The Lost Abbey

Aged Beer Jamboree

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Over the past several months, I’ve been dipping into my cellar to try out some aged beer. You may have noticed a few of these showing up on the blog already, but I’ve been keeping a running log of some of the less unique bottles I’ve opened as well. Some of these were aged intentionally, some were just sitting in the back of my fridge or in my basement for far too long. What can I say, sometimes my eyes are bigger than my liver. My cellar isn’t as insane as many you’ll see out there, but it’s getting sizable, so I sometimes try to take a break from keeping up with the new releases and check out some of these old suckers.

There’s something very romantic about aged booze, I think, but with beer it’s a bit of a dicey proposition. It’s rare that I’ve had a beer get better over time. It can certainly be different, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing, but it’s also not usually what you expect. It’s worth trying, but if you ever find yourself with a nice bottle of something that might age well, drink it fresh. If you can snag another bottle, age that. If not, just be happy you got your hands on a fresh bottle. Let’s take a closer look at some of these:

2014 Abyss

2014 Deschutes Abyss – Finally got around to drinking one of these Deschutes beers after their “Best After” date (usually a year in the future when they release the beer). Pours a deep black color with a finger of light brown head, very nice. Smell brings a lot of the non-stoutlike elements to the fore, vinous fruit, caramel, anise, liquorice, vanilla, maybe even some dank hops. Taste starts with rich caramel, moves right on to more fruity notes, followed by a wallop of dry hop bitterness. As it warms, I get hints of that roasted malt character that I found much more prominent in fresh Abyss. Mouthfeel is full bodied, well carbonated, more dry than I remember it being fresh. Overall, I don’t know that it’s improved with age exactly, but it feels very different and it’s certainly not worse, making it an interesting candidate for aging. A-

Beer Nerd Details: 11.1% ABV bottled (22 ounce bomber). Drank out of a teku glass on 1/31/16. Best After: 11/10/15.

Firestone Walker XV - Anniversary Ale

2011 Firestone Walker XV Anniversary Ale – My first Anniversary Ale, this one lives up to my memory. A bottle shop recently celebrated their anniversary or something by releasing a bunch of aged beer, and I managed to snag this one (so it hasn’t been sitting in my cellar for quite so long, probably wouldn’t have lasted!) Age has treated it well, though I don’t think it’s any better than it was back in the day. With time, it’s got a little less zip, but the flavors have blended together more. It still feels very barleywineish, lots of dark fruit, rich caramel, some nice barrel character. Overall, this was worth aging and is doing well these days, but it was probably still a little better when it was fresh. This is probably good advice overall for the Firestone Anniversary beers – worth aging, but not at the expense of drinking it fresh. A-

Beer Nerd Details: 12.5% ABV bottled (22 ounce bomber). Drank out of a snifter on 1/1/16.

Plead the 5th Stout

2013 Dark Horse Plead the 5th Stout – This has held up well. The intense roasty character is much faded, only really revealing itself in the finish. In its place we get caramel and an almost dark fruit note, like port wine or something. This hasn’t really been my favorite stout, but it holds up well. B+

Beer Nerd Details: 11% ABV bottled (12 ounce). Drank out of a snifter on 1/30/16.

Angel's Share 2011

2011 Lost Abbey Angel’s Share – Bourbon Barrel Aged – The first time I had this, I thought it was a bit hot and could use some aging. Fortuitously, I came into a bottle not long after, and promptly hid it away in my basement and basically forgot about it. What was lost was found, so I figured 4 years was long enough to age the sucker. Wow, just look at that head. Yes, this was before Lost Abbey got their carbonation game on track. Fortunately, this is a tasty beer. Age is definitely showing, some oxidation apparent, but it still smells and tastes great. Great dark fruit character matches well with the bourbon barrel treatment, reminiscent of early Bruery Anniversary beers. Age definitely mellowed the booze, though perhaps not as much time is actually needed to accomplish that feat. Carbonation is an issue for me. Verdict: Uncertain! Newer vintages are better carbonated and might hold up better. I’d say 1-2 years is ideal aging time. B+

Beer Nerd Details: 12% ABV bottled (375 ml caged and corked). Drank out of a tulip glass on 11/24/15.

Smoketome!

2013 Fantôme Saison – From the Smoketôme era, I was curious to see if the smokey, burnt latex funk worked itself out over time. The answer? Nope! I suppose it’s probably mellowed some, but I feel like all the elements mellowed, so the smoke is still there in the same proportion as before. Like my other bottle, this isn’t dominated by the smoke, and it adds a sort of complexity rather than straight burning latex and bandaids (as some of the worst Smoketomes exhibited). I really wish I had saved some of my first bottles of Fantome though, from the 2009-2010 era, as those were really special, even if I had no idea what I was drinking at the time. If you’ve got a smoketome, I say hold on to it. Let’s see how that bitch tastes in 5-10 years, eh? C+

Beer Nerd Details: 8% ABV bottled (750 ml capped and corked). Drank out of a wine glass on 11/30/15.

Merry Monks 2010

2010 Weyerbacher Merry Monks – Back in 2010, I bought a variety case of Weyerbacher, and promptly found myself disappointed by this beer. I gave it a few tries, but this one just sat around for, well, 5 years I guess. It was time. Pours a cloudy golden orange color with a finger of white head. Smells sweet, lots of raisins, maybe a hint of spice. Taste is again very sweet, and again has tons and tons of raisins. Mouthfeel is well carbonated but almost creamy in texture, really nice, but as it warms, a boozy note hits pretty hard. Overall, this is maybe an improvement over the regular, but I’m not really a fan of either. B-

Beer Nerd Details: 9.3% ABV bottled (12 ounce). Drank out of a tulip glass on 12/11/15. Bottled 11/23/10. Best By: 11/23/12.

Founders Breakfast Stout 2010

2010 Founders Breakfast Stout – Pours a pitch black color with a gorgeous light brown head. Smells of coffee and creme and more coffee, roasty coffee, spent coffee grounds, did I mention coffee? Taste features lots of that roasty character, less intense coffee here but it’s still pretty prominent. Coffee is supposed to fade over time, but this is still pretty intense, even more out of balance than when fresh. Mouthfeel is medium bodied, well carbonated, a little thin actually, though it feels more full as it warms. Overall, I like this and it’s held up remarkably well, but it’s still not a massive improvement over the base, which seems more balanced. B

Beer Nerd Details: 8.3% ABV bottled (12 ounce). Drank out of a tulip glass on 12/11/15.

Of course, this barely puts a dent in the cellar, so after this semi-hiatus from beer, expect to see some more of these aged beer reviews. In the meantime, I’ve got some wine, bourbon, and Scotch coming your way. And maybe a few more beer posts peppered in…

Lost Abbey Track #10 – Bat Out Of Hell

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Sometimes you have a beer and it’s great, but you wonder what it would be like if they only stuck it in Bourbon barrels. If you’re like me, you think that about most beers, but one beer that stuck out for me has always been Lost Abbey’s Serpent’s Stout. It’s pretty fabulous on its own, but just imagine the majesty that would result from a Bourbon barrel treatment! So when I saw that they made another batch of Track #10 (after the initial Boxed Set, they rebrewed some of the more popular tracks), I jumped. High. For the uninitiated, Track #10 is basically Serpent’s Stout aged in Bourbon Barrels with real Meatloaf. No, wait, sorry, that’s not Meatloaf, it’s a much more harmonious Coffee and Chocolate combo. According to this video, the coffee is from Ryan Bros and was steeped in the beer using L’eggs Everyday Knee Highs purchased from a local CVS. TMI? Too bad, because despite my infamous disdain for beer made with coffee, this is some pretty spectacular stuff:

Lost Abbey Track 10

Lost Abbey Track #10 – Bat Out Of Hell – Pours a deep, dark brown, almost black color with a light brown head. Smells utterly fantastic, lots of rich chocolate, some coffee, caramel, oak, and vanilla. As these things go, the nose is quite well balanced, not betraying a dominating factor. Taste starts with some sweet, rich caramel, moves on to more roasty, coffee-like flavors, followed by chocolate and maybe even some hop bitterness in the finish. Really nice balance between roast, chocolate, and light on the coffee (my kinda coffee beer). Mouthfeel is full bodied but well carbonated, slightly astringent from the coffee and and a little boozy, some stickiness in the middle, but drying out a bit in the finish. Overall, a pretty fantastic little number, but I kinda wish they made a straight up BBA Serpent’s Stout. A-

Beer Nerd Details: 13.5% ABV bottled (375 ml caged and corked). Drank out of a snifter on 9/6/15.

As of right now, I believe only Track #8 and Track #10 have been rebrewed, but who knows. Maybe we’ll see more tracks from the box set someday… Or perhaps just a straight up BBA Serpent’s Stout…

April Beer Club

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Beer club was yesterday! For the uninitiated, beer club is a monthly gathering of like-minded coworkers and acquaintances at a local BYOB for good food, optional libations, and general merriment. Since the last beer club was sparsely attended, we ended up back at Couch Tomato for some excellent pizza, strombolis (having had both, I would recommend the stromboli over the pizza), and some sort of weird greek plate. Better weather means better attendance, and we had a rather fantastic selection of beer to work our way through:

April Beer Club

For the sake of posterity, some thoughts on each are below. As per usual, I’m going almost purely from memory, and this was from last night, so take these notes with the appropriate shakers of salt. Or call it a sacred text and analyze it like the Zapruder film. I’m not here to tell you what to do. I am here to write indefensible notes on beer, so let’s get to it:

  • Kaedrin Crom Approved – So it appears that this is doing ok, but I really feel like my challenges that lead to a clogged keg and having to transfer it to another keg really ruined this beer. Ok, perhaps ruined isn’t the right term. This has a fantastic, tropical fruit hop nose. The taste definitely feels a bit oxidized, which I unfortunately makes sense and definitely detracts from what I was going for. I’m giving it a B, but the really disappointing thing is that when I first kegged it, I was thinking this was A level stuff. Oh, well, lessons learned, onwards and upwards. My next batch of this beer will be great.
  • Adroit Theory New Zealand Rye (Ghost 179) – I heard about this Virginia brewery a while back and have been curious to try their beers. A regular beer club attendee got down there last weekend and picked up a few beers to try. This one was a pretty solid rye DIPA, more malt and spicy rye than hops, but it also clocks in at a hefty 11% ABV and didn’t feel like it at all. It was very nice. B+
  • Crooked Stave St. Bretta (Autumn) – Absolutely delicious beer, funky, light sourness, juicy fruit, really fantastic stuff, along the lines of the Summer (which I’ve had before)
  • Flying Dog Supertramp – This had a sorta berliner weiss feel to it, but not quite that tart, and while you could get some cherry character out of it, it also had a weird aftertaste. I just never got into this beer. C
  • Modern Times Blazing World – Dank, piney hops with a nice, hefty malt backbone, this is very nice. Just about in line with anything I’ve had from Modern Times, who seem pretty fantastic. B+
  • Intangible Ales (Pizza Boy) Acidulated Hive – One of Pizza Boy’s Intangible Ales label beers (not sure why this is listed as a separate brewery), this is a great little saison. It reminds me of Saison Dupont, except with a lightly funky addition (I don’t get much honey out of it, but it does perhaps remind me a bit of funky version of Dupont’s Bier de Miel). Well worth seeking out B+ or A-
  • The Lost Abbey Lost & Found Abbey Ale – A pretty standard dubbel that is overwhelmed by raisiny flavors. Nothing bad here, but also nothing particularly special. B-
  • Adroit Theory Lux (Ghost 132) – This is labeled as a wheatwine, and unfortunately, it falls prey to a saccharine, sticky sweet character that would be cloying if I were trying to drink a whole bottle. As a sample in a situation like this, it was fine, but it’s not really my thing. C+
  • Central Waters Bourbon Barrel La Petite Mort – A beer I’ve already reviewed, and it was just as good, if not better this time around. In fact, I think I’ll bump it up to an A-
  • Oskar Blues Bolivia Newton John – A relatively low ABV coffee stout (6%), this is obviously not in my wheelhouse, but it seemed like a very well executed coffee stout. B
  • Weyerbacher Sunday Morning Stout – Another coffee stout, this one is an imperial stout that’s also been aged in bourbon barrels. This is much more my speed, though again, I never really connected with it as much as I’d like. The coffee seems very well integrated, and the barrel aging adds a nice richness to the proceedings, even if I felt the barrel character was a little too light. Still, while not quite KBS level, it’s on the same playing field, and you won’t have to jump through many hoops to get ahold of this stuff. B+
  • Bonus Review: Boxcar Brewing Nitro Stout – After beer club, we walked over to Boxcar Brewing’s new brewpub and had some stuff there. I grabbed this Nitro stout, a Dry Irish Stout, that might be my favorite thing I’ve ever had from Boxcar. Now that the brewpub is open, I’m hoping for good things from them… they’re the brewery most local to me, but I’ve always been somewhat underwhelmed by their brews. This was really nice though. B

And there you have it. A fantastic selection this time around, and I am, of course, already looking forward to the next iteration…

Cuvée De Tomme

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Back in the day, The Lost Abbey suffered from complaints of low carbonation in their bigger, barrel aged expressions. There were a couple of infamous batches of Angel’s Share that, to this day, seem to rankle veteran beer nerds because of their near complete lack of carbonation. And I suppose that’s understandable, given the typically high price points of Lost Abbey beers. As someone who is especially sensitive to such issues, you’d think I’d have a problem with this brewery, but I’ve had pretty good luck. I’ve had a bottle of Angel’s Share that weren’t quite where it should be (a 2010 or 2011 vintage, if I remember), but later vintages were fine. Deliverance was barely carbonated, but enough that I still enjoyed it. Other than that, I’ve had pretty fantastic luck. It turns out that Lost Abbey has done a lot of work on this over the years, to the point where they have developed methods of pre-carbonating the beer and bought specialized equipment that lets them check carbonation, even in corked beer. Good for them.

But one of the problem childs has always been Cuvée De Tomme, a beer I’ve heard mixed things about for a while now. Again, carbonation issues in the bottle are the culprit. What’s the problem? Well, these beers are bottle conditioned, which means that they are primed with extra sugar and dosed with more yeast. The yeast eats the sugars and produces carbonation (and slightly more alcohol), and since the yeast is still alive, it will continue to evolve the beer with time. The challenge with something like Cuvée De Tomme is that it’s a high alcohol beer (a blend of barrel aged Judgement Day, a 10.5% Quad) that also happens to have a low pH (i.e. it’s a sour). These are two environments that yeast does not like, and indeed, the yeast usually just dies off after a day or two. Apparently the 2014 batch was looking especially inhospitable.

As luck would have it, that 2014 batch of Cuvée De Tomme ran into some bottling line scheduling issues and Lost Abbey decided to just make it a draft-only affair. Since kegs aren’t really meant to cellar, they are force carbonated, so no issues there. This is a beer that doesn’t make its way out to Philly that often (there are usually some sightings at Philly Beer Week), but with the change up, more got distributed this year and during a recent trip to Tired Hands, I noticed that Teresa’s had this on tap. So I hopped on the train and got me some. Let’s just say that it was a good night.

Cuvee De Tomme

The Lost Abbey Cuvée De Tomme – Whoa, darker than expected, almost black, minimal head. Smells of, wow, bourbon, vanilla, and oak, with some sour cherry notes too. Taste is rich, sweet, puckering sour cherries, vinous fruit, and plenty of vanilla, oak, and booze. This is really the only time I’ve gotten bourbon out of a sour (I feel like it’s usually overwhelmed by the sourness), which I imagine contributes to the booziness here. As it warms, the barrel character gets even more pronounced and the sourness feels better integrated as well. Mouthfeel is full bodied with a great richness and ample carbonation, some sour acidity and hot booze too. Overall, very complex and interesting, not to mention delicious! A-

Beer Nerd Details: 11% ABV on tap. Drank out of a tulip glass on 2/5/15.

This is fantastic and even though I’m not a huge fan of high-ABV sours, this works really well. I still love me some Red Poppy though.

Lost Abbey Track #8

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So a couple years ago, the Lost Abbey started a series of beers inspired by rock music that was themed by heaven or hell (as befitting the Last Abbey’s general brand). Each month, they released a new “track”, a special edition beer available only at their tasting room and limited to just 450 bottles each. These are exactly the sort of beers that an east coast dork like myself could never dream of acquiring. But at the end of the year, Lost Abbey did a “Box Set” of all the beers, and some seemed popular enough to brew again.

As far as I’m aware, this is the only one that was made again, and it’s received pretty broad distribution (so I’m guessing significantly more than 450 bottles this time around). This takes their Judgment Day, a Belgian Quad made with raisins, and ages it in Bourbon barrels along with cinnamon and chile peppers. The result was one of the more popular tracks in the series. Why it’s got the subtitle of The Number of the Beast (why wouldn’t that be track #6?), I don’t know, but it’s got a nice story about how Damien was tricked into writing the number of the beast onto his gradeschool chalk board. It’s all for you, Damien. Or in this case, the beer is all for me:

Lost Abbey Track 8 - Number of the Beast

Lost Abbey Track #8 – Number Of The Beast – Pours a deep, dark brown color with half a finger of fizzy tan head. Smells of bourbon, oak, and vanilla along with some dark fruits, raisons and the like, and just a bit of Belgian yeast spice. As it warms up, you get more sorta Christmas spice character, cinnamon and the like. Taste is very sweet, with some nice fruity esters, dark fruits, raisins and the like, spicy phenols, maybe some of that cinnamon, rich caramel, bourbon, oak, and vanilla. As it warms, the spicy chile emerges a bit, but it’s just enough to add complexity and never threatens to overwhelm or knock anything out of balance. Mouthfeel is highly carbonated, rich, full bodied, a little sticky as it warms up. I’ve found that Belgian styles have mixed success when barrel aged, but this works very well. Overall, this is among the better barrel aged Belgian quads I’ve ever had, rich and complex, well worth seeking out. A-

Beer Nerd Details: 13.7% ABV bottled (375 ml caged and corked). Drank out of a snifter on 8/23/14. Vintage: 2014.

Yet another winner from Lost Abbey. Someday, I’ll need to get around to trying Cuvee De Tomme or Duck Duck Gooze, but until then… I’ll just have to deal with all this other beer I have laying around.

Lost Abbey Agave Maria

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It used to be that you’d see the occasional Bourbon barrel aged beer. Everyone would lose their minds, and they’d fly off shelves, and it was all well and good. I, for one, welcomed our bourbon barrel overlords, but the past few years have seen brewers diversifying their barrel aged offerings. You’ve got rum barrels, apple brandy barrels, and wine barrels galore.

Enter the dreaded tequila barrel. Lost Abbey brewer Tomme Arthur even decided to double down on this offering, brewing the base beer with Agave syrup. The fine folks over at Lost Abbey run a pretty tight Keebler tree, so despite some rightfully dubious responses, I figured I’d drop some coin on a bottle of this stuff and see what the deal is. In short, while not “worse than undrinkable”, that’s also setting the bar too low. I’d rather drink this than most macro slop, and it is a unique, interesting beer, but it’s not something I’d go out of my way for again.

Lost Abbey Agave Maria

Lost Abbey Agave Maria – Pours a murky dark brown color with a finger of khaki head. Smells very sweet, with an almost honey-like note, something kinda like char, and plenty of barrel character. The taste explodes with sweetness up front, very sugary sweet, something like honey (presumably that agave doing its thing), and less of that barrel character than I’d like. I suspect that a 750 of this would get cloying, but the 375 format just barely clears the bar. But then, I’m an odd duck, so your mileage may vary. The mouthfeel is full bodied and rich (so that part of the barrel treatment works), sugary, highly carbonated (way to go Lost Abbey!), with a bit of saccharine stickiness in the finish. Overall, this is an interesting, unique little beer. Not something that makes me want to try a lot of other tequila aged beers, but I’m glad I tried one. B

Beer Nerd Details: 13.5% ABV bottled (375 ml caged and corked). Drank out of a tulip glass on 7/19/14. Vintage 2014A.

I’m all for barrel diversification, but you know what, you should probably also just throw some Serpent’s Stout in Bourbon Barrels, because that would be killer. Yeah, Deliverance has BBA Serpent’s Stout in the blend, but I’m sure the straight up juice would be even better. Ah well, I’ll just stop pretending like I actually know better than people who do this for a living now. I’m a moron.

Lost Abbey Framboise De Amarosa

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The Lost Abbey always has fantastic events during Philly Beer Week, but due to a variety of factors (general listlessness, apathy, and the fact that I have a job), I can never seem to get there. So I missed out on coveted pours of Cuvee de Tomme and Duck Duck Gooze, but managed to snag a few interesting bottles, including this Framboise De Amarosa.

The base for this beer is Lost Abbey’s standard Lost & Found ale, a dubbel brewed with raisins. Take that, add in an ample dose of raspberries, and age in oak (Tomme sez it’s a blend of 9 and 12 month old beer), and you’ve got something that sounds rather spectacular. It’s named after Amorosa, a biblical reference to a courtesan… which reminds me of Cantillon’s rather risque label on Rosé De Gambrinus. Are raspberries associated with loose women, or is this just a cheeky coincidence?

Lost Abbey Framboise De Amorosa

Lost Abbey Framboise De Amarosa – Pours a dark red color with a finger of head that sticks around for a bit. The aroma is full of rasperberries, some oak and vanilla, but raspberiies rule the day. The taste follows the nose, a nice, intense raspberry sweetness with plenty of balancing oak and vanilla. Really delicious. Mouthfeel is also well balanced, well carbonated, nowhere near as acidic as a lot of intense sours, but it’s there too. Overall, this is a fantastic raspberry beer, intense and complex, but not overpowering. A-

Beer Nerd Details: 8.5% ABV bottled (375 ml caged and corked). Drank out of a tulip glass on 7/11/14. Vintage 2014 A.

Another winner from Lost Abbey, and I’ve got a bottle of Agave Maria standing in the wings as well. Look for a review of that tequila barrel aged sucker soon enough…

June Beer Club

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Tonight was beer club! For the uninitiated, beer club is a gathering of beer-minded individuals from my workplace who get together once a month for beer and revelry at a local BYOB. This time around, we returned to an Indian/Thai restaurant and despite a medium turnout, had much in the way of fun.

June Beer Club Lineup

For the sake of posterity, I’m documenting my nearly incoherent thoughts on each beer below, which is my way of saying that you should not trust any of these ratings because as we’ve established recently, I’m the worst. In order of drinking (not necessarily the order pictured above):

  • Red Star Zingerbuch Kombucha – So the first beer of the night… was not beer! This is some sort of bizarre fermented tea concoction with ginger and hibiscus. It was very aromatic, flowery, and ginger aley. It was not exactly my bag, but this is the perfect setting for weird crap like this. No rating because I don’t even really know what this is.
  • Oskar Blues Dale’s Pale Ale – Basically a palate cleanser, and a beer I’ve already covered before. B+
  • Founders All Day IPA – So the new trend is to call pale ales a “session IPA” or something like that? Ok, whatever, this is a pretty solid example, and I could probably drink a bunch of these with no complaints. Nice hop presence, but light and quaffable. B+
  • Surly Furious – Ah, now this is an IPA! Surly does not distribute to PA… except during Philly Beer Week. One of our attendees tonight was fortunate enough to attend a Surly event and snag a few cans, and generous enough to share with the rest of us. I’ve heard so many great things about Surly that I was afraid they wouldn’t live up to the hype, but this is indeed a really fantastic IPA. Citrus and lots of pine and resinous hops, but exceedingly well balanced stuff, lots of hops and enough crystal malts that it didn’t feel super bitter despite being 99 IBU. Probably the best beer of the night. I’ll leave it at A- territory for now, but I definitely want to get some more of this (it could warrant an upgrade).
  • Kaedrôme Saison – Dammit, this still has not carbonated as much as I’d like, but it is still a tasty beer, light on the funk, but still a nice peppery saison flavor. I’m guessing that if it hasn’t carbonated much by now, it’s not going to get much better… which is fine, since I probably only have 6-12 bottles of the stuff left. B
  • Ken’s Homebrewed Chile Beer – Made with chile peppers and smoked malt, this sucker was spicy but flavorful. Not really my thing, but it’s an interesting beer, and certainly not the abomination that Cave Creek Chili Beer was…
  • Lost Abbey Carnevale – A Brett does saison? Sign me up, this was one of my favorites of the night. Nice fruity, earthy funk pervading the whole thing, a pleasure to drink. It’s no Logsdon or anything, but it’s really nice. A high B+
  • Southern Tier Compass – Perhaps it was just because we opened it towards the end of the night, but this felt exceedingly bland to me, with the only real dominant note being the flowery aromas and flavors. Not really my thing. C
  • Brooklyn Wild Streak – A belgian strong pale aged in Bourbon barrels with Brett? Well ok then. The Brett has a minimal, but still detectable presence. But the taste is more dominated by that pale ale aged in bourbon barrel character that never really works as well for me as it does for stouts or barleywines. It’s fine for what it is, but it’s not really my thing. B-
  • Kaedrin Bomb & Grapnel (Blend) – The imperial stout is doing quite well. This blend has faint hints of the bourbon and oak, but nothing like a BBA stout. That being said, it’s delicious and only getting better over time. I’ll still leave it at a B+

And that is all for now. We will probably return to regular blogging next week, so stay tuned.

February Beer Club

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Tonight was beer club, a gathering of beer minded individuals from my work who get together about once a month at a local BYOB for good company and libations. As per usual, a good turnout, with a good representation from the core team, but also some very welcome new faces. About half of us are, at this point, avid homebrewers, so discussion veered into a rather nerdy realm from time to time, but that’s all good, and there was also a nice contingent of non-beer drinking peeps who were bemused by our nerdery, but steered the discussion other ways as well. Good times had by all.

February Beer Club

For the sake of posterity, initial thoughts on each beer are captured below. As you might guess, conditions here are not ideal, nor did I always drink a full portion, so take this with a gigantic grain of salt if you dare. Or not. I am pretty awesome, so I’m sure these inchoate notes are all you’ll really need. In order of drinking (not necessarily in order pictured):

  • Heavy Seas Gold Ale – A pretty basic Blonde Ale, comparable to most macro slop, but a step above such extremes. B-
  • Kaedrôme Saison – This is drinking well, though it still has not carbonated as well as I’d have liked. I don’t know if this is because the yeast is just so old and overstressed or if it’s because it’s been so cold lately and my cellar is just so cold that it’s taking the beer a while to condition. Whatever the case, the flavors are at the right place, and there is enough carbonation to make it drinkable, it’s just that I wish there were more. B
  • New Belgium Lips Of Faith – Coconut Curry Hefeweizen – Holy curry, Batman! At first, the curry seemed to overpower everything else, but as I drank and as it warmed (we had some of this later in the evening as well), the coconut and hefeweizen notes came out a bit more. Its a very interesting, weird beer, but I don’t think it’s quite the right combination of flavors for beer. C+
  • Stone Matt’s Burning Rosids – I think you all know how much I love me some saisons, even weird, incoherent takes on the style, but this one seemed to be filled with a sorta burnt rubber band aid flavor that overpowered everything else. Perhaps not totally undrinkable, but I’m really, really happy I only tried a smallish sample of the stuff. D
  • Green Jack Rippa – I’ve seen this around and been curious about an “English Triple” beer, and it was an interesting beer, though it came off as being incredibly boozy, which is a bit odd for an 8.5% beer. To be sure, that’s not a whimpy ABV, but it’s also not something I’d expect to be quite so powerfully boozy. It had a nice malt backbone too, but not enough to stand up to the booze. C+
  • Ken’s Homebrewed ESB – A light take on the style, though perhaps it just seemed that way because we had this after the boozy bomb previously mentioned. Still, very easy drinking stuff, malt forward but quaffable. B
  • Wells Sticky Toffee Pudding Ale – Now, this beer club group occasionally visits an authentic (at least, to us Yanks, it seems so) British pub called The Whip Tavern. They have this rather spectacular dessert called Sticky Toffee Pudding, so hopes were somewhat high for this beer. To be sure, I was tempering my expectations by the fact that a lot of English ales, even stuff like this that is flavored with adjuncts, come off with hints of diacetyl, but in this case, my fears were unfounded. It’s nowhere near as good as the actual dessert, but it had a really nice toffee/caramel character that worked really well for the beer. B
  • Chimay Tripel (White) – A beer I’ve obviously had many times before, and it’s just as good as ever, though I seem to have veered away from a lot of the Belgian styles that initially hooked me on good beer. Still, this is a nice one. I’d probably downgrade to a B+, but it’s still very nice.
  • Starr Hill Psycho Kilter – A nice take on the Scotch Ale style, certainly not a top tier effort, but a nice, malt forward, relatively low carbed beer that doesn’t quite bely its relatively high 9.3% strength. B
  • Kaedrin Bomb and Grapnel (Bourbon Oaked Version) – This is the version of my RIS homebrew that was aged on bourbon soaked oak cubes. In this version, the charred oak really comes through strong. Not a ton of bourbon, though it is there. The charred oak is pretty strong at this point, which makes me think that perhaps I should have soaked the oak cubes in bourbon for longer than the 1-2 weeks I employed. Still, this turned out well, though the blended version seems to be the best version. B+
  • Lost Abbey The Angel’s Share (Bourbon Barrel Aged) – A beer I’ve had and reviewed before. It is still pretty fantastic stuff. A-
  • Deschutes Jubelale – Another beer I’ve had a few times this year, and it’s a nice winter warmer style beer, malt forward with lots of spice, quite enjoyable (and surprisingly did not suffer from a no doubt beleaguered palate at this point in the night). B

And that just about covers it. Already looking forward to the March beer club, where I’ll be able to share some Fat Weekend IPA…

November Beer Club

by

Tonight was Beer Club, a gathering of beer minded friends from work who get together every month at a local BYOB for libations and fun. This month, we hit up a local BBQ joint, which is always nice. Got me some smoked Chorizo, Brisket, and some fixins which made for a great accompaniment to all the beer. And there was a lot of it this time around. The picture is actually missing a bunch of bottles because we did not account for people showing up later with their own stuff.

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(Click for larger version)

So yeah, lots of stuff this month, so these notes are almost certainly useless, but for the sake of posterity, I’m including them anyway. Because I’m a good person, that’s why. Yeah, let’s get to it: in approximate order of drinking (not necessarily pictured):

  • Southern Tier Krampus – An “Imperial Helles” is sorta like a contradiction in terms, but hey, it’s an amped up Helles, and it works well enough. Nice uncommon hop character gives an otherwise clean beer the punch it needs. Really quite nice. B+
  • Ithaca Excelsior! White Gold – Bottle wasn’t quite a gusher, and we managed to not lose any, but it was hugely carbonated and most of us poured a cup of foam that resolved into more normal beerlike appearance in a minute or two. Once we got to it, it was pretty damn good. Nice Belgian yeast character, wheat is there but not as dominant as you might think (slightly reminiscent of something like St. Bernardus Tokyo). This was one of the first beers we tasted, and I liked it a lot, but we revisited it towards the end of the night and damn, it got almost (not quite) sour. Big fruity esters started showing up when it was warm. Again, not quite sour, but it was going in that direction. All in all, I enjoyed this more than the Ithaca Excelsior Rye beer I had recently… B+
  • Victory Root Beer – Yep, it’s a root beer! I’m no expert (hay, there’s no alcohol in this!?), but it’s really good as root beers go.
  • Sprecher Bootlegger’s Bourbon Barrel Hard Root Beer – Not sure I would have pegged this as having anything to do with a bourbon barrel, let alone an alcoholic beverage at all, but perhaps the power of suggestion lead me to believe that there was some bourbon present in the taste. Or something. Ultimately, it drinks like a good root beer, which is nice…
  • Avery White Rascal – A beer I’ve had before and greatly enjoyed, it doesn’t quite fit in with a tasting like this – it is easily overwhelmed by the other brews of the night. Still, I like this as a lawnmower beer on a hot day (alas, it’s pretty cold here these days). B
  • River Horse Double Wit – I don’t know if it’s the 7% ABV or the way this was spiced, but it didn’t really connect with me. It’s not bad at all, and other folks appreciated the different take on spice and booze level, but it never quite hit me where I wanted it to. B-
  • Ken’s Homebrewed Schwarzbier – We need to get on Ken to start entering his beers into untappd or something, because these are getting good. Not my favorite style, but it’s a nice dark lager style beer, clean and crisp, lighter than it looks, and quite flavorful. Toasty but not quite full on roast. Me likey. B+
  • Kaedrin Xmas Dubbel – My homebrewed dubbel, with a slight dose of cinnamon when I was bottling, is actually drinking really well right now. The regular dubbel has really matured and changed a lot over time, getting more and more raisiny, but this one was more subdued (not that there’s anything wrong with that). I’ll leave it at B+
  • Lost Abbey Deliverance – One of my other contributions, and a beer I’ve reviewed before! It’s still great. A-
  • Atwater Vanilla Java Porter – While opening this directly after Deliverance was a supremely bad idea, I still get the impression that this would underwhelm. It does have a nice vanilla character, but it’s a little thinner than I generally want out of a stout and while I’m not a big fan of coffee, it’s nonexistent here. Certainly a drinkable beer and would be welcome change of pace at a macro bar, but it’s not something to really seek out. C+
  • Spring House Big Gruesome Chocolate Peanut Butter Stout – Can I just point you to a review from a couple weeks ago? No? Well too bad, cause that’s what I’m doing. Still a B+ in my book.
  • Smuttynose Old Brown Dog Ale – The younger, weaker, smaller sibling to Really Old Brown Dog is a rather straightforward brown ale, which naturally has its merits (nice toasted malt and some heft to it) but again, should’ve probably opened this earlier in the night. Still glad I tried this, just to give context to Really old Brown Dog if not for its regular solid nature. B
  • Saucony Creek Chocolate Cherry Schnickelfritz – An object lesson in things sounding better than they taste, this seems to be a relatively well made imperial milk stout, but it’s got this artificial feeling cherry aspect that sorta ruined the beer for me. Not an abomination, but not particularly good either. I guess all the beers I bring can’t be winners! C
  • Ommegang Game Of Thrones #2 – Take the Black Stout – These Game of Thrones beers are actually pretty solid introductions to the whole Belgian beer world, and they work well enough for beer dorks too (a neat trick, appealing to the jaded hardcore and mainstream alike). I actually would call this more of a roasty Belgian Strong Dark rather than a full on stout, but to each their own. It’s got a nice Belgian yeast character, spice and light fruit, with a hint of that roasted malt too, but the carbonation (and presumably attenuation) cuts through more than your typical stout. Still, it’s very good, if not my favorite Ommegang beer. B+
  • River Horse Special Ale – No idea why this was opened so late in the night, but it’s such a profoundly average beer that I doubt it would have made that much of an impression earlier in the night. There’s absolutely nothing wrong wit it, and it’s certainly a step up from fizzy yellow stuff light lagers, but its not really something to get excited about. C+
  • Victory Harvest Ale – I totally fell in love with Victory’s Harvest Ale last year (and while I’m not a big Pils guy, the Harvest Pils was pretty good too), but this year’s take fell completely flat to me. Not bad, per say, but something about this is rubbing me the wrong way. Perhaps it was a different hop variety, perhaps they used their Kolsch yeast instead of their normally clean IPA yeast, but whatever the case, it didn’t inspire like last years. Again, it’s pretty good, but it’s disappointing. And I had this a couple weeks ago straight from the source too, so it’s not just palate fatigue talking here! B

Yikes, that was a lot of beers. Luckily there were a lot of people in attendance, so my tastes were limited on most of these (yet another reason to take my notes with a grain of salt), but this was a really fun installment. Here’s to hoping the December one will be just as great!