Southern Tier Crème Brûlée Imperial Milk Stout

Ok… been way too long since I posted.  Been busy but that isn’t a good excuse, so will just take my lumps and move on.

In the business of the season and in the spirit of holiday chear, I can’t help but think of Southern Tier’s Crème Brûlée Imperial Milk Stout as a bit of a cold weather, comfort beer.  It just sounds sweet and tasty a bit like a fine dessert after a long summer of heat and fun.  So it was that Mr. Dave, Mrs. Heather, and I popped this one open to enjoy what promised to be liquid dessert… and I have to say it isn’t far off!   WARNING – this is not a session beer… it packs way to much oomph to be anything but a treat, but that shouldn’t hold you back.  Southern Tier has created something rich and full of sweet vanilla and suger and bottled it up nicely for all of us to enjoy.  At 10% ABV it is a belly warmer, as well.  In the end, this really nice, really strong, really vanilla-y brew hit the spot.  We especially liked it paired with a little bit of cheese, which mellowed it out just a tad.  Nice form!

JBB6 Rating: Will Buy Again

Stone Imperial Russian Stout

Yet another brew from our good friends at Stone, Stone Imperial Russian Stout.  This will be review number 10 for the brewery… I figure that is quite a few.   Average for them is Will Buy Again with only one Middle of the Road and this isn’t going to buck that trend…   Nose is chocolate for sure and as they say on the bottle, you can smell the  roastiness, as well.   The body is hard and dark… bitter chocolate, like the dark chocolate you can buy special in the store… not 80% cocoa, but probably 65% or so.  Finish is nice and clean and short… this doesn’t come across like a 10.8% ABV at all.  Nice work yet again.

JBB6 Rating: Will Buy Again

Mikkeller Beer Geek Brunch (Weasel)

Mikkeller’s Beer Geek Brunch (Weasel) is quite the brew to get a conversation going… especially if you just ask someone to try it and then tell them later that it is made from coffee that came out of a civet’s colon…  WTF?!? is likely the first response and then you can get into what is actually some pretty interesting information about the most expensive coffee in the world.  Check it out on wikepedia for more info. 

From Mikkeller’s site:

“This imperial oatmeal stout is brewed with one of the world’s most expensive coffees. Made from droppings of weasel-like civet cats. The fussy Southeast Asian animals only eat the best and ripest coffee berries. Enzymes in their digestive system help to break down the bean. Workers collect the bean-contaiing droppings for Civet or Weasel Coffee. The exceedingly rare Civet Coffee has a strong taste and an even stronger aroma.”

Once folks are past shock and denial, you generally make it into smart-ass-land.  Observe:

• “Holy *shit* this is good beer…
• This beer is the *shit*…
• This *shit* is tasty…

And so on and so forth… if this brew were all hype, though, I wouldn’t be that jazzed… but at 10.9% ABV and combining nice roasted malt, chocolate, and coffee, this bad boy has the right to brew with poop.  It pours a nice, jet black pour with a monster brown head.  As you look into the glass, you can see small chunks of sediment floating… but I aint mad… adds to the mystery.  The aroma hits you hard and actually filled the room I was in.  Nice and strong… but not bitter or overpowering.  Really solid well after the bottle has been poured out, as well.  The body doesn’t hold back on the coffee flavor either, giving you a good go from front to back with a really solid coffee linger after the swallow. 

Overall a really nice beer… probably one of the strangest I have ever tasted, but well worth the price both for the experience and the taste.

JBB6 Rating: For The Win

Samuel Adams Imperial Stout

Picked up a 4-pack of Samuel Adams Imperial Stout at Fred Meyer the other day.  I like me some 9%+ ABV dark beers, usually, and Sam Adams can have some tasty brews.  So there was the decision making process…

As far as the tasting goes, this brew pours dar, is thick, and overall meh… at 9.2% this is a thick and syrupy brew.  No doubt about it.  My main problem, though, was in the metallic taste/finish.  It was pretty prominent and hard to get past.  Once past it, though, there was a bit of a sweet front and heavy finish… overall, Mrs Heather called the finish with a hint of coffee.  Not my favorite…

JBB6 Rating: Middle of the Road

Full Sail Black Gold Imperial Stout

Full Sail Black Gold Imperial Stout… this is one of the brews i actually ordered from http://www.liquidgratitude.com/, along with my Mirror Mirror… felt like cracking a new bottle tonight, so here you go…

Tasted with Mr. Dave, this one comes at you with a pretty nice nose… possibly the most distiguished feature of the brew… vanilla and oak just as the bottle notes. you can smell the bourbon bottle aging, which is very nice. At first taste, I think this is going to be one for the record books… but it loses its ‘wow’ fast and by the time i was half way through the glass, it had lost a lot of its pizzaz. Still a really nice beer but for the price, I expected it to last a bit longer.

JBB6 Rating: Middle of the Road

P.S. I am so ashamed… I accidentally deleted my pics of this one… so sad.  You get the standard pic instead…

Southern Tier jah*va Imperial Coffee Stout

Southern Tier jah*va Imperial Coffee Stout is my second coffee beer of the night although this one is a stout vs. the porter from Midnight Sun. Oh… and this beer is twice the beer of the other, as well, at 11% Imperial ABV vs 5%.

Right off the bat it pours a dark, viscous glass with a dark tan head that is thick and slow forming. the head recedes relatively fast but leaves some legs up the side of the glass.  The nose isn’t very strong in the java department… more ABV and fermentation than the actual Jamaican Coffee it is touted to have infused. on to the taste… light and smooth, this one comes at you with some of the ABV on the tip, but it isn’t balanced… it has a clinical taste to it, causing me to do a bit of a check 1, check 2… actually I am going to let it warm up a bit and come back to it…

Started at 43.5… suggested at 49… and that is where I drank it the second time around. This time… not much better, to be honest.  Still a very light brew with little that brings out the coffee or even the chocolate or black malts… fairly dissapointing.  The ABV is the only redeaming value.

JBB6 Rating: Middle of the Road

Ice Harbor Sternwheeler Stout

Second stout of the night… Ice Harbor Sternwheeler Stout out of Kennewick, WA brings some interesting flavors with it.  Seems to me like they may have tried to balance this one out too much with the two-row barley leaving it a bit on the lighter side… It doesn’t taste bad, but it just doesn’t have that truly roasted stout flavor that is the default character of the style.  The pour is dark, the head is short, the nose is light on the roasted malts.  The body is light for a stout but it is nice and clean.  The finish is a little too light, as well… nothing really lingering to remind you that you just had a nice hearty stout. 

Overall this isn’t a bad stout… definitely worth buying, but it is a little too light for the style, keeping it from the higher echelons of the rating scale.

JBB6 Rating: Will Buy Again

Left Hand Imperial Stout

Left Hand Brewing Company has mixed reviews on the site so far… the last time we tasted a stout from them, though, it was outstanding: Left Hand Oak Imperial Stout.  This time around… not so much.  The oak really took it to new levels and without the smoothing character of the oak aging, the standard Imperial Stout was just a bit ho-hum. 

The brew pours a dark, dark color with with a small, thick head. All in all it is pretty dry in the beginning, hits with ABV in the middle and has a forgettable finish.  The malts are plentiful: Pale 2-Row, Munich, Crystal, Chocolate, Roasted Barley, Black Barley, and Flaked Oats, which leads to its body, but at 50 IBU, the hops are definitely there to make their presence known.  Overall a pretty interesting stout but nothing that really stands out when it is all said and done. 

JBB6 Rating: Middle of the Road

Mad River Steelhead Extra Stout

My first bout with Mad River Brewing brings Mad River Brewing Steelhead Extra Stout.  This stout pours dark as night with a big dark brown head.  Very majestic as it sits in the glass… Nose is wonderful roasted malts, leading to a clean and balanced body with a bit of a bitter roasted chocolate malt finish.  Overall, this is a really, really good stout that is easy to drink and delivers plenty of character and complexity.  I will *actively* be seeking out more brews from Mad River.

JBB6 Rating: For the Win

Goose Island Bourbon County Brand Stout

Holy crap this is a good beer… Goose Island Bourbon County Brand Stout came into my fridge from Malt & Vine one fine day and at the same time, two 4 packs made it into Mr. Dave’s fridge from Top Food and Drug.  My tasting just happened to be in a bit of a tasting binge with “The Belly”… we saved it for last since it was the darkest and my oh my were we surprised.  I hadn’t thought much of it other than it sounded strong at 13% ABV with bourbon barrel aging to boot.  What we experienced, though, was something truly amazing…

A dark, dark pour with an average ruddy brown head, the nose may be the strongest I have ever tasted.  Definite bourbon, in fact “The Belly” brought out a bottle of Jack Daniel’s and the similarities are obvious and numerous.  The body is sweet and smooth on the tip of the tongue with a rolling taste frenzy from tip to toe consisting of bourbon, roasted malts and smoke… chocolate hits hard in the end… the 13% is obvious and present throughout the experience.  This beer was tasted at ~60 degrees and was perfect.

Highly, highly recommended and worth buying some to age… it can only get better.  I am bucking the trend, Po… I am going straight to Hall of Fame on this one and you are just going to have to trust me.

JBB6 Rating: JustBeer Blog Hall of Fame