Archive for the month “January, 2015”

Coffee Brown – Saint Archer

starcher_coffee_bttl6% ABV
Purchased at Taylor’s Market ($4.99/22 oz. bottle) and poured into pint glasses.

Brewed by San Diego upstarts Saint Archer, Coffee Brown pours a black coffee color with a mid-sized, sawdust-colored head.  The nose is more sweet than roasty, not unlike coffee candy, with aromas of coffee, amaretto, milk chocolate and toffee.  Coffee Brown gets sweet on the first swallow as well, with a flavor that feels a little too artificial, and although it finishes with a nice coffee and cream richness, the aftertaste is a little thick and syrupy.  There is some nuttiness from the brown ale base, but I would have preferred more bitterness, and a coffee flavor that was slightly more authentic.  We have really enjoyed some of the hoppier offerings from Saint Archer, but this one just misses.

   2.5 Toasts

StArcher_Brown

 

   3 Toasts

 

Vintage 2014 – Grand Teton Brewing Company

grandteton_bttl8.5% ABV
Purchased through the Rare Beer Club and poured into tulip glasses.

This “rum barrel aged Belgian-style ale with spices” began as a blend of two Grand Teton beers – the Bitch Creek XX Double ESB and the 2014 Coming Home quad.  The resulting blend pours a rusty, date brown with a minimal off-white head, and offers a most unusual nose, an allspice and clove spice bomb set amidst classic Belgian aromas of dark fruits and toffee.  Vintage 2014 is extremely tasty and distinct on the first swallow – a fascinating mix of holiday spices, toffee deserts, and Trappist yeast.  There are strong spices, but they remain in perfect balance, and serve as complements to the overarching flavor of toffee apples and rum-soaked fruitcake, with orange peel especially lingering on the palette.  It is similar to a hot toddy served cold, and the beer is smooth and drinkable in addition to its novel complexity.

toasts-4   4 Toasts

GrandTeton

toasts-4   4 Toasts

 

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