Archive for the month “October, 2013”

31 Oct 2013
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Vampire Slayer – Clown Shoes Beer

vampire_bttl10% ABV
Purchased at Taylor’s Market in Sacramento ($9.99/22 oz. bottle) and poured into mini globe glasses.

Vampire Slayer pours midnight black with a fun-sized, caramel candy-colored head and intricate spider web lacing on the glass.  This imperial stout from Ipswich, Massachusetts-based Clown Shoes smells of smoldering wood (the malts were smoked with hickory and ash), caramel, and a little milk chocolate.  The first swallow is rich and chocolate-y up front, but that fades into a long and bitter finish dominated by burnt wood and coffee grounds.  It’s a dark and delicious beer, and a masterful storyteller at that – on later swallows, caramel and root beer flavors emerge on the front end, while firewood and bitter coffee stay planted on the finish.

toasts-4.5   4.5 Toasts

Vampire_ClownShoes

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Posted in 4-5 Toasts, Beer Review, Imperial Stout, Smoked Beer and tagged , , , , , , ,
30 Oct 2013

Edgar Allan Poe “Pour-trait”

Poe was a master of macabre, but there was nothing ghastly about his love for beer.

Fill with mingled cream and amber,
I will drain that glass again.
Such hilarious visions clamber
Through the chambers of my brain.
Quaintest thoughts — queerest fancies,
Come to life and fade away:
What care I how time advances?
I am drinking ale today.

– Edgar Allan Poe

Poe_Pourtrait

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29 Oct 2013

Oak Jacked Imperial Pumpkin Porter – Uinta Brewing (Crooked Line Series)

jacked10.3% ABV
Purchased at Pangaea Bottle Shoppe in Sacramento ($15.99/25.4 oz. bottle) and poured into pint glasses.

This oak-aged seasonal offering from Utah-based Uinta pours a fairly clear chestnut brown with a fluffy and persistent light tan head.  Oak Jacked smells of pumpkin pie spice, nutmeg, and sweet baked breads, with buried wine and tropical notes.  The first swallow is velvety and the flavor profile is beautifully spiced, mixing pumpkin pie spice, nutmeg, maple, and roasted nuts, with the sweet and bitter taste of pumpkin innards and spiced apples on the periphery.  It has the perfect amount of autumn spice to cut through the brown sugar and pumpkin sweetness, with oak and alcohol giving depth to the long and warm finish.

toasts-4.5   4.5 Toasts

Uinta_Pumpkin

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Posted in 4-5 Toasts, Barrel-Aged, Beer Review, Porter and tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment
10 Oct 2013

Hellion – Gigantic Brewing Company

gigantic_hellion_bttl

8.5% ABV
Purchased at Pangaea Bottle Shoppe ($9.99/22 oz. bottle) and poured into tulip glasses.

This “dry-hopped Belgian-style golden ale” from the exciting Portland, Oregon brewers Gigantic pours a straw-like gold with a tight, bright white head.  It has the expected Belgian golden nose of strong grains, a little bit of barnyard floor, and some vague tropical notes.  The first swallow is rich with de-sweetened pineapple and papaya, building in candied flavor until subsiding into a wave of bitterness.  A nice, rum-like burn settles in on the long finish, along with some honeyed fruit, ginger root, and dry crackers.  Hellion is a very good beer, bringing a welcome earthy quality to this often overwhelmingly sweet style.

toasts-4   4 Toasts

Gigantic_Hellion

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Posted in 4-5 Toasts, Ale, Beer Review, Belgian and tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment
08 Oct 2013

19th Anniversary Ale – Great Divide Brewing Company

19th_GreatDivide10.2% ABV
Purchased at Best Damn Beer Shop in San Diego and poured into mugs.

Denver brewers Great Divide made this beer to celebrate their 19th anniversary, although their wares are still rarely if ever seen on Sacramento store shelves.  19th Anniversary Ale was “brewed with birch syrup and aged on birch chips”, and it pours a clear honey gold with a tight white head.  The nose is certainly unusual, boasting an indefinite sweetness that is hard to pin down, although honey, banana, graham crackers and green apples eventually come into focus.  This beer wallops the palette with desserts and tree branches on the first swallow, coming off like a wood-fired caramel apple.  Some wood chips and cracker-y spice linger on the tongue, finishing off a beer that is tasty and original, but a lot for the palette to handle.

toasts-3.5   3.5 Toasts

GreatDivde19

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Posted in 3-4 Toasts, Ale, Beer Review and tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

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