Trading

I made one of the tougher beer-related decisions this week, and traded my second bottle of Darkness from some choice picks, leaving me five bottles to drink over the next decade or so. The first bottle went to a former college classmate of mine, with whom I reconnected via Facebook and realized we both loved great beer. After about 3 months of talking about doing a trade for a hard-to-get bottle of Westvleteren 12 for some Surly, I finally got off my arse and sent the bottle off.

The second was for a Stone Imperial Russian Stout, a Founder's Kentucky Breakfast Stout and an Abyss from Deschutes:

It's going to be a good winter.

Whisky Cask Ale

What do you get when you cross an imperial stout with old whisky casks? Heaven, that's what.

When my scotch-drinking friend Sandro rolled into town from Joyzee (say it out loud), we both thought it would be a good opportunity to marry the two, and we swung by my formerly estranged old employer-new favorite liquor store Thomas Liquors in St. Paul to pick up a few different bottles of imperial stout aged in whisky casks.

As you can see, all three were dark and oily. As soon as I poured them into tumblers, I immediately regretted the decision and I transfered them to tulip glasses, but only after sticking my nose well into the glass, inhaling, and then taking a sip of each. All were tasty, but I could tell I wasn't getting the full effect. My drinking companion agreed. After letting them warm to about 55 degrees, the flavors and aromas really came out.

First up: Ola Dubh Special 12 Reserve from Harviestoun Brewery in Scotland. Harviestoun partnered with Highland Park distillery to bring drinkers three beers, aged in casks that stored the distillery's 12 year, 16 year and 30 year single malts. The 12 year, at 8% abv had a little more alcohol taste than I prefer--especially compared to the 30--but was still super-smooth, with just a touch of smokiness. It smelled like melting caramel, with a touch of maybe raspberry. You could definately taste the whisky, but it was a lot more subtle than I expected.

We skipped the 16 in deference to both the 30 year and a chance to sample a different brewery's wares. The 30 had similar characteristics as the 12, only better. I had this on cask a month or so ago, and while it was was a lot creamier, it also had a lot more whisky taste. In the bottle all the flavors mellowed and blended, creating a rich, chocolately brew. Magical. And it should be at $17/bottle.

The final beer in our flight was an imperial stout from BrewDog Brewing, also in Scotland, also aged in whisky casks. Paradox Islay, using casks from the Ardberg distillery on the island of Islay, had incredible smoke from the peat that runs rampant on the island. I'm not a fan of smoked beers, but this one was a lot more tolerable, maybe because of the whisky overtones, or maybe because of the 10% abv. Still, the smoke was hard to get over, and while Sandro was a great drinking companion, teaching me a lot about scotch, I would have preferred to share this one with one or two more people.

While the Ola Dubh ("Black Oil") aged in 30 year old casks was clearly the finest tasting beer of the lot, the mouthfeel and aroma were more striking in the Paradox. I'd drink any of them again.

Winterfest 08

Winterfest, the annual winter celebration of Minnesota beer, took place last night at the Landmark Center in downtown St. Paul. Sponsored by the MN Craft Brewers Guild, Winterfest is known for showcasing many of the more unique--and often higher alcohol--beers of local breweries and brew pubs. Don, Peter, Ryan and Dawn were great drinking partners, always willing to share their grabs, meaning more samples and overall lesser quantity. The full program is here, and here's a list of my tries:

Schell's
-Eisbock
-Dry-hopped Maifest Kellerbier

Barley John's
-Munich Dark Lager
-Belgian Triple
-06 Dark Knight

Brau Brothers
-04 Dubbel

Fitger's
-Park P0int Pilsner
-Imperial Pilsner
-Gale Force Cranberry Ale
-Edmund Imperial Stout, Bourbon barrel aged
-Blue Label Grande Reserve, Pinot Noir barrel Aged
-Bellnickle Wheat Wine
-Hair O' the Monk
-Mr Spock Eisbok

Flat Earth
-Winter Warlock golden barley wine

Great Water's
-Trippel Braun

Mantorville
-Stagecoach Amber

McCann's
-Prairie Porter
-Tripple Trouble

Minneapolis Town Hall
-Eye of the Storm
-Granny Triple
-Barrel Aged Imperial Stout
-Chocolate Rasberry Bourbon Stout
-Simcoe Pale Ale

Rock Bottom
-Fallen Angel Abby Ale
-Smoked Porter
-Silver Mullet Oatmeal IPA

Summit
-Cask IPA
-Cask Great Northern Porter
-Cask Winter

Surly
-Darkness
-Two
-Tea bagged Furious

Yup, 33 beers in three hours. Mind you, most pours were about 3 ounces. Your palate gets pretty burnt early on, so I generally tried to drink stouts and darker beers for awhile before switching to Belgian styles. My favorite stout/porter/ dark beer was of course Surly Darkness, but the ones from Town Hall were pretty good, as was the one from Fitgers. And the one from Barley John's was outstanding as well. Oh wait, that's all of them.

The standout Belgian-style beers were the Town Hall Granny Triple (aged on granny smith apples) or the Fitger's Blue Label Grande Reserve triple, aged in Pinot Noir barrels. I've long had a disdain for lambic-esque sour beers, so maybe this marks a turning point in my palate, as they both had qualities that I seem to have disliked in the past.

Another great event by the Guild. Good food (although bad setup), a mellow jazz band and I love the Landmark Center. Pics coming soon.

This Shit is Serious

Stouts have been on my mind a lot these past few weeks. Not just any stouts, but Russian Imperial Stouts. Imperial meaning big. Way big. Chocolate, toffee, roasted coffee, 10 percent big. They seem to have come to popularity in mid- to late-19th century, as the Empress of Russia was a huge fan of the style, importing stouts and porters for her and her crew. They can take extensive cellaring--25 years in some cases, but more often 3 or 4, or, if you're like me, a couple weeks.

I was working my way through some of the more readily available ones--Victory Storm King, Bell's Expedition Stout, North Coast Rasputin--to do a review, when I got an email inviting me to a private tasting of stouts at Thomas Liquors.

Now, I expected a few people, maybe 4 or 5 bottles. No, 8 people, 18 beers. I'm not sure if I'm happy or sad that I left my bottle of 06 Dark Lord from Three Floyds at home for another time. This is what the end of the night looked like:
If you can't read the labels, those are imperial stouts from (L-R):
Stone
Rogue
Southern Tier
Sprecher
Great Divide 07
Great Divide Oak Aged
Great Divide 04
North Coast
Bells Expedition
Bells Batch 7000
Nils Oscar
Milkeller
Surly
Fish Eye
Dog Fish Head
Ølfabrikken
Missing from the the photo:
Oskar Blues Grill & Brewery
Leinenkugels

Lots of crazy shit there. By the 5th or 6th one, the ability of my palate to pass accurate messages to my brain was seriously diminished, but I think my favorites were the Bell's 7000, Stone, Great Divide 04 and Surly. All dark, syrupy but smooth, complex. Least favorite was the Sprecher.

[Ok I gotta get this out. Sprecher has a problem with their water, maybe their yeast, or something. Most of their beers have an after-taste heavy in iron. Not pleasant. At all. It's unfortunate, because they produce several great styles which have a lot of potential, if it weren't for the rural water taste. You know what I'm talking about.]

But I digress. If you want to take in one or two, I would suggest heading to someplace like The Cellars which sells single bottles. Or throw down the $12 - $14 for a sixer of Bell's or Victory, and store several away for a few years. If ya don't like 'em, give 'em to me in a year or two.