This lovely little number is one of the brews I schlepped back with me from my trip to Georgia last September.
Jailhouse Brewing Co - Smokey. A 5.5% smoked Wheat/Dunkelweizen. Apparently it's their fall seasonal brew? Good enough for me. The name and label sold me.. plus I was just looking for any local brews to bring back. A little worried it'd be gimmicky.. but let's see! It's a ruby brown pour that settles out into a rich espresso brown.. thin and a minuscule head. Roasty, chocolate malts on the nose.. reminiscent of a mild Porter. Just a touch of smoke is noticeable here along with the faintest bit of weizen yeast. A decently roasty, malty brew.. everything seems to be in a good balance here. Nice milk chocolate and smooth coffee notes.. the smoke is akin to a nice mild cigar or backyard bonfire. As it warms, the smoke fades to give way to the slightest little big of bitterness. This is smooth and well-balanced. Not gimmicky one bit!
- - 7 Hops!
In keeping with the 'smoke' theme.. I'm going to the root of smoke on the next one - heat.
Left Hand - Fade to Black vol.3 - Pepper Porter. Yeah, yeah.. it's not smokey. But peppers can be spicy hot... heat can create smoke. So suck it. This is a 7.2% ABV brew with an estimated 2000 scoville units, which is somewhere between a Poblano pepper and Tabasco sauce (thanks, Wikipedia!). Apparently they used dried Ancho, smoked Serrano and brown Poblano peppers. It pours a dark black/brown and the head is fast and fizzy. The nose has touches of chocolate, molasses, charcoal/earth and a deep brandy/port quality to it. With this age, a metallic note comes through in the nose and taste, sadly. It's very light and somewhat carbonated for such a deeply hued pour. It's a smokey porter that's slightly watered down.. chocolate malts with notes of black coffee and bitter baker's chocolate. Sweeter cream notes in the middle are followed by the dried pepper warmth. At first, it's barely noticeable (this has probably 8+ months on it), but as the beer warms, it pokes through more on the finish. Coarsely ground black pepper coats the back of your throat and fades into a warming burn that slides down the throat like cough syrup. Fresh, this had a much nicer pepper bite, but is still fairly solid.
- - 6 Hops!
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