Firestone Walker Parabola 2014

At long last, I managed to find a bottle of this.  Among widely-distributed beers, Parabola has long been considered the one most similar to Goose Island Bourbon County Brand Stout (disregarding Goose's variations on that beer, of which there are many).  They are both imperial stouts.  They are both aged in Heaven Hill bourbon barrels for some time, usually between eight and twelve months. Though they vary year to year, both have more or less the same alcohol content (between 12.5% and 15%).  They share an identical appearance.  I was skeptical of this beer before I even tried it, but it is truly the closest thing to Bourbon County Stout you can find, while still offering enough to stand apart.

As is the case with Bourbon County, anyone expecting an exciting spectacle upon pouring Parabola out of the bottle will be disappointed.  It is pitch black and has no head retention.  Head formation cannot rise above a hair's width no matter how hard the pour.

Parabola possesses a truly massive barrel character.  Charred wood, hot bourbon, some wood tannins and a hint of vanilla all flow out.  The wood and whiskey smell here may even be more intense than modern Bourbon County.  The burnt oak scent reminds me of how that beer used to smell circa 2008, but not quite as intense.  The beer itself manages to peak through the aroma more than Bourbon County does, with a slightly more pronounced dark chocolate aroma.

The flavor follows a similar course.  Whiskey burn, char and vanilla dominate the barrel flavors, while tannic wood notes distinguish it from many other stouts aged in bourbon barrels.  There is a molasses flavor here that can't quite measure up to the stickiness of Bourbon County, but then again many people find that beer too sweet.  Actually, even though Parabola is almost as thick, it is noticeably drier.  I think the tannins help tame the sweetness a bit.


I find Parabola an impressive beer.  It is good enough that I can't say it is objectively better or worse than the beer Firestone clearly modeled it after.  I have a hard time imagining someone loving one of these but hating the other.  If you enjoy Bourbon County, this is probably the best substitute for it.

Allagash Tiarna

Time for another one of Allagash's one-off releases, Tiarna.  This beer was a blend of two beers, one fermented in a normal tank with two Belgian yeast strains and the other aged in oak barrels with brettanomyces (aka "brett").  Allagash has not said what the proportions were for the final blend.  Like all of their one-off bottles, it is sold in a 375ml/12.7oz bottle sealed with a champagne cork.

As one can see, it is an extremely bright golden hue topped by a billowy and fairly luxurious crown of white foam.  I must say, Tiarna has stunning head retention.  I let it sit out for five minutes to see if the foam would subside; it didn't, so I gave up and started drinking it instead.  Lively carbonation no doubt plays a role in this.

The crystal clarity of the beer changed dramatically by the end of the bottle as I finally managed to fit the dregs in:

I was unsure what sort of beer this would be.  Allagash has released brett beers before that were sours and brett beers that weren't sour.  Tiarna seems to be Allagash's crack at a middle ground.  Smells and tastes like success to me!

The aroma somewhat resembles a gueuze lambic, albeit milder and less sour.  Apple cider, wet hay and a ton of brett-induced funk.  There is a slight hint of what I have previously referred to as "sweaty apples," a smell I cannot describe any other way.  It is nowhere near as strong as it is in lambic, however.

Apple sweat and a cider-like tartness come through in the flavor profile.  They are joined by lemons, limes, grape skins and oak.  Unfortunately, the oak flavor takes on the very astringent character of wood tannins here, the only setback in an otherwise tasty beer.

Tiarna might not have the extreme acidity of a full-blown sour beer, but it otherwise has the texture of a sour down pat.  Which is to say, this beer is absolutely bone-dry.  There is not a hint of sweetness to be found.  The carbonation is brisk enough to rival a sparkling wine, a fact the video above testifies to.

Tiarna is an excellent beer overall, perfectly balanced between funky yeast flavor flavor on one hand and mild sourness on the other.  Again, my only complaint is that rather than provide a mellowing role the barrel-aging appears to have absorbed an inordinate amount of wood tannins.  The resulting beer is a touch more astringent than it should be.  In the end this is merely a mild detriment, however, and I imagine this being brewed again given how quickly it sold out.  Keep your eyes peeled for any future news about Allagash remaking it.

Erdinger Pikantus Dunkle Weizenbock

I have been on a German wheat beer kick lately, so here's another doppelweizen/weizenbock.  This one, called Erdinger Pikantus, is a strong dunkelweizen (dark wheat).  It is 7.3% alcohol and has a best-before date of October 2014.  In lieu of a proper weizen glass I poured it into a kölsch glass.  This is my first beer from this company.

Pikantus is definitely a dunkel (dark) doppelweizen.  It might even be darker than Aventinus.  The head is quick to form and somewhat slow to recede, and carbonation appears ample.  There is a strange sediment of sorts under the bottle cap and along the side of the bottle, almost as if it was stored upside down at some point.

The aroma is surprisingly muted for a doppelweizen.  Faint clove-like phenols mingle with something vaguely resembling caramel or coco.  Pikantus smells pretty boring actually.  The flavor gets things back on track a bit.  Wheat bread and crackers mix with cloves and various other opaque phenols.  I’m pretty sure the barley malts are some kind of Munich variety, it’s got that classic bready coarseness to it that some of the darker German beers have (especially doppelbock).  Caramel makes an appearance but it is pretty faint.  The taste of alcohol is unfortunately not faint, but it isn’t a huge burden on the taste buds.  The classic banana esters that virtually all weissbiers have are almost nowhere to be found, just the classic clove spiciness and some wheat.

Pikantus feels strangely dry and its acidity is a touch high.  The finish in particular has a lingering dryness normally unassociated with weissbier.  Nonetheless, Pikantus is just as fluffy as most German wheat beers, so the texture is by no means a failure.

Better than a fair amount of American takes on German wheat beers, but this still isn’t one I will reach for regularly.  I prefer less alcohol and more esters in my weizenbiers.