continues to distribute around here, I'll hopefully be able to snag some of their other releases.

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Hi, my name is Mark, and I like beer.

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