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Let's Learn Beer!

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Let's Learn Beer!

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Let's Learn Beer!

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American beer

could switch with last week…

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It’s been quite a while since I came across an American beer on the shelves. Import and shipping costs, I guess. But here we are after all this time, with a Kentucky Imperial Stout. This West Sixth Brewing has been around for a while, since 2012, but I don’t remember seeing them pop up around here before. No complaints about a stout though, whoever makes it, wherever it comes from. Snake Eyes could just make my night!

Extra dark brown, a good mocha color to the head, although the foam is a little on the light side. The aroma is malty and somewhat heavy, expected from the appearance. There are hints of gingerbread lurking, but no smoke or earthier notes. The taste is surprisingly sweet for not being a pastry or milk stout, rather a maply flavor. It could be a recipient of Kentucky’s bourbon barrel treatment, although that is not on the label. It’s an unusual sensation of taste explosion, but quick fade away, giving the beer a deceptive lightness. It’s not weighty on the tongue, but after a good amount of sipping it does start to hang around a little. It’s in double digits with ABV, so no surprise really.

Supplier: Lambeer
Price: €6.90

over the horizon

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Since I’ve been travelling, I don’t have a store of beer to start the year with. Didn’t make a lot of sense, although I could have left it in my closet; without the radiator my room is pretty cool. I’ll just have to use my present!

It is a special beer, since it was created by my brother-in-law for his brewpub, but which he has sold to be run by more business-interested people. So, no more Warm Fuzzies. It was a limited edition anyway, but there’s always a chance you can get a repeat when the same people are involved. The new brewers don’t use the same water source, so even the same recipes don’t come out identical to their past selves. While the majority of the collection were lighter beers, ales and sours and easier drinking options, there were also some pretty solid stouts. I seem to remember a lot of barrel-aged ones, but being far away I can’t swear to it.

It doesn’t look extra dark and thick, but pours nicely and has good color. The off-beige head doesn’t build up too much and relaxes quickly. The bourbon aroma is front and center, drowning out anything else. The taste is something of a surprise; it’s very woody to start, and winey over the tongue. It doesn’t seem to have the weight that I’ve experienced with other barrel-aged beers. It’s remarkably smooth, in fact, given the alcohol content of over 13%. The wine flavor ripens into raisin, but the beer stays pretty crisp, not descending into sticky fruitiness. It’s not quite what I was expecting, but it is undoubtedly a special beer, not only because of its extinction. The warmth of it sneaks up on you, and by the end of the can you can definitely feel that 13%. There are those warm fuzzies!

looking for friends

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Still on my chocolate kick, here’s a Double Chocolate Stout from Rogue. At first I thought its name was “Share Me”, but that seems to be an instruction. It’s a one pint can though, and I can easily drink one pint all on my own. It’s brewed with “natural flavor” too, although it doesn’t specify what flavor on the front. There’s a flavor star on the back promising full chocolate flavor, no increase possible. We’ll see about that. Also high in roast and malt, and a balance of bitter and sweet. They recommend pairing with Brie, Porterhouse steak or Baked Alaska. That’s a versatile beer, it seems to me.

Head’s looking good this time around! As a chocolate stout it makes sense for the beer to be more dark brown than black, and the head has a coffee ice cream look. The aroma is chocolate at first, but quickly starts to remind me of graham crackers. The beer is weirdly dry for all the chocolate hanging around it, with a taste of unsweetened chocolate powder. It isn’t unpalatable, but it is surprising. It definitely feels cooked, roasted, pulled from the fire, but there’s no smoke to speak of and it isn’t in any way burned. I’m on the lookout (tasteout?) for toast, but it’s chocolate through and through. Is it the very top of chocolate? Eh, not really. But, I will allow that if it’s only natural flavors and real cacao nibs or something, it’s hard to get that saturated knock-you-on-your-ass flavor. Being a more subtle beer, it would be a good pairing with more than one dish. And at 9%, it’s a beer you might protect yourself from with a little something extra in your stomach, or by following instructions and sharing with a friend. Could have been a Valentine’s beer!

Supplier: Más Que Cervezas
Price: €6.24

moonlighting

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We are past the longest day of the year, and in Madrid the changes are actually easily noticeable from week to week. Still, it isn’t quite time for drinks outside under the moon. I mean, you could wait until night and moon are fully in force, but the atmosphere can be a bit oppressive on the ears. Much better to have your favorite style at home and at your leisure. Oh yes, the favorite style, you know what’s coming now. This time it’s a German-US collab, so that ought to be fun. It certainly has an intriguing label, this Dead Moon Cove. It looks a little like a classic Halloween movie poster. Will Third Moon Brewing and Sudden Death Brewing give us something so good it’s scary? Or just a horror?

It pours out thick and oily, barely letting any head build up at all. It smells like a bakery. Pretty much that’s it, a bakery. One that never burns the product and uses the best chocolate and vanilla. It’s another thick one, almost like a melted milkshake, but really it’s thicker than that. It’s almost like drinking chocolate syrup, except there’s an extra level of flavor besides the chocolate part. The alcohol sits boldly in the middle with a halo of decadent sweeteners around it, like the most extravagant 18th-century dessert. I’m saying 18th-century because after all my video watching, my impression is that they just didn’t overload their taste buds the way we do, although they did like a little, quality, spice like vanilla and cinnamon. Oh yeah, some cinnamon wanders out too. The glass is positively covered with a sticky film after the beer has been there, something they say about stronger alcohol sometimes. It’s not a beer that I would identify merely as imperial stout, although it does have strength and majesty about it, but one of the better crafted pastry stouts. The rich bakery sensations are there, as is an exceptionally weighty mouthfeel, but it’s restrained and refined, not punch you in the dental work sweet. Highly enjoyable, any day of the year for me, maybe with some ice cream just out the freezer for the rest. They say stouts are having a moment this year, but I think this one might be stronger than most people want at poolside. Missing out, I say!

Supplier: La Mundial
Price: €9.90

gift of the gods, yeah those ones

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In spite of, well, everything, there’s nothing like a stout to calm your nerves. And sometimes it’s nice to have a stronger one than normal, one with a little more oomph. If it happens to have a cool label too, so much the better. It was both the label and the name that pulled my hand right to Abduction in Be Hoppy’s fridge; pink rainbow unicorns can’t be ignored and above the name? Double fudge barrel aged. Fall on your knees, this is now your god. Lo, it has descended from the heavens. I would call the aliens on the lest hand side of the can Simpsonsesque, although that’s probably only because of the cyclops look. The two-eyed one on the right reminds me more of Toejam and Earl. I wonder of the people at Pipeworks have those influences in their pasts. They are from Chicago, so it’s certainly possible.

It’s promising in the pour, looking thick and sleek, and oh my god it’s as chocolately and liquory as you would ever want in a beer. I tasted even before sniffing, and there’s a good layer of graham cracker in the aroma, but the same notes of the flavor are present. Every piece of the style description comes out, with a slightly bitter stout entrance, a long cocoa road and a sweet bourbon tail-end. It develops kind of a tang as you drink and leaves a syrupy coating on the glass. At some point, the wood of the barrels starts making an appearance and you think the whole can might have been a bad bet to make. Eyes bigger than your stomach, as it were. It’s delicious, but definitely heavy. It’s a little strong in alcohol and in nature to be an accompanying drink, to a dessert or anything else, but it’s certainly a course of its own.

Supplier: Be Hoppy
Price: €13.95

no punch

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The only nice thing about not being in the city center should be having less cement around you, but this neighborhood is at least as paved as any central neighborhood. Yes, there are some dirt areas trying to nourish some plant life, but the streets and the luxuriously wide sidewalks are all cemented and bricked and fake stoned, and they do not stop being little ovens after the sun goes down. Last week, when it was very windy, it was bearable, I must admit. Anyway, enough complaints, it’s time for a drink! This one impressed the guy at Hidden Beers when I pulled it out of the fridge and he waxed eloquent over its positive qualities. It’s an IPA, with no other qualifiers, from Triple Crossing in Virginia, very well made, very stable, very drinkable. It certainly looks to me like it has aspirations. Ready to fly into the sun, perhaps. Here comes Falcon Smash!

Once again, an abundance of foam in the first pour. It’s not quite completely white, and very bubbly. The beer itself is bright gold and just a little cloudy. It gives off a typical IPA aroma, slightly citrus and gruffly hoppy underneath. Most of the head vanishes in a minute or so, leaving a sort of crown around the edges of the glass. A fried egg of a beer, looking down on it. There’s a lot more forest in this IPA than tropics, tilting it towards more classic English styles with a touch of West Coast. It has a snap of citrus at first, but it gets rolled over with pine and climbing vines. Although smooth and light, it has a stickiness that hangs around the mouth, without any unpleasant aftertaste, just a sensation of just having swallowed something. While it looks like the perfect summertime beer, it has a deep almost bitter to it that lurks and clings, and might make it less refreshing than you want for a sidewalk drink. Inside, with the A/C wafting over you, you might just have a winner.

Supplier: Hidden Beers
Price: €9.99

PS. I learned about a week ago that Chinaski has shut its doors, so there goes another craft bar in town. Sure, they have a taproom in Valdemoro, but how often do I go there? Maybe I should look into it.

wake up

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It seems to me that the stouts are getting more and more extravagant, which means they are also getting more and more expensive. I guess if you want something special you better be ready to shell out. I also guess since it’s the end of the year we can treat ourselves a little bit. And if anything’s a treat, it’s a flavored imperial stout, something like vanilla, coffee and maple all together. Latvian Arpus and Michigander Transient have made something that appears gentle and subdued on the label, but might turn out to be quite the flavor bomb.

Another next-to-headless pour. Maybe I’m letting things get a little too cold. Somehow the aroma is frosty, even though it’s clearly the vanilla and maple promised on the can. It’s one of those very dark brown beers, not terrifying black, like overdone syrup. The taste is a maple explosion, with a good floor of pancake. It’s really like drinking breakfast, although there’s no scrambled eggs or breakfast sausage in the beginning. It is pretty heavy on the sweet side, without any of the savoriness or even saltiness some of the other pastry stouts have brandished. If there’s any change in the flavor over time, it’s that it gets a little more sour after a while. It still feels slick and unburdensome, much softer than you would expect from the advertised elements. Maybe I should have kept this one for a little while longer, getting closer to the end of the season with a greater emphasis on the sweet and sugary to keep your engines burning. Oh well, I’m sure I won’t be without tasty beers over the month, extra sweetened or not.

Supplier: Be Hoppy
Price: €9.50

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