Stout

Lost Abbey Serpent’s Stout

by

Because you don’t know the power of the dark side until you try it:

Lost Abbey Serpents Stout

The Lost Abbey Serpent’s Stout – Pours a pitch black color (darker than a politician’s heart, you know, while we’re talking about serpents and good vs. evil and all) with a gorgeous two finger light brown head. Seriously dark head here, and it leaves tons of lacing as I drink. Smells of rich, dark malts, a nice roast, chocolate, maybe some coffee. Taste starts with those rich dark malts (a richness I usually associate with barrel aged stuff, though I don’t think this is barrel aged), then the roast hits hard, black coffee and bitter dark chocolate asserting themselves, and a well matched finish too. Not really bitter, per say, but there’s plenty here that balances out the sweetness. Mouthfeel is thick and chewy, lots of rich malts, but there’s plenty of carbonation to balance things out too, making this a pleasant sipper (impressive for such a big, heavy beer). Overall, this is a fantastic imperial stout, near top tier (and certainly one of the best that’s readily available in the area). A-

Beer Nerd Details: 11% ABV bottled (750 ml caged and corked). Drank out of a tulip glass on 3/29/13. 2013 Vintage.

Every time I have a Lost Abbey beer, I’m tempted to take out a second mortgage and go all in to acquire some of their .rar sours or whatnot. Stupid serpent with it’s forked tongue. In the meantime, I’ll be keeping an eye out for that Brett dosed Devotion that sounds rather yummy. Also got another bottle of Red Poppy, which is just superb.

Smarch Beer Club

by

Due to a calendar misprint, the Smarch edition of beer club came later than normals, but we had it all the same. For the uninitiated, beer club is where a bunch of booze-minded folks from my work get together and sample beers and usually other beverages of choice. We always hit up a local BYOB and tonight, we didn’t even get banned! Good times had by all, and we got to drink some pretty good beer too:

Smarch Beer Club

(Click for bigger image)

In accordance with tradition, I will henceforth record some disgruntled, freakish opinions on each beer below. You know, for posterity. Of course none of these notes are reliable because I wasn’t in a sensory deprivation chamber and didn’t chemically cleanse my palate after every sip, so read them at your own risk. In order of drinking (not in order of picture, and due to some tardy attendees, some are not even pictured):

  • Kaedrin Fat Weekend IPA – My homebrewed IPA, one of the last bottles at this point, seemed to go over pretty well. Again, I hope to do a more detailed review at some point, but in short, it came out super dank, very piney and resinous hop character dominates the flavor. A little overcarbonated, but I should be able to correct that in future batches. I’ll refrain from rating right now, but aside from the carbonation issues, I really like this.
  • Wagner Valley IPA – I’ve used this description before, but it’s perfect for a beer like this: It reminds me of the sort of thing you’d get in a John Harvard’s brewpub, circa 1998. Totally an improvement over most macro lagers, but not particularly accomplished either. C+
  • DuClaw Naked Fish – A beer we’ve had before (at beer club, even), and my thoughts haven’t changed much at all. It’s got a really nice raspberry and chocolate character mixed with a really low-octane stout base. Easy enough to drink, but it’s not going to blow you away. B
  • Ken’s Homebrewed Oktoberfest – New homebrewer Ken brought one of his first batches, an Octoberfest beer that probably still needs some conditioning time, but was drinkable as it was. It had some apple-like off flavors, but it was actually sorta pleasant anyway…
  • Magic Hat Pistil – Super light, flowery, herbal, crisp and refreshing, would make a great summer beer. Not something that will blow away jaded beer nerds or anything, but it was actually a nice palate cleanser and certainly a lot more pleasant than macro stuff. B
  • Flying Dog Lucky S.O.B. – A pretty straightforward Irish Red Ale. Not bad or anything, but not particularly distinguished either. Nice malt backbone, easy drinking stuff. B-
  • Kaedrin Stout – Another of my homebrews, this thing is about a year and a half old, and it’s actually drinking really well! Complex malt character, caramel, roast, dark chocolate, still packs a whallop of flavor and hasn’t really lost anything over the year and a half in my cellar. On the other hand, this has always been a beer that’s worked well in small pours. Still, I think I may revisit the recipe next year, perhaps amp it up a bit more, give it some more hops, get a higher attenuating yeast. It’s pretty good right now, but it could be great.
  • Boulevard Harvest Dance Wheatwine – It’s like a hefeweizen, only moreso. In my limited experience with big wheat beers, I’ve always gotten cloying, sticky sweet notes that just made it unpalatable. But this drinks like a slightly boozy hefeweizen. Huge banana and clove weizen yeast character in the nose, and you really don’t get that big boozy flavor until the finish, and even then, it doesn’t quite feel like a 9.1% monster. Still not my favorite style, but this was among the best I’ve had. B+
  • DuClaw Bourbon Barrel Aged Devil’s Milk – The regular Devil’s Milk is a wonderful little barleywine, this bourbon-barrel aged version makes a nice complementary offering. It’s a huge, bourbon forward beer, lots of caramel and vanila, much less in the way of hops than the base, but still an eminently drinkable brew. Would like to try again sometime, but I’ll give it an tentative A-
  • Weyerbacher Riserva (2012) – Picked this up at the release at the brewery this past weekend (will have a more detailed post later, stay tuned), even briefly crossed paths with Rich on Beer and fam on my way to pick up some Riserva and the last NATO beer (Zulu, which, again, will be covered in a separate post at some point). Anyways, Riserva is an oak aged beer made with raspberries. It’s going to be distributed, but as American Wild Ales go, it’s pretty solid stuff. It’s not a top tier Russian River killer or anything, but it’s got a place at the table, and I’m continually surprised at how well sour beers go over with the beer club crowd. Even non-beer drinkers gave this a shot and really enjoyed it. For my part, I found it to be a bit hot, but otherwise a pretty solid beer. Funky, intensely sour, but with a nice oak character balancing things out. A little astringent and boozy, but still really enjoyable. Not sure about knocking back an entire 750 ml of this, but I’m sure it will happen someday. B+

And that about covers it. Good times had by all, and already planning next month’s meetup, since this month happened so late.

HaandBryggeriet Dark Force

by

After sampling this tiny Scandanavian brewery’s wares a few months ago, I immediately made plans to get my haands on some more of their stuff. Norwegian Wood was possibly the best straight-up smoked beer I’ve ever had, and this one, well this one is unique. They call this thing a “Double Extreme Imperial Wheat Stout”, a style I can’t imagine is very common. I’m sure some cuckoo-nutso homebrewer is out there right now doing the same thing, but then again, these HaandBryggeriet guys are basically homebrewers. They brew in their spare time on “an absurdly small scale”, which allows them to embrace whatever quirky ideas they may have. In this case, the wheat malt and yeast mixes surprisingly well with the more traditional roasted malt character, and I got some really well balanced smoke out of it too. Truly, the force is with this one (even if it is the dark side):

HaandBryggeriet Dark Force

HaandBryggeriet Dark Force – Pours a very dark brown, almost black color with half a finger of light brown head. Smells very sweet, caramel, toffee, some wheat, some roast, and maybe even some smoke. Actually, as it warms, that smoked character develops even more, giving off a sorta meaty character. This isn’t one of those overpoweringly smoked beers, it’s subtle, but distinct, and while I usually don’t get meaty character out of smoked beers, I’m getting it here. Taste has some light, rich caramel tones, that touch of smoke is more prominent here too, and some wheat and roasted malt too. Again, smoked bacon character is emerging as it warms, and it’s actually really well matched with the rest of the beer. This is not one of those unbalanced “who put their cigar out in my beer” affairs, it actually fits with the rest of the beer. Subtle and complex flavors. Mouthfeel has plenty of carbonation, a welcome depth and richness. It’s not dry, but for such a big beer, it’s not very sticky icky either. Overall, this is an excellent and well crafted stout. Delicious and complex, well worth seeking out. A-

Beer Nerd Details: 9% ABV bottled (500 ml). Drank out of a snifter on 3/22/13. (No bottling/batch info on label, for some reason)

This pretty much exhausts my current supply of HaandBryggeriet treats, but I’m sure I’ll revisit them soon enough. They’re clearly in the upper tier of my Euro-brewer experience.

The Bruery Black Tuesday

by

The notion of a white wale in the beer dorkosphere is a sorta moving target. When you’re a newb or even an intermediate beer nerd, stuff like KBS or just about anything remotely desirable that’s outisde your normal distribution chain can feel like a whale. Then you discover the swanky world of beer trading and realize that true .rar wales are a whole other level. Fortunately, I’m fine with regular ol’ shelf-wales or stuff like Black Tuesday, a limited (if you consider 3-5 thousand bottles limited – shit sold out in 10 minutes, though, so there is that), brewery-only release that is nevertheless available to those of us fortunate enough to find a mule willing to pick your beer up for you. Big ups to DDB for muling my bottles (and, apparently, lots of others).

So, what’s the big deal here? Well, this is a 19.2% ABV imperial stout aged in bourbon barrels for over a year, and the opinions of a bunch of strangers on the internet seems to indicate that it’s really fucking awesome. Indeed, this might very well be the strongest beer I’ve ever actually tried, and for crying out loud, it only comes in 750 ml bottles. It’s either something you need to share with a bunch of people, or something you greedily keep to yourself so that you achieve your goal of contracting diabetes. I opted for the latter option, clearing out my Saturday to slowly take this sucker down. I started drinking this bottle at 5, ended at 10. Now, “strong” does not always translate to “awesome”, but in this case, spiking the blood sugar levels was totally worth it, and it was a worthy finale to my Bruery fueled, wallet lightening winter:

The Bruery Black Tuesday

The Bruery Black Tuesday (2012) – Pours a deep, dark brown color, almost but not quite a black hole from which no light can escape, with a thin cap of light brown head. Smells incredible, tons of bourbon, oak, vanilla, caramel, chocolate, booze, and a very light touch on roast. Taste follows suit. Rich, chewy caramel, bourbon, oak, vanilla, chocolate, maybe even some coconut, a heaping helping of booze, finishing with that hint of roast. Amazingly complex, picking up new subtleties with each sip. Mouthfeel is full bodied, rich, thick, and chewy, with some definite alcohol heat on the backend, but nothing unpleasant at all. Even after a small sip, my mouth is coated, leaving the aftertaste to linger for a while. A sipping beer, for sure, but in the best possible way. I wish it was colder and that I could sit in front of a fireplace or some shit. It’s approachable, but astoundingly complex. It’s hard to call something this intense well balanced, but there’s no really dominant aspect either, and like I said, I keep discovering new bits with each sip. Overall, this beer is fill with a richness and complexity that few others can approach. Amazing, face-melting stuff. A

Beer Nerd Details: 19.2% ABV bottled (750 ml capped and waxed). Drank out of a tulip on 3/9/13. Label sez: “Contains Alcohol” which I think is right.

Potential A+ stuff here, though I have a semi-rule that I won’t hand one of those out unless I try something on at least two separate occasions. Fortunately, I have another bottle of this stuff in the cellar, so this is an actual possibility. Plus, I will most likely try for this again next year, perhaps even trying my hand at the next level variants like Chocolate Rain or Grey Monday. Or not. Maybe by that point I’ll be swimming in Blaeber and the actual walez like 2009 Black Tuesday. Time will tell (but, uh, I wouldn’t count on that).

De Molen Hemel & Aarde

by

Tilting at windmills1 over here, dipping into my cellar to pull out this Dutch imperial stout made with peated barley malts from Bruichladdich (one of them Islay Scotch distilleries2). Not exactly the sort of thing that inflames passions, but appealing from a quixotic point of view, I guess:

De Molen Hemel and Aarde

Brouwerij De Molen Hemel & Aarde – Pours a deep black color with a light brown, big bubbled head that leaves some lacing as I drink. Smells of peated malts as well as the more traditional roasted malt character. Taste also features that smoky peat character, but it’s well balanced with a more traditional roasted malt character. Some chocolate and coffee are apparent, but that light peat smoke character is the big differentiator. Mouthfeel is full bodied, well carbonated, and relatively easy on the palate, especially given the strength. No real sign of the high alcohol here at all, well hidden. Overall, a solid, well balanced stout with a twist. B+

Beer Nerd Details: 10% ABV bottled (11.2 oz). Drank out of a snifter on 3/3/13.

Not quite the revelation of the peat dominated Rex Attitude, but a more interesting take on a smoked stout than Vampire Slayer. A nice opening gambit from De Molen, and I’m planning on tilting at their Hel & Verdoemenis next… looking forward to that one.

1 – “De Molen” means “The Mill” and is located inside a historic windmill called De Arkduif, and I’m sharpening my lances so that I may tilt at them (also tilting at my cellar, ’cause it needs some pruning).

2 – Bruichladdich was mothballed back in 1994, but reopened here in the 21st century. This superb New Yorker article, courtesy of the Beer Rover‘s little Twitter Feed, covers the whole ordeal in glorious detail and is well worth a read, no matter if you’re a Scotch fan or not!

Dock Street Oak Aged Prince Myshkin’s RIS

by

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.

Avery Black Tot

by

Infection! With my love for barrel aged beers, it was bound to happen sooner or later. Barrels are difficult to sterilize and their rough, permeable surface provides an environment conducive to wild beasties like bacteria or wild yeasts. Of course, brewers like Russian River and Jolly Pumpkin are intentionally trying to sour their beers, so they love to use barrels because of the way they can harbor said beasties. However, this beer, the third in Avery’s barrel aged series, was meant to be an imperial oatmeal stout aged in rum barrels. A few months after release, random reports of the “tot taint” started trickling in, and Adam Avery quickly responded to the BeerAdvocate and RateBeer communities, allowing folks with sour bottles to send the empty back to the brewery and get some sort of compensation. Very big of him, if you ask me. I’m not sure if every bottle is infected, but in Avery’s letter, they mentioned that you should drink it as soon as possible (so, uh, I guess I shouldn’t have drank this 3 years after bottling!)

Avery Black Tot

Avery Black Tot – Pours a very dark brown color, almost black, with a finger of light brown head. Smells faintly of that rum barrel aging, along with some fruity malt character that could foretell infection. Tastes… yep, infected. Definite sourness here, perhaps not completely overwhelming, but not exactly pleasant either. Astringent, with some bitterness apparent, not a particularly good combo. Mouthfeel is fine, full bodied, well carbonated, a little too astringent though. Overall, I’d love to have had a non-infected bottle of this stuff. As it is, it’s a slog to get through… D

Beer Nerd Details: 10.08% ABV bottled (12 oz). Drank out of a snifter on 2/16/13. Bottled: Jan 13 2010. Production: 315 cases.

It’s a shame, as I don’t think I’ve ever had a rum barrel aged beer before, and I’d really like to see how that turns out. Fortunately, I’ve got another, untainted bottle of rum barrel aged beer that came along in the same trade with Dave, so be on the lookout for that one. (I still made out well on the trade overall, so no worries there!) Despite the infection on this beer, I’m still looking forward to hitting up Avery from time to time. I’ve actually got at least one Avery beer aging in the cellar, one of the few, the proud, the purposely aged!

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

by

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!

Courage Imperial Russian Stout

by

This is as close as I’ll ever get to the ur-example of the Russian Imperial stout style, the granddaddy of all those monster stouts I love so much. Its origins date back to the 18th century, when an English brewery by the name of Thrale’s brewed an extra hearty stout for export to the court of Catherine the Great in Russia. The apocryphal story of the beer’s high alcohol and hop content is that they needed to do so in order for the beer to survive the trip (something about the beer freezing). This is apparently bunk. It turns out that the court of Catherine the Great was just a whole lot of fun, if you know what I mean.

Thrale’s was eventually bought by Barclay Perkins, and soon after that, this beer changed hands again when Courage took over Barclay. There it stayed for, oh, let’s say about 2 centuries. Courage fell on hard times, and by extension, so did their IRS. The style basically went extinct in Britain when Courage brewed their last batch in 1994, but us cheeky Yanks kept the style alive (what with our penchant for extreme beers) and UK brewer Wells & Young’s purchased the Courage brand, re-instituting the venerable IRS in 2011. It comes in an adorable little 9.3 ounce bottle and carries a rather large price tag. I guess I should expect a high cost given the .rar bottle count of just 210,000. This thing is going to taste so rare. Sarcasm aside, I figured a beer this storied and influential deserves a look:

Courage Imperial Russian Stout

Courage Imperial Russian Stout – Look at me, with all my fancy camera angles. Oh, right, I already set aside sarcasm. The beer pours a pitch black color with a couple fingers of light brown head that leaves plenty of lacing as I drink. Smells of Euro hops, light caramel, toffee, slight roast. The taste features that caramel and and prominent toffee character, those Euro hops (guess: Fuggles or some form of Goldings), with a very subdued roast character emerging in the finish. This is going to sound silly, but it tastes British, the sort of thing I’d call out blind for sure. That Euro hop character was surprising for a big stout like this, and the toffee notes also seem distinctly British. Or maybe I’ll full of shit. Mouthfeel is not quite as rich as I’d like, but definitely a lot to chew on, well carbonated, full bodied, but nothing overwhelming either. An interesting change of pace, for sure, though not a face melter or anything. I’m really glad I tried this, though something about that toffee character always bothers me. It wasn’t as big of a deal in this beer as it is in, say, a British pale ale, but I still found that a bit odd. I’ll give it a B with the proviso that this just isn’t suited towards my tastes.

Beer Nerd Details: 10% ABV bottled (9.3 oz.) Drank out of a snifter on 2/8/13. 2012 Vintage. Best by 16/08/25. Bottle No. 116,808 of 210,000.

I’d be curious about how time treats this one. According to Martyn, the hop character fades considerably (unsurprising, especially since he’s drinking a 40 year old bottle of the stuff!), though the toffee notes seem to stick around. On the other hand, I’d rather save my shekels and pick up an American facemelter more suited to my tastes.

February Beer Club

by

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.