Okay, now for the rest of the stouts. As this is quite a lot of beer for one post,
I will try to condense my notes as much as possible. I should note that when I
individually review beers at home, it’s not uncommon for a single beer to get
as long a review as all of the following mini-reviews combined, so obviously
and unfortunately a few of these will not get the full review they deserve.
Central Waters
Bourbon Barrel Stout 2011 and 2012
These two were easily the best stouts I had this
winter. I tried the 2011 for the first
time last year shortly after it came out in late 2011, and I was immediately
impressed by how smooth it was, especially compared to how harsh the older
batches of Goose Island Bourbon County Stout were when fresh (I hadn’t had the
newer, longer-aged batches at that time).
Chocolate, vanilla, some coffee, plenty of middle-shelf whiskey, a bit
of ash but not too much, with just a bit too much warming to be perfect but
otherwise amazing. The 2012 is even
better fresh; it was aged twice as long (12 months versus 6) and has even more
vanilla goodness.
But the 2011 I had at the start of this past holiday
season, when it a year old, was totally awesome. It was so good and relatively mild when fresh
I wasn’t sure it would get any better with a year on it, and many people don’t
think bourbon-barreled beers age well anyway.
I was, and they are, spectacularly wrong. The year-old bottle tasted like chocolate
vanilla fudge. Everybody likes chocolate vanilla fudge. The 2012 was barrel-aged twice as long, so it
may not hold up as well, but I am confident enough to put three away.
Two of the most impressive beers I had last year.
Dark Horse Holiday
Stouts (Too Cream, Tres Blueberry, Fore
Smoked)
Last year I had the Tres and the Fore stouts, this is the
first year I’ve tried the Too. It’s also
the first I’ve tried One Oatmeal, but that was so dull I can’t even write a
review of it. Actually, the Too is
pretty tame too. It smells a bit like
coffee with creamer, which is appropriate since it is a cream stout (brewed
with dairy sugar). Unfortunately, it had
a slight chalky flavor on top of the coffee and creamer, and the finish is dry
and still has too much chalk (WHY!!?!?!). Dairy sugar doesn’t ferment with
brewer’s yeast, so it should all stay in the beer. In other words, this shouldn’t be a dry
beer. This is pretty
unremarkable and mediocre.
Oh, but Tres and Fore are both still great, although I
think the previous batch of Tres had more blueberry. Tres tastes like blueberries powdered with
coco and then liberally drenched with coffee, and no it doesn’t taste as weird
as it sounds. Fore is brewed with
peat-smoked malt like an Islay Scotch, and it is almost as weird as that
sounds. It isn’t the smokiest smoked
beer I’ve had, but it’s unmistakable.
Founders Imperial
Stout
This brewery likes their stouts. In addition to this, they have Founders
Breakfast Stout (FBS), Kentucky Breakfast Stout (KBS), and Canadian Breakfast
Stout (CBS).
This is a hoppy stout.
I can like hoppy stouts in principle.
I have enjoyed a few bottles of Great Divide Yeti, North Coast Old
Rasputin, and Goose Island Night Stalker, to name a few. But this one is just too damn much, and for
someone who loved fresh 2010 Night Stalker that’s saying a lot. Unlike that beer, this beer has some boozy
cayenne flavors that don’t mix well with the hops, and even more irksome is the
almost unnecessary amount of roasted barley that was used. Roasted barley is extremely acrid, more so
than black coffee---I like it, but a little goes a long way, especially when
it’s competing with hops for bitterness.
My single bottle also wasn’t carbonated enough.
Great Lakes
Blackout Stout
This was a perplexing beer. To give an idea of its mystifying quality,
allow me to quote my handwritten notes for how this beer smells:
“reminds
me of something…their porter?”
“almost
lager-esque, but also vaguely fruity”
“slight
roast”
“reminds
me of a fabric (?)”
“Hershey’s
chocolate syrup, charcoal”
“aroma
reminds me of their Dortmunder a bit”
Any beer (let alone a stout) that simultaneously brings
to mind a German lager, charcoal, and an uncomfortable couch must be doing
something wrong. On the plus side, the
texture was perfectly luscious, so perhaps it was just an off bottle.
Perhaps it would have tasted better if I had sprayed some
Febreze™ on it?
Sierra Nevada
Narwhal
This one reminded me a bit of what fresh Bell’s
Expedition Stout tastes like, except smoother, hoppier and generally more
interesting. It doesn’t even really have
any standout flavors, but it is fairly easy-drinking and I expect it might
transform into something better with age.
Flavors and aromas include notes of coco, plums, and very earthy
hops. The carbonation and mouthfeel were
both great. This gets a solid “B” score
for sure.
So that’s the rundown on the holiday stouts. I think I’ll do barleywines next, and then my
share of Stone’s Vertical Epic tasting.
After that I’m mostly caught up.