Month: December 2013

Beer Roundup #5: Three Midwest Strong Scotch Ales

Food and Drink

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To Buy or Not to Buy?

1 = horrible
2 = bad
3 = average
3.5 = good (many better beers out there; won’t buy this again)
4 = very good
4.5 = great
5 = rare best

A Note on the Style:

Regular Scotch Ales (5% – 7% abv) generally leave me unmoved.  Their watery, ambiguous malt profiles come off as enfeebled APA’s, without even the hops to save them from abject anonymity.  But boost the alcohol to 8% or more, and the complexity emerges as lucid, jumping layers of sweets and fruits and grains.

Louie’s Reserve, Lake Louie Brewing

Rating:  4.36/5

10% abv, 40 IBU, 12 oz. bottle (4-pk)

The bottle version of this brew isn’t quite as stellar as the draft version (which I gave a 4.6).  It’s a beautiful pour into a snifter.  Golden clean viscous motor oil.  The finger of off-white head dissipates quickly, and the tiny-bubble lacing slides down the glass from the slippery alcohol.

The aroma is really nice, moist zucchini bread, cookie dough, and a workaday flour malt.  It presents itself as a polite breakfast syrup sweetness, reserved in its hints of other character traits:  a faint grassy/grainy earthy aura that surrounds the grainy sweetness.

In the mouth the high alcohol gives a fruity zip to the sweet malt.  And the hop bitterness pulls it further ceiling-ward.  A diacetyl toffee smoke puts one in mind of breakfast and pancakes and burnt, buttered toast.

There’s a metallic tartness that I wish were less bright (something I don’t remember from the draft version).  Middle to high carbonation is somewhat of a drawback, for what otherwise would have been simple cream.

Still one of my favorite Strong Scotch Ales of all time.  Definitely rivals Founders Backwoods Bastard, which makes its own weather because of the barrel aging.  Beats my other two commonly found go-to’s, Oskar Blues Old Chub and Dark Horse Scotty Karate.  Much, much better than Skull Splitter or Sticky McDoogle.

Backwoods Bastard, Founders Brewing Co.

Rating:  4.54/5

10.2% abv, 50 IBU, 12 oz. bottle (4-pk)

Bourbon barrel aging gives this beer a leg up on the other beers in this roundup.

On tap at Dexter’s, Madison.  A Founders tap takeover is a beautiful thing!  Dexter’s serves its 5 oz. pours in these handsome little snifters.  I’m drinking this alongside a half-snifter of Devil Dancer.  What an awesome combo.

This pour is a beauty:  dark-coppery brown with high clarity and a fluffy off-white head.

In the nose you get ripe cherry–a big old waft of cherry that’s just really remarkable.  Then bourbon and buttery caramel and a bit of umami and vanilla that’s somewhat sickeningly sweet.

Surprisingly roasty-sweet malt first on the front of the tongue.  Then that stone fruit from the aroma coats the mouth, with booze and hop bitterness in the finish

Near-syrup viscosity, and a bit of alcohol warmth in the throat, with mild-to-moderate carbonation.

Scotty Karate, Dark Horse Brewing Co.

Rating:  4.26/5

9.75% abv, 30 IBU, 12 oz. bottle

A finger of khaki head fluffs up and dies readily, with almost no lacing on my tulip glass.  The fluid itself is a reddish-brown murk.  Caramel greets the nose assertively, along with topsoil and animal feed grain.  Wood and grass dry out the sweetness in the aroma, with a stone fruit twang.  The palate gets washed with buttery toffee sugar, pie crust, and wood barrel.  A surprising coffee and cocoa in the dry, acidic finish.
The medium body is a bit of a letdown.  It fills the mouth well enough, but could be longer in the finish.

ice storm

Food and Drink, Health

ice storm

We came out of Karaoke Kid and I had to ride home on my frozen bike.  For the two hours we were karaokiing, my bike was outside on a pole, getting sleeted to death.  On my way home, nothing worked.  Not my brakes, not my shifters.  Couldn’t hear the usual zippy-hum of my studded tires — they were encased in ice.

Beer Roundup #4: Three Midwest Imperial IPA’s

Food and Drink

Lupulin Maximus

THREE MIDWEST IMPERIAL IPA’s

To Buy or Not to Buy?

1 = horrible
2 = bad
3 = average (many better beers out there, won’t buy this again)
4 = very good
4.5 = great
5 = rare best

A Note on the Style:

Imperial IPA, a.k.a. Double IPA.  A friend of mine recently asked about the terminology.  Rather than referring to  increased ingredients  or number of fermentation stages, “double IPA” is a nickname for “imperial IPA” (from the acronym “IIPA”).

Lupulin Maximus, O’so Brewing Co.

Rating:  4.38/5

12 oz. bottle (4-pk)  9% abv, ? IBU.

From a bottle into a tulip glass, it pours a hazy amber, with a thin white head.

A reserved aroma.  Sweet and grainy, rye bread, molasses.  Pine needles, nuts, black pepper, and leather, all overlying the sweetness.  Plus some citrus — lime, actually.

Sweet and bready up front.  Some will call this cloying; I love it.  It’s an adamant sweetness that tugs against the grassy hops all the way through this long, complex ride through flavor land.  Brown sugar and biscuit, absolutely identifiable, here.  Plus some diacetyl that makes for a butterscotch candy delight.  Wood and grass shake hands with the sweet notes and introduce the hop bitterness.  The sweetness becomes tropical fruit in the presence of the hops, mango, I’d say.  Finishes dry and salty, a long finish of simple syrup and oak aging mellowness.  The alcohol says hello before it’s done.  And, yet, there’s something not quite great about this flavor.  Too busy, perhaps?  Still, totally impressive.

Wonderful in the mouth, viscous, syrupy, creamy, despite the moderate, cleansing carbonation.  Mouthfeel is the raison d’etre, here.

Wildly complex.  So many star turns for the various flavor profiles — bitter, sweet, spice, umami, salt, tart.  Will definitely divide audiences due to its uncompromising, disparate sensations in the mouth.  Cannot find IBU listed anywhere, but my guess would be around 70 – 85; probably on the higher end, to account for the intense sweetness.

Bell’s Hopslam, O’so Brewing Co.

Rating:  4.76/5

On tap at Maduro, Madison.  10% abv, 70 IBU.

A beautiful pour in a Bell’s tulip glass.  Inch of fluffy-snow head.  And glacial lacing on the glass.

It’s often more of a challenge to write a review in a bar, given all the distractions and working on a cell phone touchscreen keyboard.   That’s particularly true of a cigar bar.  Great aroma in this beer, though the cigar smoke in here is obstructing any and all nuance.   I’m getting generic concepts of high hop bitterness, a foundation of bready grains, and a syrupy sweetness that pulls it all together.  Gonna have to find a bottle of this to try it again at home, as this is blowing my doors.

In the mouth the piney hops and candy sweetness team up to beat back the tobacco smoke.  There’s only room on my palate for one alpha flavor.  If you’re bothered by tobacco smoke, have one of these!

It’s noteworthy to find my favorite of these three beers to be the one with the lowest IBU (international bitterness units).

Founders Devil Dancer, Triple IPA

Rating:  4.43/5

On tap at Dexter’s Pub, Madison.  12% abv, 112 IBU.

So lucky to have stumbled upon this Founders tap takeover at Dexter’s Pub.  Classic kid-in-a-candy store excitement going on in here.  Each of us have ordered three beers at once, all five-ounce pours:  Backwoods Bastard (bourbon barrel aged imperial Scotch ale), Curmudgeon Old Ale, and Devil Dancer.

Incredible.  Beautiful brown poor in a 6 oz. snifter with a finger of off white head.  The aroma is surprisingly tame (maybe just too cold).  As it warms, the bubblegum/juicy-fruit gum aroma gets enveloped by citrus and floral hop bitterness.

Triple IPA?  Yes, with its 12% ABV and 100+ IBU, this drinks like an American-style barley wine.  Listed at 112 IBU, the caro-syrup sweetness pushes the complex hop bitterness to the next level of palate phenomenon.  Butter-caramel and plum/raisin in the back end.  Very mild, fruity alcohol on the breath.

Intensely flavorful, like electroshock therapy to the mouth.  Not as refined or beautiful as the Bell’s Hopslam, but definitely one to remember.