So many stouts, so little time....part 1

So, long time no post.  I’ve moved out of state now, and have been busy with that.  Not that I haven’t had any new drinks to blog about.  In between my last update here and moving out east, this little thing called “the holidays” happened; there have been plenty of drinks.  In particular, I have had my fair share of stouts, imperial stouts and barleywines.  Actually, I’ve had enough that it would take too long to do an in-depth review of each, so I’m going to just give the reader’s digest version of them and cram them all into three posts.  There will be two for the stouts, one for the barleywines.  Some might be getting the amount of space they deserve, others won’t.

I have had at least one of each of the following stouts since my last post:

Central Waters Bourbon Barrel Stout 2012 and 2011

Dark Horse Too Cream Stout

Dark Horse Tres Blueberry Stout

Dark Horse Fore Smoked Stout

Founders Imperial stout

Great Lakes Blackout Stout

Goose Island Night Stalker 2012

Goose Island Big John 2012

Goose Island Bourbon County Stout 2012

Old Dominion Oak Barrel Stout

Sierra Nevada Narwhal

First, the Goose Island Stouts, since they are the only ones anyone talks about.  Goose Island makes a beer called Cook County Stout.  You have never seen this beer because they have never bottled this beer; instead, they take it, do a bunch of weird crap to it, and then sell it under a different name.  When Cook County Stout is brewed with coco beans, it becomes Big John.  When it is intensely dry-hopped, it becomes Night Stalker.  When Cook County Stout is aged in bourbon barrels, it becomes the well-known Bourbon County Brand Stout, or BCS (Bourbon County Coffee Stout is the same thing, but with coffee added).  Prior to December 2012, I had previously had Bourbon County 2008 and 2009, and Night Stalker 2010 and 2011.  This is my first time having Big John.

Since they all start out as the same beer, it’s no surprise they all look nearly identical: inky black.

 

 

Note the existence of flash in this picture.  Note also it doesn't make a difference, as no light will ever penetrate this beer...

This is what Goose Island thinks this beer looks like.  Note the foam is clearly photoshopped; you will never get that much no matter how hard you pour.

  The barrel-aging on BCS gives the minimal foam a slightly different color, but as you can see there’s not much foam at all.  Same deal with Big John.  Night Stalker has much more foam from the extra hopping.  This year’s Night Stalker has been widely reported to have some major brewing defects, though the bottle I had was fine.  This is the smoothest one yet: the least hoppy but also the least boozy.  I still think the 2010 has been the best so far---it was one of the most breathtakingly hoppy beers I have ever tasted---but this is better than 2011.  As the previous batches mellowed they became chocolate bombs, so I’m putting two away for some short-term aging.  Speaking of chocolate, Big John doesn’t have enough of it.  I expected more from a beer that says coco nibs right on the label, but it’s very mild.  In fact, year-old Night Stalker has more chocolate flavor and it isn’t even made with chocolate of any kind.  Apart from having too-little chocolate and a faint hint of teriyaki as the beer warmed up, this was a pretty good, pretty mellow imperial stout.  It isn’t at all what I expected from a Goose Island stout.

Bourbon County Stout is not the same beer it used to be, and that is a good thing in my mind.  Though this stuff flies off the shelves now, it used to sit on shelves for months at a time or even up to a year, for good reason: it used to taste vile when fresh.  It smelled more like bottom-shelf plastic handle whiskey than an actual bottle of bottom-shelf plastic handle whiskey, and it tasted like someone poured said whiskey over blacktop pavement sprinkled with cigarette ashes---and then asked you to lick it.  It also burned more than some Scotches I’ve had, no mean feat for something that’s not even half as alcoholic as the weakest Scotch.  People drank it, but not until aging it for a year or three first, and having had the 2009 with two years on it I must say it tasted pretty good by that point.  This latest batch, by contrast, is promising.  Is it a little messy?  Yes; it has a bit too much heat going down, and still has some ashy flavors.  But it doesn’t burn, and has some underlying roasted flavors to let me know I’m not drinking watered-down bourbon.  And on the bourbon front, I can taste some molasses and vanilla, flavors which I couldn’t pick up in the older batches when they were this fresh (they may have been there, but I was too busy using a fire extinguisher as a chaser to notice them).  Bourbon County now tastes like slightly uneven beer, not bottled train wreck.

Bottom line, all were pretty tasty, but Bourbon County edges out Night Stalker.  Three or four years ago, there is no way I would have said that.  A few years ago the bulk price for BCS went up nearly 25%, from $17.99 per four-pack to $21.99/$22.99. I think this is when they started aging it longer, which is why it’s so much smoother now.  This is a good thing, but by contrast I think Big John and this year’s Night Stalker are a little too tame.  I seem to be lucky not to have gotten a bad bottle of Night Stalker; there are widespread reports of quality control issues with this batch, everything from souring infection to yeast death.