Tag: Imperial

Beer Review: Great Divide Chocolate Oak Aged Yeti

In the beginning of my adventure into stouts I had one of Great Divide’s Oak Aged Yeti bottles and didn’t think too highly of it. With all the other imperial stouts coming out recently I decided to pick up the Chocolate Oak Aged Yeti and give it my thoughts. First off here is Great Divide’s sales pitch:

CHOCOLATE OAK AGED YETI IMPERIAL STOUT is another revered incarnation of our legendary imperial stout. We toned down the hops a bit to allow cocoa nibs to contribute some pleasing bitterness, while vanilla notes from the oak combine with the cocoa to create an aroma and flavor akin to a gourmet chocolate bar. A dash of cayenne keeps things lively, adding just a bit of heat to the finish. Another great Yeti? Hell yes.

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Beer Review: Victory Storm King

Following up last week’s review of Victory HopDevil, their IPA, I’m switching tracks and trying their imperial stout, Storm King. First here’s what Victory says, then on to the review:

Emerging from the deepest shades of darkness, a rolling crescendo of flavors burst forth from this robust stout. The thundering, hoppy appeal of Storm King subsides into the mellow subtleties of roasted malt, exhibiting an espresso-like depth of character in its finish. An exquisite blend of imported malts and whole flower American hops merge harmoniously in this complex ale. Discover the dark intrigue of Storm King, as it reveals the rich, substantial flavors that it holds within.

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Beer Review: Rivertown Old Sour Cherry Porter (2013)

Rivertown’s Old Sour Cherry Porter is making the rounds at the stores again. This is, I believe, the third year for this beer and past reviews report it has being under carbonated and a bit flat. I have never personally had this before and am not really super psyched for it but extremely curious. Sours are a large uncharted territory for me as I’ve only had a few. That said I intend to give this beer my best and most unbiased review possible, a goal I apply to every beer I try. First off here’s what Rivertown says:

We combined our Imperial Porter with fresh dark Michigan cherries, and then aged it for over three months in a bourbon barrel inoculated with wild yeast. This is a bottle conditioned ale, and can cellar for over five years. Enjoy!

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Beer Review: Sierra Nevada Stout vs. Narwhal Imperial Stout

Getting back on track with The Winter of my dark-content I built my own 6-pack of stouts & porters at Belmont Party Supply in Dayton. I had Left Hand’s Nitro Milk Stout last night and the mouth feel was insanely awesome, but otherwise not to amazing. It left me a little disappointed with stouts in general. Tonight however that all changes as I compare Sierra Nevada’s Stout to their Narwhal Imperial Stout.

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Beer Review: 2 very different stouts

Brewery: Samuel Smith’s
Beer: Oatmeal Stout
Style: Oatmeal Stout
Alcohol by volume: 5%

Gave it a pour straight down the middle and was rewarded with a completely opaque fully black beer. Due to the more aggressive pour I got a LOT of head, had to wait for it to settle before I could pour the whole bottle.

Very sweet chocolaty malty aroma with no hop presence at all. I also pick up some oatmeal aroma, or at least an aroma that reminds me of breakfast.

Super chocolate flavor with some grainy oat action as well. Slight bitterness from the hops but this is an extremely malty beer. Good flavor but not amazing.

The body and mouth feel is where this beer shines the brightest. Soooooo smooth and creamy it reminds me of drinking chocolate milk.

Overall I’m not impressed and this doesn’t live up to the hype I’ve heard about it, like the 99 rating on ratebeer.com. I got this at the Village Wine Cellar over in  Lebanon but you should be able to come across this beer just about anywhere better beer is sold.

Brewery: Oskar Blues
Beer: TenFidy
Style: Imperial Stout
Alcohol by volume: 10.5%

Very different pour from before. The color is blacker than I could’ve imagined and there was only the faintest layer of dark tan head before fading away.

Strong aroma of malt and grain with plenty of alcohol standing out.

Taste is similar to the smell, lots of alcohol though. That combines with malt bitterness to dominate the flavor.

My taste buds may have been skewed slightly by the Oatmeal Stout but I’m not super impressed by this beer either. Sure it’s a great beer and I digg how strong it is but I don’t feel like there is too much more there than that and malts. Sticking with G’Knight as my favorite Oskar Blues brew.

Beer Review: Rivertown Death

Right, first thing’s first, I’m a little scared and very excited. I’m excited because I love Rivertown and enjoyed both Famine and War, plus I’m all in for high gravity beers. I’m scared because the pepper in this beer, the Jolokia pepper. This thing used to be Guinness World Records hottest pepper in the world, it’s also being used as a weapon by the Indian Army, they’re putting it into grenades. The following table shows various peppers and where they fall in the Scoville unit, the table and all this pepper info is jacked from Wikipedia.

Scoville units Examples
1,500,000–2,000,000 Most law enforcement grade pepper spray, Trinidad Moruga Scorpion
855,000–1,463,700 Bhut Jolokia chili pepper – This is what they used in this beer
100,000–350,000 Habanero chili
50,000–100,000 Bird’s eye chili (aka. Thai Chili Pepper)
30,000–50,000 Cayenne pepper
3,500–8,000 Jalapeño pepper, Chipotle, Tabasco sauce
No significant heat Bell pepper

This is the last of the Brewmaster’s reserve limited release apocalypse series. Here are my previous reviews of Famine and War, unfortunately I missed the boat on Pestilence.

From the label:

Batch No. 4 in The Brewmaster’s Reserve Limited Release Series Death is the fourth of four brews released centered around the Mayan apocalypse of 2012 signifying worlds end on December 21st 2012.

Death is a high gravity Russian imperial stout. Rich malt complexity from a blend of dark malts, paired with Jolokia peppers (Ghost chili peppers) emphasize the finality of the series and the horseman himself. Save one for December 21st 2012.

Time to get drinking!

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Beer Review: Mt. Carmel Third Shift Imperial Coffee Stout

I’ve been interested in trying this beer for sometime, especially since deciding that this winter was gonna focus on stouts and porters. After digging into the Mt. Carmel Porch Pack again then seeing this was on the Growler Station at the Whole Foods in Mason I decided it was time to try this beer. This is part of their “limited” series that is only available on draft and is supposedly temporary though this has been around for a long time.

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Beer Review: Great Divide Oak Aged Yeti

So far my excursion into dark beers has been less than stunning especially this week with cans of Guinness Draught and Murphy’s. I expect this beer to radically change all that, at the very least in terms of getting me drunk since this is more than double the ABV of either of those two.

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Beer Review: Rivertown Roebling Porter

I stopped by Rivertown earlier today to grab a pint of the Winter Ale (review here) while I was there I got my growler filled with their Roebling Imperial Porter off of the nitro tap. I did this because I’ve had a few Roeblings over the year and never given them a full review but also as part of the winter of my of dark content. I also scored 2 bottles of Gueuze, but more on that another day.

There are a number of bridges crossing the Ohio river in Cincinnati (or Covington/Newport if you wanna be a Kentuckian about it), one of which is a big yellow arch (the big mac), another purple one for people (cleverly named the purple people bridge), and another old fashioned looking one with 2 big towers and suspension cables. That last one is the John A. Roebling suspension bridge. Most notable for being the precursor to the Brooklyn bridge it’s also the oldest bridge in Cinci, and is a damn fine piece of construction that has been carrying traffic for almost 140 years! Ok.. honestly I never new any of that before having 2 pints of this beer and doing some Googling, it’s a pretty cool story and I suggest everyone check it out knowing being half the battle and all that. But you’re not here for history, so on to the beer!

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Beer Review: The Alchemist Heady Topper

I debated posting this review because this blog is about to be what to drink around Cincinnati. Sadly the closest you can get this beer to Cincinnati is Vermont, which is not at all close. In the end I decided to go forward with this post because Cincinnatians may travel to Vermont or may be decided to try and trade for this beer, which is relatively easy to do. I scored this can by trading the recent Stone Enjoy By 11.9.12 for this. Another reason I posted this is because I am aware that many of our readers come from across the country and a few from around the world.

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