Choklat

July 6, 2017

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I wss putting this off for a while but today is the day. SOUTHERN TIER CHOKLAT from the Blackwater series,, on tap

Came in a small snifter style glass.. guessing because it was also a bit cold for a chocolate beer. While it may hard to tell from the picture, it looked a bit muddy, or hazy. Thats tough to do in something this black. But the chocolate aroma really stood out even being 2 feet away!

From the very first taste all I could picture is that powdered cocoa in the can.  That would explain the lack of any head what so ever. The oily powder keeps that down. Very thickly body. That may be a push this twards a “dessert” beer for some, but it does fit with amount of chocolate.

Defiantly a hop presence. A nice firm bittering which it surely needed otherwise this would be sickly sweet. 
Took a bit, but once it started to warm the actual stout aspects start coming thru. More of a black malt than a roasted barely which I think works great with the sweet.
Plus now the alcohol stands out.. it’s a nice burn but not overly.

This beer balances everything about as good as you can. I would defiantly have another,, like right now but since it’s like 11 in the morning I have long day of 4th of July drinking to do.

I am not really a fan of beers that add stuff like this, but I am a fan of this one.

Dogfish Head World Wide Stout

May 11, 2017

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Grabbed a snifter of this last night during Craft beer Week. Was one of the 4 special beers brought in by Dogfish,, and I couldn’t wait to get into it

It’s labeled as an double imperial stout? Sounds awesome

The pour came with a thin head, that quickly left. But as you can see it did leave some lace behind.

At the first whiff i didn’t get a huge roast or hops. But plums, coco and alcohol. Once things started getting warmed up I was getting some nice roasty to back it up.

From the amount of booze in the aroma I was really expecting a hot alcohol taste,, but not at all. Oh you and surely feel the 19% of it, but it’s smooth, dangerously smooth.

Roast. Chocolate. Cherries. Plums. Faintest hidden hop. It’s simply amazing how all of this plays together.

Nothing overly sweet, not overly bitter, but still has a big body to it. A swirl in the glass shows off it’s port like legs and brings back the thin head.

This is one fine beer. And it gets one of my very few 5 ratings.

Becareful with this one as it is big..but drinks like one half it’s strength. It will sneak up on you. But,,, go find this one.

The Russian Imperial

May 4, 2017

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Last year I brewed up an Imperial Stout for a homebrew contest that I knew was coming up.

The thing with Imperial Stouts is that although they are complex tasting and smelling,, A stupid simple recipe is really all it needs.

3 gallon Imperial Stout
10 lbs pale malt
12oz Roast barley
8oz Choc Malt
4oz 80L
1.5oz centennial @60
.5oz centennial @15
1oz centennial @0
Mashed at 152
pitched onto a Windsor yeast cake

Did have a few mishaps with beersmith and ended up a little lower on OG than I wanted, but It came out quite well. Infact, it did take first place.

But,, there are a few things I will change next time.

  • Body- I’m not sure if it was the problem I had with the sparge volume, but body just wasn’t there.. it wasn’t terrible, but not what I personally expected.
  • late hops- This beer sits a year. The hops drop out. I know this. But they were still far below what I wanted. Possibly because I never made this as a 3 gallon before and didn’t account for the less utilization. but again,, not that far off.
  • Maybe up that crystal 80. I felt that little bit did not contribute.

Nice lingering head (this pic is before it was full carbed) Not so much grainy aroma, nor big in your face roast, but it surely is there. The whiff of citrusy hops, is also a bit low but prominent.

The bittering was firm and noticeable, but not biting. The roasty goodness is smooth, not harsh. But as this particular batch did not sit its usual time, it did have some boozy burn to it yet. I would expect a hop presence in this style,, but there wasn’t really any at all. But,, because everything about this version was edging twards the low end,, everything did play together well.

If I was scoring this as a beer that I bought and did not know anything of the inside details, and scored only on what I had in the glass,, I’d go 4. Its very good. But once you label it as an Imperial, it would need to be far more to go higher.

But, if I rate it as what I had intended or expected it to be, I’d go 3. Yea its good, but missed on a few things. Not by much, but clear misses. But,, these are all correctable misses..

Last of the dry. 

October 20, 2015

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Only a few pulls left of this springs Dry Stout. I really like it. Making more soon. But damn BJCP now calls it Irish Stout. 

Screw them. I’ll still call it dry stout. 

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