Bourbon Barrel Aged Zombie Apocalypse

FatCat's Zombie Apocalypse Imperial Stout has been marinating in greatness for quite some time now.  The other day FatCat had a stroke of GEEEEENIUS!!!!!  Why not age half of the Zombie Apocalypse on toasted oak cubes soaked in Elijah Craig?  That sounds like the holy grail of freakin' awesomeness to me so here it is.

I purchased some oak cubes from Midwest Supplies.  The cubes come in light, medium, and heavy toast.  The heavier the toast, the deeper oak and vanilla character you can expect in the finished brew.  I'm going with American oak cubes in medium and heavy toast. 

This is when I first put the oak cubes in bourbon to age.

The chips soaked for about a week in the bourbon and the smell is amazing.  There is definitely heavy vanilla aroma coming out of the cubes at this point.

Here is bourbon after a week in the oak cubes.

The bourbon coming out of the cubes looks like Dr. Pepper.  I can't even fathom throwing out Elijah Craig so I tasted it.  It tastes like scotch whiskey with a huge burn on the end.  I think I like it.

The second bath in Elijah Craig

The first round of Elijah Craig is drained off because this bourbon will take in all the astringent out of the new oak.  So hopefully the oak chips will not impart harsh flavors now since they took the first bath in bourbon.  Now it's time for the second bath of bourbon which will disinfect everything.  This will be added to half of my Zombie Apocalypse and greatness will ensue!

Have You Ever Felt the Need to Shank Your Brew?

My life goals have been accomplished in their entirety with this single discovery. I found the single coolest thing ever invented, no not Harry Potter, the butterfly beer opener. It folds conveniently to carry in your pocket, then at a moment’s notice you can perform a semi-impressive hand movement and a bottle opener is at your disposal. What else would you ever need in life?

I found mine on good old Ebay for $12.00 shipped. The quality is mediocre at best but it serves its purpose. I’m pretty sure I will never have to actually defend my life with it, so the mediocre quality is acceptable. There is another one sold on the internet which claims to be super high quality especially designed for the military’s special operations (not really), but they want almost $30.00 for it. The good news is according to Central States Beverage, a shipment of Lagunitas butterfly bottle openers are set to hit liquor stores in the area soon. Not sure what the price will be but can you really put a price on super kick assness?

You might soon see special edition 314 Scud Light

One of Goose Island's most popular selling beers is 312 Urban Wheat.  The 312 stands for the area code in Chicago giving Goose Island a hometown shoutout and a marketing boost.  The 312 was introduced in 2004 when the then-CEO John Hall was in a disagreement with the brewmaster son, Greg, over what to name their brew.  In 2009, the 312 was the second best selling craft beer in Chicago.  Goose Island has since been acquired by the empire (Anheuser-Busch InBev) and apparently gave the marketers some ideas.  Now according to a search of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's online database AB has filed trademark applications for 15 area codes of US cities.  Unfortunately KC was not popular enough to make the empire's cut of coolness.  So keep an eye out, you might start seeing 314 Bud Light or a 214 Bud Light.  I'm sure the fizzy yellow water will taste way better!

To read the full article see the Chicago Tribune:

Articles.chicagotribune.com

Update on MillerCoors in Wisconsin

If you've been keeping score at home, I have made several posts regarding the debacle in Wisconsin regarding the MillerCoors backed legislation which is Motion 414.  Many are viewing this motion as a direct offensive move against the small breweries in Wisconsin and are blaming MillerCoors and/or the governor for it.  Well in a twist of fate MillerCoors will have to stop selling beer in the state of Minnesota.  The state government of Minnesota is shut down because apparently the kids in the sandbox can't make an agreement on a budget (sound familiar?).  Well MillerCoors has not renewed their license in the state and will now be unable to because of the shutdown.  State officials told the company it must come up with a plan to remove it's 39 brands from retialers/bars within days.  So it seems karma has swung around and bit MillerCoors right on their ass.  Unfortunately this is yet another example of a government in complete dysfunction and unable to accomplish what they are paid to do.  Again I utter the question, "When is enough, enough?".

Link for the news acticle referring to the retreat of MillerCoors:

http://kstp.com/news/stories/S2195517.shtml?cat=127

I did some more research and found a couple of good links if anyone is interested in some of the details of this legislation.  I have provided those links at the bottom of the post.

www.tyranena.com/BadNewsMotion414.pdf

http://eatwisconsin.wordpress.com/2011/06/03/new-brewerywholesaler-law-motion-414/

Local Happenings

- Boulevard's Brewmaster Steven Pauwels will be at Lukas Liquor Superstore in Overland Park, KS today at 3:30pm.

- Of course you all should know it's Stone Imperial Stout Day and Boulevard White IPA Day.

- Royal Liquor announced Inventory Reduction Sale: Stone IPA 22oz bottles for $1.99!

Sam Adams Imperial Stout

9.2% ABV

As if you couldn’t tell my favorite beer style is stout. Imperial stouts in particular tickle my fancy but I love all stouts. The Sam Adams Cream Stout is one of my favorite beers of all time, so I had high hopes that the imperial stout would be stellar as well. I remembered trying this back when Sam Adams first released their imperial series but didn’t remember liking it all that much. My recent encounter with the Sam Adams Wee Heavy gave me renewed confidence in the imperial series.

The imperial stout poured midnight black with a nice thick head that receded fairly quickly. The nose was very pleasant with strong malt and faint hints of roast chocolate. The imperial stout was dry in taste with no real roasted malt or chocolate character present. Without the supporting sweetness the dark malts used in the brew left a bitter/dry taste. As it warms you do get some anise and/or black licorice flavor showing up in your palate. If you really push your taste buds to “listen” to the brew you can imagine super dark plum flavors in the background. Since the brew was so dry, the anise/black licorice flavor dominated the character and resulted in a one-dimesional brew. There was not the complexity that I hope for in imperial stouts and I was not impressed the second time around either. I’m going to age another bottle for a while to see if anything changes and I will report back.

Cheers!

Imperial IPA round-up No. 1 - Firestone Walker Double Jack

The FatCat crew ventured into the unknown and came back with treasure.  The type of treasure that would make Jack Sparrow swim to the bottom of the ocean to retrieve.  No not gold coins, more like liquid gold.  Liquid gold called Firestone Walker Double Jack.

The Double Jack poured with a fluffy two fingered white head and the nose exploded with huge grapefruit notes.  The taste mimics the nose with big grapefruit flavor and beautifully blended malt character.  It begins with brief malt and caramel before the hops swing into action.  The hop character starts with a brief sour grapefruit flavor and then gives way to a sweeter mellower citrus note.  The finish is big with deep grapefruit much like Founder's Double Trouble and the seemingly open fire grilled caramelized sugar flavor.  The mouthfeel was a bit thicker than the other brews in the shootout but super drinkable nonetheless.  What sets Double Jack apart from the other competitors is the complexity of the hop character.  Instead of the Double Jack just having one aspect of the grapefruit/citrus note with either sour, medium citrus/grapefruit, or deep grapefruit, it has them all. 

So whether you are Jack Sparrow or some other less famous pirate, you should sail your way to the nearest Missouri liquor store and claim your booty.  Double Jack dominated our shootout for good reason, it's freakin awesome.  This is another brew I would not hesitate to recommend to anyone. 

Arrrggggggggg!  Wait I mean,

Cheers!