B

Beers that have been rated B-, B, or B+

Stillwater Folklore – The Tale Of Van Winkle

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The tale of this beer begins back at Stillwater’s first anniversary, when they made a Belgian Strong Dark in the mold of a foreign export stout. That beer was called 25 To One, and has since been tweaked a bit, renamed Folklore, and moved into Stillwater’s regular lineup. In addition, this is one of the base beers for their barrel aging program, and several different versions have been made. What I have here is a beer aged in 20 year old Pappy Van Winkle barrels. Only 1200 bottles made, a steep price tag, and a gorgeous minimalist label, but alas, I found myself a little disappointed by the contents of said bottle:

Stillwater Folklore - The Tale of Van Winkle

Stillwater Folklore – The Tale Of Van Winkle – Pours a very dark, almost black color with a skimpy, light brown head. Smell is all about bourbon and oak (maybe some coconut from the barrel aging too), with just the faintest hint of roasted malts. Similarly, the taste is comprised mostly of bourbon, with oak falling into the background and whatever roasty smoke character exists is almost completely muted. The bourbon doesn’t feel like it’d be overpowering either, but it’s really the flavor that is emphasized the most here. Mouthfeel is surprisingly thin for a barrel aged brew, well carbonated, some boozy burn from the bourbon. Overall, while certainly not a bad brew, it’s a bit disappointing. Bourbon is the star here, with the base beer contributing little. I like me some bourbon, but this just isn’t balanced very well and the base beer doesn’t seem to stand up to the barrel aging process very well… B-

Beer Nerd Details: 8.4% ABV bottled (375 ml capped). Drank out of a snifter on 11/24/12.

Opinions on BA and Ratebeer seem to be wildly divergent, but I’m definitely not the only one who thought the bourbon overpowered the base beer. I still like Stillwater quite a bit, and some of their other barrel aged beers seem to have a better reputation, so I’ll be keeping my eye out for those.

Cigar City Warmer Winter Winter Warmer

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At some point, I resolved to get my hands on more Cigar City beers, and they do distribute to this area… but their offerings have been scarce of late. I have no idea why, but when I saw this one about a month ago, I quickly bought it, not realizing that it was from last year! It’s a big, dark beer, so it should be able to hold up to the time, but it’s also got a big hop component which I’m assuming I lost out on a bit. In any case, this beer officially kicks off the Christmas beer season. Here at Kaedrin, we take these things seriously, so expect to see a boatload of other wintery themed beers in the near future. This particular offering falls into the “make it stronger” school of holiday beer thought (with maybe a bit of “do whatever the hell you want”, just for good measure.) The label sez it’s a mashup of barleywines and old ale winter-warmer styles, but with a big citrusy American hop presence. They call it a Floridian Winter Ale:

Cigar City Warmer Winter Winter Warmer

Cigar City Warmer Winter Winter Warmer – Pours a very deep, dark amber brown color with a solid 3 fingers of fluffy head, good retention, and plenty of lacing. Smells full of caramel and citrusy, piney hops. Taste is very sweet, dominated by rich caramel, brown sugar, and toffee tones. Big citrus and pine hop flavors lighten things up a bit, but those sugary caramel/toffee flavors rule the day. Mouthfeel is full bodied, rich, and chewy, but very well carbonated, which really helps cut all the rich flavors a bit. That being said, there’s a lot of mouth coating here, and a finish that lingers. Fortunately, these flavors are all right up my alley, so it works well enough in the end. The booze is well hidden in the taste, but you get that warming alcohol feeling in the belly soon enough. Overall, this is an interesting beer, along the lines of a barleywine or old ale, but kinda doing its own thing. A whole 750 gets to be a bit much, but I really enjoyed it. B+

Beer Nerd Details: 11% ABV bottled (750 ml capped). Drank out of a tulip glass on 11/23/12. Bottled November 2011 for consumption in 2011/2012.

I still haven’t tried a lot of Cigar City’s brews, but I’ll be sure to snag a few the next time they make their way up here… Anywho, lots of Christmas, holiday, and otherwise wintery offerings coming up in the near future, even including a few deliberately aged brews. Stay tuned!

Boon Oude Geuze Mariage Parfait

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So now that I’ve climbed aboard the Gueuze train to sour town, I’m picking up whatever examples I can get my hands on. So far, no Cantillon or Drie Fonteinen to be found, but this one popped on my radar during my latest trip to Pinocchio’s. Boon’s regular Oude Geuze often seems to be referred to as a beginner’s sour, and consists of 90% lambic aged for 18 months, 5% lambic aged for 3 years, and 5% “young” lambic. This Mariage Parfait version differs in that it consists of 95% lambic aged for 3 years, and 5% “young” lambic. A “perfect wedding” of new and old? Let’s find out:

Boon Mariage Parfait

Boon Oude Geuze Mariage Parfait – Pours an orange color with a finger or two of bubbly white head that quickly recedes. Smells of funky oak and ripe fruits. Taste is sweet, with plenty of funky earth in the middle and some sour fruitiness emerging towards the finish, along with earthy oak. Mouthfeel is highly carbonated and effervescent, but crisp and refreshing. Overall, a solid Gueuze that I very much enjoyed, but not quite to the levels of Tilquin. B+

Beer Nerd Details: 8% ABV bottled (375 ml, caged and corked). Drank out of a tulip glass on 11/17/12.

My renewed interest in Gueuze and lambics in general will continue, abated only by lack of availability. Alas, I’m not able to make it to Zwanze day on Saturday, so I may have to wait a bit longer for my first Cantillon… But don’t worry, Loons will be slayed. It’s only a matter of time.

Nøgne Ø #100

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Since I’ve already pedantically delved into why Nøgne Ø seems to favor the use of null set symbols in their name (apparently an artifact of old Danish language), I’ll instead observe that brewery founder Kjetil Jikiun is a straight-up viking:

Dude’s also known as “the bearded giant,” and what a mighty beard it is. So very viking. Anywho, these guys are among the ranks of Scandanavian craft brewers that draw a lot of attention from American beer dorks (though local adoption of “craft” styles have decreased their amount of export). One of the interesting tidbits from the above mentioned video is that Kjetil Jikiun was an airline pilot who, inspired by American craft beer, managed to bring home some American ingredients and use it in his homebrew. He entered it into competitions, which were more strictly hewing to traditional English or German styles and gave him feedback that his brews were too powerful or too hoppy and unbalanced. Well, nuts to that, so he opened his own brewery, and along with a handful of other Scandanavian brewers, has been spreading the word of good beer to all who will listen. Which also includes a lot of American beer nerds (like myself) who pay handsomely to sample these brews.

This particular beer was originally made as their 100th batch and only distributed to their employees, but it was so popular, they had to release it commercially.

Nogne O #100

Nøgne Ø #100 – Pours a dark brown color with amber highlights when held up to the light and a half finger of light tan head. Smells strongly of piney, resiny, hops and lots of crystal malt. It feels like this isn’t quite as fresh as it could be, but I guess we’ll find out. Taste has more of that crystal malt character, perhaps of the darker variety, along with some other more chocolate or toasted type malts. Faded hops come out to play in the middle and finish, which isn’t quite bitter, but there’s just barely enough to balance out the big malt character. Mouthfeel is surprisingly well carbonated with tight, smooth bubbles. Definitely a big beer, plenty of booze, a little stickiness in the finish. Overall, a solid American style barleywine, I kinda wish I got a fresher bottle, but them’s the breaks. B though I suspect a fresh bottle would garner a higher rating… It’s clearly very well made, but I can really feel that faded hop character.

Beer Nerd Details: 10% ABV bottled (500 ml). Drank out of a snifter on 11/16/12. IBU: 80. Hops: Columbus, Chinook, and Centennial.

Nøgne Ø continues to be interesting to me, and I really can’t fault them for this old bottle as it sat in my (unrefrigerated) cellar for quite a while, which probably accounts for the faded hops. I’ll probably try some more stuff from them at some point, provided I can scrape together enough shekels to buy them. In the meantime, I just had another beer from a different Norwegian brewery that I thought was really fantastic. Look for a review, er, next week? When I get to it, okay?

Duck-Rabbit Rabid Duck

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Slaying ducks. It’s not quite like slaying Loons or whales (and certainly not .rar walez), but it’ll do in a pinch:

Duck-Rabbit Rabid Duck

Duck-Rabbit Rabid Duck – Pours a deep black color with a couple fingers of fluffy dark tan head. Smells faintly of roasted malt, but oddly enough, a fair amount of fruit coming through in the nose as well as chocolate and caramel, really quite nice. That roast hits first and much more prominently in the taste, but a sweet sorta chocolate covered fruit flavor emerges in the middle leading back into some dark, toasted malt character and dry bitterness in the finish. The fruity character was unexpected, and there’s some additional flavors floating in here and there, like maybe licorice or something (rabies-infested ducks? Needs more duck.) Mouthfeel is well carbonated, medium to full bodied but with a brightness from the fruity character that makes this seem lighter than it is. Overall, this is quite an unusual duck. Not like anything I’ve had before and though it’s not really lighting my world on fire, I’m really happy I tried it. B

Beer Nerd Details: 10% ABV bottled (12 oz) Drank out of a snifter on 11/10/12.

I think I was expecting more out of a RIS from self-billed “dark beer experts” than what I got here, but it was fine. Still, it sorta pales in comparison to some recent tastings. Stay tuned for a tale of two bottle releases, coming tomorrow…

Novembeer Club

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Tonight was beer club, a meeting of beer minded individuals from my work who get together once a month to share good beer, a good meal, and good company! We typically congregate at a local BYOB to share all our brews and wines and whatnot. As per usual, much merriment was had by all, lots of beer and wine and good food. It ended up being a rather small gathering by our normal standards, but still plenty of fantastic beer shared by all.

Novembeer Club

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For the sake of posterity, some thoughts on each beer are below. Standard disclaimers about the fact that I wasn’t in a sensory deprivation chamber whilst tasting these, and in a lot of cases, I was only sampling rather small pours, but whatevers. Take these descriptions with a grain of salt if you’re really concerned, but you really shouldn’t be, because I’m pretty awesome. Or not. Whatever. Here’s what I had (in order of drinking, not necessarily in order of the picture above):

  • Kaedrin Abbey Dubbel – My homebrewed abbey dubbel style beer seems to still be conditioning, though it’s getting better every week. Right now, it’s quite tasty, if a bit boozy, and the carbonation doesn’t seem to have fully taken hold of the brew. This is actually somewhat expected, given that the brew came in much stronger than I had originally intended. I suspect this will be drinking fabulously in a few weeks or so… I wll refrain from rating right now, just cause I want to give it some more time to mature…
  • Turkey Drool Homebrew – A friend of a friend of a friend contributed this homebrew, which actually seemed to fall a little flat, especially when compared with other brews we had tonight. There didn’t seem to be any off flavors, per say, but on the other hand, what was there was very subtle if not non-existent. From the ingredient list, I was expecting much more out of this. Again, not the worst thing evar and certainly drinkable, but also completely forgetable. C+
  • New Belgium Snow Day – A strange, but mostly enjoyable brew. BeerAdvocate classifies it as an American Black Ale, but I would say that it’s more of hoppy red ale than that implies. Maybe some winter warmer base here, but quite a nice hop character to it. Overall, very drinkable stuff, a nice hop presence, but it’s not going to light the world on fire either. B
  • Great Lakes Christmas Ale (2011) – Kaedrin friend Dana procured this last year, and has held on to it since then. Apparently a highly sought after beer, this is a very light colored winter warmer style offering, reminiscent of a deeper English pale ale that doesn’t quite contain any of that diacetyl character I associate with it. Sweet, a very light spiciness, flavorful, but not quite blowing me away either. I can see why this is a prized holiday brew, but it’s not something I go out of my way for… B
  • Westmalle Trappist Tripel – A classic, which I have already reviewed in detail. For the most part, it’s as good as evar. On a personal level, I’ve cooled somewhat on the tripel style, though I still quite enjoy one every once in a while… A
  • Kona Pipeline Porter – Holy coffee, Batman! This is apparently a porter, but it’s heavily influenced by coffel flavors all throughout, sorta light a lighter Founders Breakfast Sout. I’m not really a fan of coffee or porters in general, so it’s pretty amazing that I didn’t tink of this as the worst thing I’ve ever tasted. It’s actually pretty solid and goes down easily. That being said, I don’t think I’d ever really seek to try this again… B-
  • Weyerbacher Winter Ale – Another beer I’ve had and reviewed before. For the most part, my feelings remain unchanged. It’s a fine beer, a pretty standard winter warmer, but I’d like to see more complexity and flavor out of this one. B
  • Monk’s Café Flemish Sour Red Ale – One of my contributions for the night, this is one of those beers often recommended to sour newbies, and it actually did seem to go over really well with the beer club folks, even those who don’t go in for normal beertastic stuff. A nice malt backbone and sweet fruit character followed by a very slight sourness that nevertheless cut through and made this one of the more flavorful brews of the night. Overall, definitely a nice beginners sour beer, something I’ll probably try again at some point as well… B+
  • Nebraska Hop God – Reserve Series Aged In French Oak Chardonnay Barrels – Yet another of my contributions for the night, this one turned out to be interesting, if not quite what I expected from a beer called “Hop God”. Hops certainly play a role in the flavor profile, but it’s mostly defined by that oak Chardonnay character, with some booze peeking through as well. It’s really quite nice, though I wish I had a better palate for white wine. B or B+
  • Victory Storm King Stout – Once again, we get a beer I’ve had before. It’s a beer I’ve come to appreciate more and more over the years, but I still wouldn’t rate it among the highest imperial stouts. Still a solid stout with a big hop presence. B+
  • Goose Island Bourbon County Brand Stout – My last contribution for the night, this is just as good as it was the last time I had it. Beer club peeps seemed to enjoy, though there were a couple that don’t particularly enjoy those bourbon flavors, and thus didn’t care for this. Me, I’ll leave it at an A.

And there you have it. Another successful outing, as per usual. Alas, we didn’t get to all the beers we brought (I was particularly interested in Lancaster’s Winter Warmer, but I’m sure I’ll catch up with it sometime). Already looking forward to next month and some more holiday brews…

Mikkeller Barrel-Aged Black Hole

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In anticipation of Red Wednesday, I figured it might be a good idea to check out some non-sour beers aged in red wine barrels. This one is part of a series of beers, all aged in different types of barrels. While the version aged in Scotch whisky barrels apparently represents a “scorching oral douche“, all the other variations seem to be pretty well received, including this red-wine version:

Mikkeller Barrel Aged Black Hole (Red Wine Edition)

Mikkeller Barrel-Aged Black Hole (Red Wine Edition) – Pours a thick-looking, very dark brown (almost black) color with a solid finger of light brown head. Smells sugary sweet, dark caramel and roast malt aromas, something bright that I assume is the doing of the red wine, and that oak is adding a nice rich complexity to the nose too. The taste is… whoa… yeah, that happened. Starts off very sweet followed by a big wallop of oak, then a bit of those astringent red wine tannins kick in, finishing off with mellow roast and coffee notes. Each of those flavors hits at a discrete point in the taste. One flavor hits, then fades as the next flavor rides in, only to give way to another, and so on… It’s like I’m drinking a boxing match. Fortunately, most of these flavors work well. Mouthfeel is full bodied and chewy, but not overwhelmingly so. There’s an acidic tannin kick in the mouthfeel, presumably from the red wine, but it’s not sour or even tart in any way (as expected). Overall, I’m really enjoying this unique, complex beer, though I don’t know that it’s something I’d hit up often. B+

Beer Nerd Details: 13.10% ABV bottled (375 ml capped). Drank out of a snifter on 11/9/12.

I am now officially excited for Red Thunder, as I think this sort of treatment might be better integrated into a slightly less hot base beer, but I guess we’ll find out. I’m sure I’ll pick up more of these Black Hole variations (in particular, it seems the Cognac version is popular) at some point, but I wouldn’t expect to see that anytime soon. My cellar is becoming unruly again.

Double Feature: Ola Dubh and Highland Park 12

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I’ve finally completed the cycle. Ola Dubh is a series of beers aged in different vintage Highland Park Scotch casks. I’ve already had four of the five available vintages, and they’ve ranged from the sublime to the merely great. Strangely, the “youngest” vintage was also the hardest to find (probably because it’s the “cheapest”, though it’s still obscenely priced), but it also happens to be aged in the casks of one of my favorite “everyday” scotches, so I figured I should just go ahead and try both during the same session.

Harviestoun Ola Dubh 12 and Highland Park 12

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Harviestoun Ola Dubh Special Reserve 12 – Pours a very dark brown with the slightest tinge of amber and a half finger of head. Big aromas of caramel, chocolate, and whisky, with some oak and vanilla and maybe even honey. The taste hits with a surprisingly peaty, smokey flavor right off the bat before settling into more typical caramel malt flavors. But that smoke is kinda ever-present, even in the finish and aftertaste. This is a little surprising given that I don’t think of Highland Park as being a smokey peat bomb. On the other hand, while smokey, it’s nowhere near as awkwardly balanced as beer aged in Islay Scotch casks, so there is that. But even this amount of smoke makes it harder for some of the more traditional chocolate and caramel flavors to assert themselves. Mouthfeel is medium bodied, a little thinner than expected, though there’s obviously plenty here to chew on. Well balanced carbonation and it actually goes down pretty easy. Overall, this isn’t a disaster or anything, but it is a bit of a letdown when compared to the others in the series, which are just much more balanced and complex. I’m still glad I tried some and it was enjoyable enough to warrant a weak B, but I’m again curious as to what a fresher bottle would taste like.

Beer Nerd Details: 8% ABV bottled (11.2 oz) Drank out of a snifter on 11/9/12. Bottle Number: 07449. Bottled in February 2010.

Highland Park 12 – Holy shit, I don’t think I ever reviewed Scotch before. What do I do? I’ll just pretend it’s beer. Pours a golden light brown color with absolutely no head (uh, not that there’s supposed to be, but come on, work with me here). Smells, um, like whisky. No, seriously, it’s got a very light peat and smoke profile going on (though nothing that I’d think would lead to the smokiness in the aforementioned beer), along with some light caramel and honey, with that high octane, nose-singed alcohol note. Taste actually follows the nose, though some other notes emerge too. Light smoke and peat (again, not so much that I’d expect beer aged in these casks to be overwhelmed by it), some caramel, maybe a little graininess, some spicy character, and you know, booze. Mouthfeel is relatively smooth, with some of that spicy alcohol adding a little harshness. Overall, it’s one of my go-to Scotches, it’s got lots of complex flavors going on, but it’s the complete package. Good stuff. I’ll use my Scotch ratings scale. 4942 points.

Whisky Nerd Details: 43% ABV bottled (750 ml, 1 dram pour). Drank out of a Glencairn nosing glass on 11/9/12.

So there you have it. Not quite the face melting night I was hoping for, but enjoyable enough anyway. This more or less completes the cycle of Ola Dubh for me, unless Harviestoun starts sourcing more obscure Highland Park casks or something. Despite my thoughts on the 12 above, the rest of the series has been excellent enough that I’d love to try other vintages/specialty Scotch aged beers from Harviestoun. Speaking of the rest of the series, I think the final ranking of beers based on the vintage of the casks they were aged in comes down to: 40, 18, 30, 16, 12. Unfortunately, these things are obscenely expensive, especially when you hit the older vintages.

DuClaw Retribution

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Due to the inherent variability in aging beer, most barrel aged liquids are actually blended together before bottling time. Those angels are thirsty, but they don’t drink equally from each barrel, not to mention that moron Randy from Accounting1 who is constantly trying to sneak a sample of your latest barrel aged brew.

This is generally the case with anything aged in barrels. Some of the complexity in Scotch comes from the fact that different barrel types and ages are blended together into the final product. Of course, there are beers that are all about the blend too, like Gueuzes, and there are others that are blends of completely different beers (a la Firestone Anniversary beers). But even your lowly, garden-variety bourbon barrel aged stout gets some blending love (i.e. the contents of each barrel are combined into one mass) before bottling, thus evening out the batch and ensuring some form of consistency.

Naturally, there are exceptions. I have a bottle of Balvenie 15 that is utterly superb, but that’s a Scotch bottled from single barrels. No blending. They don’t even claim consistency and actually use the variability as a selling point: “Each bottle is unique and unrepeatable.” This appears to be DuClaw’s strategy for Retribution, a single barrel bourbon aged imperial stout. Let’s see how that turned out for them.

DuClaw Retribution

DuClaw Retribution – Pours a very dark amber brown that pretty much looks black once poured out, with half a finger of light brown head. Smells strongly of bourbon, with some vanilla, caramel, and oak asserting themselves. The taste is extremely sweet, with plenty of that bourbon and vanilla character, some caramel, a little chocolate, and plenty of sticky booze in the finish. Mouthfeel is sticky, medium bodied, boozy, a little light on carbonation (but just barely enough to make this palatable). Maybe a bit on the cloying side as I near the end of the bottle. Overall, it’s a fine barrel aged beer, but not among the top tier. I wonder if it would have been better fresh (or if barrel 8 was a dud). B

Beer Nerd Details: 9% ABV?2 bottled (22 oz. bomber). Drank out of a snifter on 11/4/12. Label sez: Date in Barrel: 03/11/2011. Date Out of Barrel: 09/19/2011. Barrel No. 08 of 20.

So I like DuClaw and ultimately enjoyed this, but they’re no Balvenie. Despite the assumed variability, I’m not sure I want to pick up other bottles of this, though I wouldn’t mind sampling it if I ever end up in one of their brewpubs or something. Also, they apparently make something called Divine Retribution which is a blend of Retribution and their massive 21% ABV Colossus. Yikes.

1 – If you are reading this post and your name is Randy, I apologize. Obviously I don’t mean you. No Randys were harmed in the composition of this post.

2 – The bottle I have in front of me right now sez 9% ABV, Beer Advocate and Ratebeer say 10.5%, and DuClaw’s website clocks it at 11.5%. Perhaps barrel 8 really did suck and only came in at 9%, or this 2011 batch came in lower than expected or something.

Alesmith Wee Heavy

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According to the collective wisdom of a bunch of (probably inexperienced, disinterested, hype-driven, haters-gonna-hate hipster1) strangers, this is the second-best Scotch Ale2 in the world. Score one for the home team. I’m sure no one in Scotland knows how to make these things. Incidentally, the number one beer is… a barrel aged version of Alesmith Wee Heavy. Of course it is!3</sup

So it seems that Alesmith's got the style all locked up… though it's not like this is one of them trendy styles that every brewer is pouncing on. Or drinkers for that matter. I mean, I get a nice vibe from the style, but I’ve only reviewed 3 of them in the past two years (and one of those was a barrel aged version of another), though I will say that Dieu Du Ciel’s Équinoxe Du Printemps was a superb beer, even if I probably wouldn’t have pegged it as a Wee Heavy in a blind tasting. So let’s see how Alesmith fares:

Alesmith Wee Heavy

Alesmith Wee Heavy – Pours a deep, dark brown color with a finger of tan head. Smells of rich, sweet caramel along with some malty fruitiness. Taste is very sweet, less caramel and more toast than in the nose (but both are present here), maybe a hint of smoke (perhaps even peat?), and some booze in the finish. Less of that dark fruit than the nose as well, though it’s still peeking through. It’s not bitter, but it’s got enough oomph to balance out the big malt character. Mouthfeel is tightly carbonated, creamy, full bodied, a bit boozy (nice warming sensation in my belly from that alcohol), very slight stickiness. Overall, this is a very nice, well balanced, traditional Scotch ale, on the upper end of a B+

Beer Nerd Details: 10% ABV bottled (750 ml capped). Drank out of a tulip glass on 11/3/12.

So Dieu Du Ciel remains my standard bearer, but this one comes in a close second. Alesmith continues to impress, and while this doesn’t make me want to explore every Wee Heavy I can get my hands on, it does make me want to explore more Alesmith beer. Go me.

1 – I am, of course, just kidding, but sometimes it’s hard to take reviewers on these sites seriously. On the other hand, who am I kidding? I have a blog with hundreds of reviews of varying quality and I’d still consider myself inexperienced. So fiddlesticks. Wait, what? Am I still typing? Dammit, stop.

2 – Also known as Wee Heavy, a phrase I pedantically dissected a while back. You’re welcome.

3 – This might sound sarcastic or snarky, but I’m so in the bag for barrel aged stuff that I wrote this with the utmost sincerity and didn’t realize that the tone might be interpreted in another way until I reread the post, hence this footnote. I guess what I’m trying to say here is that if you have one of these things, we should set up a trade or something.