Just another Friday night.. spending some time with a great friend.. so duh, beer!
Tired Hands - 5 out of 5
an Imperial Stout at around 10% that was crowd-sourced as to what would be added. The results? Cacao. Peanut Butter. Toasted Marshmallows. PA Maple Syrup. Vanilla Beans. PA Roasted Espresso Beans.
aka - holy fuck in a bottle. Had someone send me a growler of this.. super thankful! Popping this, a sweet sticky smell fills the room. Pitch black pour with just a slight ring of a rich mocha head. (there was some spill in shipment, probably losing a bit of the carbonation - if any even existed) This one is tough to describe, but one of the best, hugely-flavored, but unbelievably balanced. One minute, it's thick and chocolately, the next it's lighter, smoother, with touches of vanilla and the peanut butter.. then the espresso kicks in.. As it warms, the flavors shine through even more. It's mind-boggling how good of a beer this is.. total loss for words!
- - 10 Hops!
Stone - Stone Farking Wheaton W00tstout
a collaboration between Stone, sci-fi hero extraordinaire Wil Wheaton and Fark.com creator Drew Curtis. Beer geeks and real geeks, this is a unique collab.. which also holds the title of Stone's strongest beer at 65 IBUs and 13 freaking percent ABV. yes.. Stone, known for it's huge beer, had never hit 13% before! This is an Imperial Stout brewed with pecans, wheat, and rye with a portion aged in bourbon barrels before being re-blended. Another super-dark pour, almost pure black.. decent brown head for such a huge beer. It's got another sticky sweet aroma, more chocolate and bourbon than anything else. There's a definite scent of booze along with some underlying coffee and rich cherry/plum. As for the taste, it's fairly one-dimensional as a rich, boozy stout. The nutty pecans, the rye spice.. even the bourbon.. it's not here. It's just a very hot, rich Imperial that's very imbalanced. With age, this will probably be great.. but Stone is just cranking out beers far too quickly at this point..
- - 4 Hops
Backlash - Uprising! Series 1 of 3: Catalyst
the first in our DIPA series, at 8.5% and 85 IBUs. Take the success that was Salute, change the hops to showcase a single variety and you have our Uprising! series of Double IPAs, with Catalyst using only Amarillo hops (and a fucking bulldog on the label.. suck it). A deep orange pour with a fluffy head, this gives off a crazy bitter, tropical citrus nose. Super pungent. There's some sweet malts, but nothing is holding back the hops. The taste follows suit, but for 8.5%, the booze is totally hidden. It's smooth and deceptively easy to drink.. my first pint went down in about 12 minutes! It's got a slightly drying finish with grapefruit and pineapple through and through.. not overly bitter and sharp, but enough of a bite for you to remember the hops are there. The majority of the hoppiness found it's way to into the citrus. I may be biased, but this is fully my sort of DIPA. Smooth, sweet-ish, tons of citrus and some pine hops.. easy drinking and hidden ABV. Plus Stout on the label! (Stout is the bulldog.. do you goddamn research!)
- - 9 Hops!
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