Stout

Best Worst Double Feature

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Well, I’m cheating here. Two nights, two beers, and three movies. Not quite a double feature, but close enough! Or maybe not. The point of the beer double feature is to compare two beers of similar style, and the two beers below couldn’t be more different. On the filmic side of things, it’s a weekend of Trolls. One of the documentaries released this year that I’ve been really interested in seeing was Best Worst Movie. It’s about the movie Troll 2, once crowned as the worst movie of all time, but which has somewhat recently undergone a resurgence as a cult classic (a “so bad it’s good” kinda thing). Best Worst Movie was recently released on DVD, so in addition to adding it to my Netflix queue, I wanted to check out the movie itself… and Troll 2 is only available on a double feature disc of its own (with the original Troll). Intriguing, as those two movies have nothing to do with each other. Well, let’s just say that the movies are all just about what you might expect .

The original Troll is actually a pretty interesting movie. Terrible, of course, but very watcheable. Plus, it’s got midgets, a troll-filled musical number, and, I shit you not, a boy named Harry Potter who learns magic in order to defeat the trolls (seriously, Harry fucking Potter!?). Troll 2 is… hard to explain. I don’t really think it deserves the title of worst movie ever, but it’s certainly in the running. There are so many nonsensical components to the movie that I don’t really know where to start. There are no trolls in the movie, only goblins (perhaps a pedantic distinction, but the lack of trolls is part of the movie’s charm), and they all live in a town called Nilbog (that’s goblin spelled backwards!). They lure people to their town, turn them into trees and plants, then eat them (you see, the goblins are vegetarians! Yes, the movie is an attack on vegetarians.) But it’s so earnest and completely ridiculous that it’s almost endearing (and most certainly funny), and so the cult that’s grown around the movie makes some sort of sense. Best Worst Movie chronicles that cult and it’s rise throughout the naughts. The documentary is made by Michael Stephenson, who played the little boy in Troll 2. There are some interesting parallels between the film’s popularity and the way the actors view the film – they are as aware as anyone of the inadequacies of the film, but even they come around as the cult grows. The film gets a bit repetitive as it goes on, but that’s also part of the point. Even the actors start to get sick of the screenings and repeating the lines over and over again (“You don’t piss on hospitality!”) and attending weird horror conventions and the like. It’s an interesting bit of filmic nostalgia and I greatly enjoyed it, along with some beers!

Saison Dupont

Saison Dupont – The saison style of beer has apparently been somewhat endangered, but in recent years it’s had a bit of a resurgence, led by the likes of Ommegang’s excellent Hennepin, and also Saison Dupont, which was named by Men’s Journal as “the Best Beer in the World” a few years ago. Pours a slightly hazy golden color, nice fluffy head with some lacing as I drink. Smells great. Perhaps a bit of fruit in the nose, lots of spices (coriander? clove?), but nothing overpowering. Taste is sweet, citrusy and a little tart, with a full body, lots of carbonation and a bit of a harsh mouthfeel (as I’ve already established, that sort of harshness isn’t necessarily a bad thing). There’s a bitterness, but it’s not hoppy. Is it the best beer in the world? I have a terrible time choosing favorites and picking bests, but I could certainly entertain the notion, which says a lot. A

Beer Nerd Details: 6.5% ABV bottled (750 ml, caged and corked bottle). Drank from a goblet (get it, goblin? goblet? Ha!).

Southern Tier Creme Brulee

Southern Tier Creme Brulee (Imperial Milk Stout) – Recommended to me by Kaedrin regular Sovawanea, I have to admit that part of the reason I wanted to try this was that it’s got such an evocative name. It just sounds like a perfect match. Pours a deep black color with a very thin, beige head. Smells very sweet, lots of vanilla and caramel. Usually the nose tapers off as I drink a beer, but not in this case – aromatic to the very end (even the empty glass gave off a strong scent). I didn’t notice it, but the bottle says to drink it chilled out of a snifter, and that makes sense given the great aroma this stuff gives off. That vanilla and caramel shows up pretty strongly in the taste as well, but it’s tempered by the roasty malt sweetness in a decidedly, well, creme brulee fashion. It’s not as roasty as other stouts I’ve had recently (either that, or the sweetness is overpowering the roasted flavors). I found myself drinking quite slowly (it lasted longer than the documentary), but that’s probably a good thing given the 10% ABV! Even so, it’s perhaps a bit too sweet for one person to drink an entire 22 oz bottle of this stuff. It gets a bit cloying towards the end… (apparently I’m not the only one who recently tried this and felt that way) Nevertheless, it’s an excellent and unique beer. It would make a nice after-dinner dessert to share with someone, and it’s also something that showcases the amazing variety of flavors that beer can have (it could be a decent gateway beer in the right scenario). B+

Beer Nerd Details: 10% ABV bottled (22 oz bomber). Drank out of a pint glass (apparently shoulda been a snifter though)

So two pretty different beers, but both are pretty great.

Victory Storm King and Dark Devil

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I’ve never really been a big fan of Stouts, but I’ve recently started trying a few, just to get a better handle on the style and have found them mostly enjoyable, though still not exactly my favorite style. Victory brewing is right around the corner from me, so it’s only natural for me to check out their year-round stout:

Victory Storm King

Victory Storm King Stout: Well, this is unlike any other stout I’ve ever tried, mostly due to it’s hoppy, bitter character. Pours a black color with a brown head. The taste starts with a roasty malt bitterness that eventually gives way to a more hoppy bitterness, making for an unusual stout (for me, at least). It’s much more hoppy than I’m used to for stouts, and while there’s a pretty good balance of flavor here, the bitterness remains its real defining characteristic. It’s almost like a dark version of an IPA (adding roasted flavors to the traditional crisp, bitter IPA style) rather than a straightforward stout. Relatively easy drinkability, which is a surprise given the high alcohol content. I enjoyed it, but it’s not something I’m going to go out of my way for. B

Beer Nerd Details: 9.10% ABV bottled (12 oz). Drank from a pint glass.

My beer club met earlier this week at a local pizza place that happens to have a fantastic beer selection, and one of our discoveries was the Victory Dark Devil. The Dark Devil is basically a combination of the Storm King Stout with Victory’s famous Hop Devil, and boy is it a fantastic match. It looks almost exactly like a normal Storm King, but the taste is more complex and flavorful. The Storm King itself already felt like a Hop Devil with more roasted malts, but when you add Hop Devil, you get something a little less biting and a little more flavorful. The Hop Devil has a more floral character, and that mixes really well with the Storm King. Apparently there’s a style of beer emerging lately that’s referred to as Black IPA, India Black Ale, or Cascadian Dark Ale, which is basically the combination of the IPA with the dark, roasted flavors of a stout. If the original Storm King doesn’t count, then this combination surely would… If it’s something you can find, try it out (haven’t tried making this from the bottle, but I imagine it would work well there too).

Jackass and Young’s Double Chocolate Stout

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There’s something commendable about the cast of Jackass and their willingness to endure pain and suffering for the sake of comedy. Sure, people farting or getting hit in the genitals with a ball isn’t exactly highfalutin, but I’ll be damned if I wasn’t laughing. A few years ago, one of the more pretentious movie critics I actually enjoyed listening to, on the podcast formerly known as Cinecast (#32, if you want to listen in), made a surprisingly vigorous defense of the first Jackass movie. His argument is that our society is, in some ways, constructed to avoid pain, and that the Jackass guys are laudable because they intentionally attempt to do things that no one else would ever think of doing. Yeah, that’s a pretty nerdy take on a movie prominently featuring poo, but it is an interesting perspective. Why do we avoid pain, and is that limiting our lives?

I just got out of Jackass 3D, and things have changed slightly. This time around, I’d say that the movie makes me wonder why society is constructed to avoid bodily waste products like vomit, urine, and feces. Oh no, wait, it didn’t. But it did remind me of that defense of the original Jackass, and I wish I had some sort of crazy disgusting beer to drink right now so that I could describe the experience for you, but alas, I have no Bud Light Chelada or Crazy Ed’s Cave Creek Chili Beer handy. Before taking in the cinematic wonder that is Jackass 3D, I did spend some time at another crappy sports bar… naturally, the selection was limited, but there were actually a few interesting beers on tap, so I tried out a stout, a style I’ve been meaning to get more acquainted with and which could potentially have provided me with a solid base for the vomit induced by the film:

Youngs Double Chocolate Stout

Young’s Double Chocolate Stout: Pours a nice dark black color with a full, thick and creamy head that was retained for a surprisingly long time. I couldn’t really pick up much in the way of smells, but the taste was a solid chocolately flavor. It was a nitro pour, so it was very smooth and creamy (it had very little carbonation) It was chocolately sweet, but it had a bitter character as well – it wasn’t exactly the familiar hoppy bite of an IPA or anything, but I guess that’s why they call it a chocolate stout. It has a full body, but not quite as heavy as I expected. I’ve never really been a big fan of Stouts and while this is certainly something I can drink, it’s not something that’s really converted me to a Stout fan (as winter approaches, I plan on trying out more in the style though, so I guess we’ll see). It’s a solid beer, probably even better than I was expecting, but it’s not lighting the world on fire either. I’ll give it a B

I suppose drinking a heavy, full bodied stout on a full stomach before watching the latest vomit-inducing Jackass film is somewhat daring, but unfortunately, I didn’t actually throw up. I would really have enjoyed describing for you, in detail, the tastes and mouthfeel of the beer coming back up, but alas, it wasn’t to be. I’m sure some of you are taking that as a good thing, but I’m thinking of myself as a failure tonight. Thanks a lot Jackass!

Beer Nerd Details: 5.2% ABV on Nitro Tap. Drank from a pint glass.