Imperial Stout Tournament of Death: Round 3

Here it is, the pinnacle of our Tournament, Round 3, the all star round.  Here we pit the biggest and baddest brews I could find against each other.  All the hype goes out the window and we see if these brews can live up to their reputations.  I wanted to throw in Oak Aged Yeti as sort of a control group.  It is one of my favorite imperial stouts and is easily available.  Will the Yeti stand up to the likes of Parabola, CBS, or Goose Island?  This is not a shootout and thus not a blind tasting. We sampled each beer and ranked them in the order we preferred drinking them.  The same FatCat veterans came over and we wrapped up the first ever Imperial Stout Tournament of Death!  Here are the results.

FatCat’s Ranking:

Firestone Parabola #1
Great Divide Oak Aged Yeti #2
Goose Island Bourbon County Brand Stout #3
Schlafly 2008 Bourbon Barrel Imperial Stout #4
Founder’s Canadian Breakfast Stout #5

Greg’s Ranking:

Firestone Parabola #1
Great Divide Oak Aged Yeti #2  
Founder’s Canadian Breakfast Stout #3
Goose Island Bourbon County Brand Stout #4
Schlafly 2008 Bourbon Barrel Imperial Stout #5

Super Dave’s Ranking:

Great Divide Oak Aged Yeti #1
Firestone Parabola #2
Goose Island Bourbon County Brand Stout #3
Schlafly 2008 Bourbon Barrel Imperial Stout #4
Founder’s Canadian Breakfast Stout #5

The Winner:  Firestone Walker Parabola

The Parabola came in with high expectations.  It was my favorite beer of 2011 and is always highly touted in reviews.  The Parabola proved the hype to be true and destroyed the competition.  Parabola starts with a sweet and boozy nose.  Although the nose is not as big as the Goose Island, Parabola does make a statement.  The brew starts with good sweetness and then the bourbon starts hitting early in the palate.  The bourbon leads into a good oak character followed by a fair amount of bitterness.  For me the reason this brew was better than the others was the balance between the sweetness, bourbon, oak, and bitterness.  Some of the other brews were huge in sweetness and booze but that was it.  While the others relied on brute force to accomplish the job, the Parabola was a Kung Fu master.  It hits your palate in 4 different places before you realize what happened.  This is one of the brews I would consider a work of art.

Second Place:  Great Divide Oak Age Yeti

This was my dark horse in the tournament.  The Yeti doesn’t rely on hype, giant sweetness, or bourbon to court you.  It instead employs a solid malt character with good semi sweet chocolate notes.  Then a solid bitterness kicks in giving this imperial stout an almost refreshing quality.  The Yeti’s secret weapon is the oak character that coats your entire mouth as you enjoy this brew.  The oak, chocolate, and bitterness play a delicious symphony in your mouth.  Once you start drinking Yeti you never really want to stop.  One drink leads to the bottom of the bottle and that leads to a happy beer geek.  This widely available brew just beat out some of the biggest hyped beers available in our area. 

Third Place:  Goose Island Bourbon County Brand Stout

One word can describe this brew and that is HUGE.  The nose has huge sweetness and booze.  The mouthfeel is huge with a big syrupy character.  Sweetness is huge, supplemented by bourbon on the finish.  One description that came to mind while I was drinking this was “milk chocolate”.  It tasted like I was drinking a Hershey’s bar.  Luckily the smoothness of this brew pulled the milk chocolate character together with the bourbon finish and made it very enjoyable.  I think some age will level some of the sweetness off and make this brew a little more decadent. 

Fourth Place:  Schlafly 2008 Bourbon Barrel Aged Imperial Stout

This one surprised me as to how big it was.  The nose was just as potent as the Parabola and gave the Goose Island a run for it’s money.  The taste was big in sweetness with a moderate bourbon finish.  It was like the Goose Island’s little brother.  The mouthfeel was a little thin compared to the others which hurt it in the standing.  This had some prominent molasses character mixed in with the sweetness that added to its complexity.  Overall this brew was impressive especially when you factor in availability and the relatively low price point.

Fifth Place:  Founder’s Canadian Breakfast Stout

I think the group had the highest expectations for this brew and it was the biggest disappointment.  In my opinion this brew was almost exactly the same as the regular Founder’s Breakfast Stout.  It had the same coffee presence with the bittersweet chocolate mixed in.  About the only difference I could tell was the maple syrup in the finish.  Instead of having the regular breakfast stout dry finish it had the maple syrup sweetness on the end.  I wouldn’t consider this an improvement. 

Conclusion:

This round was awesome!  All of these brews were outstanding in their own right and we were very happy beer geeks by the end.  If you tried any of these brews on their own, any of these brews would be impressive.  However that's not what we were trying to accomplish here.  I wanted to know how these brews compared to each other and if they were overhyped.  I'll wrap up all three rounds in a separate post and we'll get to the bottom of this tournament.

Cheers!

Imperial Stout Tournament of Death: Round 2

As I’m sure everyone has been waiting with baited breath here is Round 2.  The stouts are getting bigger and badder with barrel aging added to their arsenals.  I had to make a quick substitution because I forgot to buy a Schlafly Bourbon Barrel Imperial Stout, so I threw FatCat’s own Bourbon Barrel Zombie Apocalypse into this round.  This is not a shootout and thus not a blind tasting. We sampled each beer and ranked them in the order we preferred drinking them. I invited some FatCat veterans over and we got through round 2 of the tournament. Here are the results.

FatCat’s Ranking:

Bourbon Barrel Zombie Apocalypse #1
Hoppin’ Frog Barrel Aged BORIS #2
Goose Island Big John #3
The Dogfather Barrel Aged #4

Super Dave’s Ranking:
Bourbon Barrel Zombie Apocalypse #1
Hoppin’ Frog Barrel Aged BORIS #2
The Dogfather Barrel Aged #3
Goose Island Big John #4

Greg’s Ranking:
Bourbon Barrel Zombie Apocalypse #1
Goose Island Big John #2
Hoppin’ Frog Barrel Aged BORIS #3
The Dogfather Barrel Aged #4


The Winner:  Bourbon Barrel Zombie Apocalypse
FatCat’s brew reigned supreme in this round.  This was my first attempt at “barrel aging” anything.  I used some toasted oak chips and soaked them in Elijah Craig bourbon.  I aged some of my Zombie Apocalypse on the oak chips for about two months and then bottled.  The outcome is a bourbon laced imperial spin kick in the face.  The nose has the same molasses character as the regular version except this version sports a beautiful bourbon aroma.  The brew has a decently thick mouthfeel of which I would like a bit thicker.  The taste is a little sweetness followed by a prominent black licorice note.  Intermingled are hints of oak and a slight alcohol burn from the bourbon.  There is also a bit of sour in the middle of the palate giving the impression of some dark fruit flavors.

Second Place:  Hoppin’ Frog Barrel Aged BORIS
This brew was big and sweet.  Usually I’m a fan of “big and sweet” but this one was overly sweet.  This is one of those brews that had the dreaded chocolate milk character.  There was some wood character followed by some fruit tastes in the middle of the palate.  Bourbon character was present but very subtle. 

Third Place:  Goose Island Big John
I previously reviewed this one and got a weird Elmers glue taste.  My internet detective work revealed this weird character was most likely alcohol bitterness from an immature brew.  I stowed this one away for almost a year and pulled it out for the tournament.  First off I will say the weird glue taste is gone so I would venture to say it was alcohol bitterness that caused the initial funny taste.  The second thing I will say is this brew was the odd man out in the competition.  It was the only one not barrel aged but instead was aged on cocoa nibs.  Big John started with a big nose of chocolate and malt sweetness.  The mouthfeel was big and did complement the sweetness of this brew.  The sweetness was balanced by a big coffee bitterness which started to hit you in the middle of the palate.  There was a bit of chocolate on the finish but was fairly subtle. 

Fourth Place:  The Dogfather Barrel Aged
This one was the least favorite of our group.  It had a prominent sour character that the others in this round did not.  Some of us perceived a sourness while others thought the strange character was bitterness.  Whether it was truly a sour character or just a byproduct of bitterness, this was the most bitter of all the stouts.  It was so bitter that Super Dave referred to it as a “Black IPA”.  The sourness/bitterness dominated and was followed by a bit of coffee-like quality.  There was a dark chocolate character in the aftertaste.  Overall this was an awkward barrel aged stout.  If you recall my previous review, the regular Dogfather was really weird in the fact it had an overwhelming cherry character to it.  Laughing Dog pulls weird stuff in their brews and the Barrel Aged Dogfather is no exception.

Conclusion:
The first round was outstanding, this round not so much.  I was largely disappointed in this round of the tasting.  The bright spot is FatCat’s brew took top honors but the bad thing is I was expecting the other brews to be better.  My homebrew is neither terrible nor award winning but I would expect breweries “special release” imperial stouts to be more exciting than this.  Never fear round 3 will be one for the ages as they say. 

Upcoming Round 3:
Firestone Parabola
Schlafly 2008 Bourbon Barrel Imperial Stout
Founder’s CBS
Oak Aged Yeti

I also have a bottle of Goose Island BCBS that may sneak its way into the tournament!

Hope everyone had a safe New Years and look forward to sharing a craft beer filled 2012 with everyone.

Cheers!

Imperial Stout Tournament of Death: Round 1

Here it is what we have all been waiting for…FatCat’s Imperial Stout Tournament of Death round 1.  What better way to ring in the holidays than to drink tons of imperial stout.  In case you’re behind on the cards, imperial stout is FatCat’s absolute favorite beer style in the world.  As part of my holiday celebration I’m going to enjoy some of the best stouts I could find all year.  This is not a shootout and thus not a blind tasting. We sampled each beer and ranked them in the order we preferred drinking them. I invited some FatCat veterans over and we got through round 1 of the tournament. Here are the results. 

Warning:  Beware of Zombies!

FatCat’s Ranking:
The Czar #1
The Zombie Apocalypse #2
Old Rasputin #3
Stone 2011 Imperial Stout #4

Greg’s Ranking:

The Czar #1
Old Rasputin #2
Zombie Apocalypse #3
Stone 2011 Imperial Stout #4

Super Dave’s Ranking:

Zombie Apocalypse #1
Old Rasputin #2
The Czar #3
Stone 2011 Imperial Stout #4

The Winner:  The Czar 
The Czar starts off with a huge nose begging you to dive in the thick malty goodness.  The nose starts with big malt sweetness with hints of bittersweet chocolate snaking its way out of the top of the glass.  The mouthfeel is very thick and chewy.  The taste mirrors the nose with big malt complexity and bittersweet chocolate on the finish.  This was definitely the thickest tasting of all the brews in this round.  The malt sweetness layers nicely and is big and complex.  There were subtle caramel notes up front followed by darker malt sweetness.  This leads to the signature bittersweet chocolate and some bitterness in the finish to bring the brew into acceptable balance for the style.  This brew is a real treat and is one of my favorite imperial stouts out there.  A bonus is it is reasonably priced and widely available in our area.  I love the Czar!

Second Place:  The Zombie Apocalypse 

This is one of my first homebrew attempts at an imperial stout.  I threw the whole gauntlet of ingredients at this one including some molasses.  As with most of my stuff this brew came out under carbonated.  One day I’ll figure out my kegging system and adequately carb something.  This brew is black as night and thick.  The nose is anise and black licorice with some sweetness playing around.  The mouthfeel is nice and thick but not as thick as the Czar.  The taste is big with hints of molasses and black licorice.  There is some initial malt sweetness that dives into the black licorice/molasses finish.  There are not any chocolate notes, of which I would prefer, but there is adequate sweetness to  balance the molasses twang.  The molasses twang in the middle of the palate mellows as the brew warms.  The finish is nice and clean with a slight hint of molasses in the aftertaste.  Overall this is a nicely complex brew with a big body to boot.  I’m happy with the outcome of my brew and it faired well in this tasting.

Third Place:  Old Rasputin 
When you mention imperial stout this is one of the first brews that pops into my head.  It is the quintessential, widely available, cheap imperial stout.  This is the first imperial stout that I experienced which pushed me further into my craft brew addiction.  Old Rasputin was by far the most bitter of all the brews in the tournament.  This also had the thinnest body of all the others.  The brew starts with some malt sweetness and moves to a drying bitterness.  There was a bit of astringency from the roasted malts but this tended to balance the maltiness in the other parts of the brew.  It had an almost metallic quality on the front of the tongue.  Overall this was not a very sweet stout, it was dry in the middle of the palate and bitter on the finish.  Old Rapsutin had dryness/bitterness which gives it coffee-like qualities throughout the palate.  I think this brew is very good and is one of the most refreshing examples of the style.

Fourth Place:  Stone 2011 Imperial Stout

This brew had the least interesting nose of all of the brews.  There was some hop character poking through with a minimal malt aroma.  The Stone had a decent mouthfeel but was fairly thin overall.  There was a fair amount of bitterness and a slight hop character in the finish.  The taste was flat in character compared to the other brews in the tournament.  It had some malt character but couldn’t compare to the others in complexity of taste.  I was super excited to try this brew and was very disappointed it was not as good as I had hoped.  Sad thing is this limited release stout is less interesting than imperial stouts available to us on a daily basis.

Extra Brews with abbreviated notes: 

Expedition Stout

The overwhelming bitterness had weakened from just a few weeks ago.  Still the bitterness was over the top for an imperial stout in my opinion.  The bitterness did subside as the brew warmed.  Dave and Greg were very impressed with it.  The complexity is developing with age and I can’t wait to see what this will taste like in 6 months to a year. 

Leinenkugel’s Big Eddy

This one had a smoky character not present in any of the others.  Good complexity with good mouthfeel.  The smoky character was dominant but the malt seemed to stand up well to the smoke.  This brew is very interesting and I want to taste this brew when I have a clearer head.  Stay tuned!

Conclusion:
Why do I love imperial stouts?  Each of these stouts was completely different in flavor profile than the others.  The complexity of this style is amazing and it’s hard to find two imperial stouts the same.  Every bottle is a new delicious adventure and that’s what keeps me coming back to this style.  Imperial stouts I think I love you! 

Cheers!

FatCat's Imperial Stout Tournament of Death!

Tis the season to stuff your face with tons of food and how else better to wash it down than with an obscenily big beer.  Imperial Stout anyone?  I've been stock piling for this event all year and will now administer a Mortal Kombat style tournment to the death.  I've split up 12 Imperial stouts in three brackets.  The brew will be going head to head for a winner in each bracket.  I wanted to put all 12 beers in one big shootout, but team FatCat talked some sense into me.  I now understand it would be a suicide mission to taste all 12 beers in one day, so the brackets were created.  Stay posted for the the results and beware that the start of the Zombie Apocalypse could spawn from this event.  I may throw some other stouts in unofficially and let you know how they stack up as well.

The Combatants:

Round 1:
Old Rasputin
Stone Imperial Stout
FatCat's Zombie Apocalypse
The Czar 2009

Round 2:
Hoppin Frog BORIS Barrel Aged
The Dogfather Bourbon Barrel Aged
Big John
Schlafly Bourbon Barrel Aged Imperial Stout

Round 3:
Firestone Parabola
Zombie Apocalypse Bourbon Barrel Aged
Founders CBS
Oak Aged Yeti

Pumpkin Beer Throwdown!

It seemed like only yesterday I was mocking the breweries for releasing their Oktoberfest’s in late summer.  Well apparently the joke is on me because now I’m rushing around to get my fall beer tastings posted before fall (or at least October) is over.  Judging by the wonderful weather it seems fall has still not really set in.  It has been somewhat brisk in the morning, but with daily temps in the 80’s it doesn’t seem very fall-esque.  Oh well, the fall beers will not wait for us so let’s jump into a Pumpkin beer throwdown. I grabbed 5 pumpkin beers the other day in a build my own sixer and pitted them against one another in a battle to the death. 

Pumpkin beer is a style that I largely avoided in the past much like Belgians.  I’m not a pumpkin pie fan so the idea of pumpkin in beer was never all that appealing to me.  Last year I picked up a sampler from none other than Sam Adams which had their Harvest Pumpkin Spice in it.  I was mad at first because I was sure pumpkin beer would be horrid and I had to buy it to get the sampler.  Sam Adams delivered and introduced me to another beer style I was not familiar with in pumpkin beers.  The funny thing is I actually liked it.  With the momentum from the Sam Adams Pumpkin Spice I pledged this year I would make an effort to try several pumpkin beers.  I rounded up my cousin Claydizzle and we tasted the 5 brews back to back.  This was not a blind tasting. 

Schlafly Pumpkin Spice

 8% ABV

16  IBU

I’ve heard and read a lot of about this pumpkin brew so I had high expectations.  The nose is bursting with straight-up pumpkin pie.  The brew had a good medium-thick mouthfeel which complimented the sweetness well.  The spices in the brew were completely overwhelming.  The brew starts with some malt sweetness and then your palate is slammed by pumpkin pie spices.  The brew finishes super sweet and the spice lingers all the way to the finish.  This brew is way too sweet.  All of the spice and sweetness really sends this past the point of actually being beer.  Any and all “beer” qualities get completely lost in this brew.  In conclusion, if you want liquid pumpkin pie with whipped cream crammed into a glass bottle then this is your brew.

Lakefront Pumpkin Lager

6% ABV

I’ve never heard of Lakefront Brewery so this choice was a gamble.  Halfway through the tasting I checked the internet to make sure this was a legit brewery and not a big beer puppet brewery.  Turns out Lakefront Brewery is located in Milwaukee, WI and has been brewing for over 24 years.  Ok it’s safe to drink lets try it.  The nose has very good pumpkin notes with some spice playing in the background.  The brew begins with a soft malt character resembling the likes of a pilsner.  A nice pumpkin taste starts showing up in the middle of the palate and persists discreetly into the finish.  The pumpkin pie spice shows up in the latter part of the palate and finishes very cleanly.  The beauty of this brew is how cleanly the big flavors play together.  The beer characteristics are not lost in this recipe with nice maltiness and the pumpkin/spice being used to complement the brew as opposed to overwhelming it.  I really like this brew.

Shipyard Pumpkinhead

5.1% ABV

The nose isn’t very strong w/ spice compared to some of the others.  There is some pumpkin aroma but the nose seems overall kind of flat.  Holy crap it’s super f’n pumpkin.  This brew is very very very pumpkiny.  It starts out ok but then your palate is steam rolled by a wet pumpkin flavor that seems to dry out your mouth.  The finish brings out some good spice character but doesn’t really save your mouth from all that pumpkin. 

O’Fallon Pumpkin Beer

5.6% ABV

11 IBUs

This is another local brew I thought I remembered hearing lots of good things about so hopes were high again.  The nose is nicely balanced with some sweetness and some pleasant spice.  This brew seemed to have a bit thinner mouthfeel than most the others but did lend to better drinkability.  The fist thing that stands out is how very very smooth and balanced this brew is.  This is one of the only brews that actually tastes like a beer as opposed to pumpkin pie disguised as beer.  Malt character is apparent throughout the taste with hints of wheat and nuts.  Several of the other beers are just simply sweet without any particular malt character.  Although minor, you can actually detect hop bitterness in this brew unlike any of the others.  There is pumpkin pie spice showing up in the finish but is very pleasant and balanced.  The pumpkin character is apparent in the middle of the palate but is very delicate.  I really like this brew too.

Sam Adams Harvest Pumpkin Ale

 5.7% ABV

14 IBUs

Here is the pumpkin beer that started it all for me in this style.  Could it hold off the O’Fallon and Lakefront offerings?  The nose is predominately a deep spice, cinnamon character.  This brew definitely has a much deeper, heavier taste than the others.  It seems the heaviness comes from the use of a fair amount of cinnamon in the recipe.  The Sam Adams offering was significantly darker in color than the others alluding to the use of darker caramel malts.  This darkness also lends to the heaviness of the taste but does balance the spices very nicely.  This reminded me of something but I couldn’t quite put my finger on it.  What is it?  Oh yeah, it reminds me of the cinnamon/spiced apples our family eats for Thanksgiving.  Compared to the balance of some of the others this brew is a little too sweet.

Conclusion:

Well we started off with pumpkin pie and whipped cream and ended with spiced apples.  All of the brews were actually quite different and each had it’s own attributes.  My preferences gravitated towards the brews with subtlety and balance.  Claydizzle and I both picked the same top 3 and ranked them as follows.

1.  O’Fallon Pumpkin

2.  Lakefront Pumpkin Lager

3.  Sam Adams Harvest Pumpkin Ale

The O’Fallon was clearly the winner with its smoothness and balance.  The tastes all blended so nicely and the lightness made it a pleasure to drink.  Lakefront was a close second but didn’t quite have the flavor profile that O’Fallon did.  Sam Adams was less complex in its flavor profile than the other two but did have the unique dark cinnamon taste.  Although the heaviness of the flavor made the Sam Adams unique, it did hurt the sense of drinkability.

Cheers!

IPA Throwdown

I've had a couple of IPAs on deck waiting for their time to shine.  Well why not make it a throwdown?  I've heard a lot of praise for the Ska Modus Hoperandi but I balked at the idea of a craft brew in a can.  Seemed sacrilegious to me craft in a can.  But based on the heavily favorable reviews, I had to give it a go.  Up against it is the Schlafly American IPA.  This brew was mentioned in the comments of our IPA shootout a while back.  For a control group in the experiment I threw in one of my favorites, Bell's Two Hearted Ale.

Schlafly AIPA - 3.5 pts

7.2% ABV

The AIPA poured with a nice fluffy head that emitted an earthy piney nose.  The brew had a good mellow bitter with hints of faint grapefruit on the palate.  There was not a significant malt character in the brew giving the hops free reign of the flavor profile.  The bitterness lingers slightly into the finish.  With the lack of malt character, the mouthfeel seems thin which aids in drinkability.  What sets this IPA apart from most others on the market is its sour grapefruit taste.  Overall this is a pretty good IPA with good drinkability.






Ska Modus Hoperandi - 4.5 pts

I was skeptical about putting the craft in the can.  Especially an IPA in a can, for some reason that seems extra naughty.  The Modus Hoperandi poured considerably darker than any of the other two.  There was a two fingered head resting on top of the brew.  The nose was very subdued without much hop character present.  The only nose I could get was some faint earthy aroma.  Not looking good for the new guy so far but taste is 99% of the law or something like that.  As the color would suggest, this brew starts somewhat malty with mellow caramel character that gives way to hop character.  The hops are beautifully blended in the brew and give you that delicious deep dark grapefruit taste.  All of this out of a can?  I'm sold.  This is definitely one of my new go to IPAs.  Looking for a canned beverage for your next boat outing?  Turn away from those bland lagers and embrace the Hoperandi.

Bells Two Hearted Ale - 4 points

This is one of my favorites in the realm of IPAs.  I've reviewed this brew before and professed my love for its bright citrus and lemony deliciousness.  The Two Hearted is the epitome of refreshing.  I love it.  Did I mention it's refreshing?

Conclusion

The throwdown is complete and the metal mouth took the cake.  My initial apprehension was put to rest and cans seem to be an acceptable vessel for craft.  This was not a blind test which tormented me mentally for a few minutes.  My initial response was that the Hopus Moderandi was my favorite.  Then my brand loyalty kicked in and I had second thoughts about defiling the Two Hearted with a canned craft brew.  I wrestled my inner demons and came back to my original gut instinct deeming the Modus Hoperandi the winner!  Take that you stupid demons.

Black IPA Throwdown

A while back I picked up the Longshot 6 pack from Sam Adams.  In Sam Adams' Longshot competition homebrewers nationwide submit their homebrew for the opportunity to have their brew nationally distributed.  This year I think Sam Adams found some liquid gold.  Illinois resident Rodney Kibzey won a spot in the 6 pack with his Blackened Hops brew which is his rendition of a Black IPA.  Technically Black IPAs are not an official style at this point but the market is starting to see more and more of these beers.  At first Black IPAs used debittered roasted grain to get the dark color of a stout without any of the roast flavor.  In effect an IPA is simply colored black in this method.  However the Blackened Hops brew instills not only a black color but roasted malt character as well.  I knew there were other Black IPAs out there but I had not tried them yet.  Could any of them be as seductively delicious as the Longshot version?  Well we're about to find out.

I gathered up Greg and Super Dave to help judge this throwdown.  This was not a blind tasting but should not have a significant impact because none of us have tried any of these brews (other than me trying the Blackened Hops as mentioned above).  Here is the list in order of superiority.

Longshot Blackened Hops 15.00 points


The nose is mostly roasted malt with an accent of fresh hop aroma. The roasted malt character in this brew was stellar. It was very stout-like in the beginning with some sweetness and dark chocolate. This leads perfectly into the citrus character of the hops that follow you all the way to the finish. There was moderate bitterness, more of which you would expect in a stout and less than an IPA. The real accomplishment of this beer is that it blends both the roasty malt character and citrus hop character perfectly. It is exactly what I would think of if I were to mix a stout with an IPA in my head.


Stone Sublimely Self Righteous 14.00 points

This brew had a good piney nose with a little roast character. This beer was one of the most balanced beers with good malt character and bitterness. (I will review this one in depth at a later date)


Hopping Frog Black and Tan 12.00 points

This brew smelled more of a stout or porter rather than an IPA. The taste exhibited both good bitterness and roasted character. Both the bitterness and roasted malt character was more intense than in the Widmer. The hops in the finish lingered slightly into the after taste.


Widmer Pitch Black 11.75 points

The Pitch Black had a good hop aroma with some citrus. This brew had a more subdued character than the others. It was in good balance but neither the roast nor bitterness stood out. This was not a show stopper but would be a good “every day” beer due to its balance and drinkability.



Odell Mountain Double Black IPA 10.25 points

The Odell was a different animal all together because it is a double/imperial black IPA meaning it’s more like a hoppy imperial stout. So it had a lot thicker mouthfeel with some alcohol burn in the taste. The Odell would have benefited from some aging because it had some raw alcohol that needed to be aged out of it.



Laughing Dog DogZilla 8.00 points

This was everyone’s least favorite. It is basically a mediocre IPA colored black.

Conclusion

All three of us agreed that the Longshot Blackened Hops was the best with a perfect score of 15 points. Unfortunately this was a limited release brew and we will most likely never see it again. Hopefully Sam Adams will realize the absolute masterpiece they have on their hands and will eventually put the Blackened Hops into production. The next best alternative is the Stone Sublimely Self Righteous which is readily available on the Missouri side of the line. Widmer and Hopping Frog are both solid contenders in this genre and were a pleasure to drink. As a side note, Super Dave decided that using .5 point increments was not accurate enough and instituted a .25 point scale on his reviews. That is why we have some funky numbers. Way to fight the system Dave!

Cheers!

Boulevard Imperial Stout 2011 vs New Holland Dragons Milk throwdown

I was super excited about tasting the Boulevard Imperial Stout. It was Batch 2 and supposedly infected with the added complexity of brett. I got Super Dave and Greg together and we ventured forth into the bacterial infested sweet nectar of the gods. Woo Hoo!

Boulevard Imperial Stout 2011 Batch 2

11% ABV

63 IBUs

The imperial Stout poured jet-black with a huge tan head. There was a slight smell of sour in the nose with some malt and alcohol. The imperial stout had a good thick mouthfeel and gave the sensation of needing to chew before you swallow. The taste started with a twinge of oak and then...what the hell happened? The mouthfeel was stellar, the oak brings you in, and then nothing. The finish was very plain with no real roast, chocolate, brett, or anything else. We let the brew warm up further in hopes of coaxing out some malt character but to no avail. All three of us agreed we did not care for the imperial stout. So instead of being disappointed and writing a dejected review, why not make this a throwdown?

New Holland Dragon’s Milk

10% ABV

Undisclosed IBUs

Dragon’s Milk is labeled as “ale aged in oak barrels” and Beer Advocate lists it as an American Stout. With 10% ABV, BJCP classifies this as an Imperial Stout based on the ABV alone. Ratebeer and several other reviewers tag this as an American Strong Ale. The labeling of this brew seems a bit vague as “ale aged in oak barrels”. Seems to me this would hurt the sale of this brew as anyone who hasn’t heard of it before may be inclined to think it is not a form of oaked stout. And I for one would be less inclined to buy an oaked “ale” as opposed to an oak aged imperial stout. Even if this brew is considered something else due to the contents of the grain bill, it would be beneficial for the label to be more specific. I’m not sure of the logic behind New Holland’s labeling system, but if you’re reading this you are now an insider (and as lost as I am). But what’s in a name, a rose smells as sweet with any other name and some other stuff. Yep Shakespeare bitches!

The Dragon’s Milk pours an opaque black with very little head. The nose emits vanilla, whisky, and oak mixed in with sweet malt. The mouthfeel is considerably lighter than the Boulevard Imperial Stout, which I would consider a plus for the Boulevard. Oak introduces your taste buds to the party, taking you around to meet all of your new friends, whiskey, chocolate, and vanilla. The tastes hit your palate in about that order oak, whiskey, chocolate, and finishes big with vanilla and oak. This is a very complex and enjoyable brew. Again, I am confused because the bottle states “aged in oak barrels” and mentions nothing about whiskey. Typically it is a more desirable trait (at least to me) to be bourbon barrel aged as opposed to simply oak aged. So why would New Holland leave it out of the labeling? Is my brain willing me to taste bourbon that isn’t really there simply because it is so delicious? Very Possible.

Conclusion

I’ve never been as confused after a tasting as I am now with Dragon’s Milk. What are you!?!?!? I’m not even sure these two beers are the same style, but it happened. The throwdown is complete. Whatever this mutant concoction of malt, hops, yeast, water, and oak is, one thing is for sure. It is delicious. All three of us agree the winner is New Holland Dragon’s Milk.

Cheers!

Boulevard Boss Tom vs FatCat’s Where’s My Socks Maibock Throwdown

Time for another good old-fashioned throwdown. Put the women and children to bed, time to go looking for dinner.

Boss Tom’s Golden Bock

6.1% ABV

22 IBUs

Boss Tom’s Golden Bock is Boulevard’s seasonal offering. The brew is named after Thomas J. Pendergast a powerful political leader active from 1925 until 1939. Pendergast ran his political actions from a two-story yellow brick building at 1908 Main Street. Some credit is given to Pendergast and the social climate he garnered for the rise of the Golden Era of Jazz. He is also linked with Harry S. Truman. To read more about Pendergast and how he maintained corrupt political power see the Wikipedia article. It is a great article involving the Kansas City area and gives significance to several local landmarks.

The Boss Tom’s poured with a straw color and a large white head. There was no detectable hop aroma in the nose. I find this common with many Boulevard beers, they are highly carbonated and seem to block a lot of the brews aroma with massive head. The Boss Tom’s had a very smooth mouthfeel and reminded me largely of a pilsner with the malt profile. There was not much in the way of hop flavor and the malt character seemed a bit flat. The brew finished very dry and refreshing for the ABV.



FatCat’s Where’s My Socks Maibock

6.8% ABV

24.5 IBUs

FatCat’s Where’s My Socks Maibock poured a much darker burnt orange color with a one finger white head. The nose was mostly malt with a small hint of fruit from the hops. The mouthfeel was a bit sharper than the Boss Tom’s. WMS Maibock had a strong malt profile with caramel and biscuit adding to its complexity. There was also a slight hint of fruit bitterness on the finish. This fruit bitterness could be considered a negative attribute according to BJCP rules but it is delicious.

Conclusion

Overall, I enjoyed drinking the WMS Maibock more so than the Boss Tom’s. The Boss Tom’s didn’t have the malt background I was looking for. The winner of the Maibock throwdown is FatCat’s Where’s My Socks Maibock!  Another one bites the dust.