what beers are you drinking?

[AaronS]

evil twin brewing new york city a deal with evil base beer: evil twin nyc barleywine batch 11 anchorage a deal with the devil double oaked barleywine abv: 17% collaborator: anchorage brewing co. barrels: sina qua non red wine, then henry mckenna 12 yr bourbon buffalo trace bourbon, then woodford reserve double oaked aging time: 21m in sine qua non, the 12m in henry mckenna 12 yr. 8m in buffalo trace, 9m in woodford reserve double oaked - this one is a mixture of the anchorage barleywine I had the other night and some evil twin barley wine that spent a lot of time in the sine qua non red wine barrels that end up with so many of the most expensive evil twin beers in them. this is a lot like the anchorage beer, it's got an identical mouthfeel, very little beer flavor, and is mostly barrel, only the red wine really dominates here, as you'd expect. there's a lot of chocolate along with the dark cherry and plum that sine qua non barrels usually impart to beer, on top some toffee and fig that actually tastes like a barleywine. this is one of those beers that huge without being that detailed, but the bourbon works well with all the fruit and this is very enjoyable. this is another one in the "I don't see why it exists but it's a pleasant beverage" category and so on and on and also on.

[AaronS]

mikkeller beer geek cocoa shake imperial stout brewed with chocolate -brewed in norway by lervig, 12.1% abv. this is an older bottle of a beer that goes back to 2014, the  cap says drink by 2025 so I guess this was probably brewed in 2015. (I bought it from a place that has some truly ancient stock sitting around, including quite a few things that haven’t been made in at least ten years.) however old this is it’s holding up well enough, there’s a very simple set of basic flavors that are smooth and well rounded but not as well defined as the way I remember this when it first came out. it’s mostly smoked malt and chocolate, with some anise and some vaguely bourbon like vanilla underneath. there’s a lot less alcohol than there was at first, and there’s no real off flavors, but there’s not that much depth here and this isn’t anywhere near as compelling as the old kegs of perennial and westbrook stouts that I had at tørst over the summer. (I guess that’s not really a fair comparison but those beers were the reason that I picked these up.) there’s also a fair amount of gelatin like material in the bottom of the bottle that’s a sign that the best by date is completely optimistic. if you manage to keep that out of your mouth the basic combination of chocolate and roasted stuff is pleasant enough.

[AaronS]

to øl mine is bigger than yours barley wine-style ale - brewed at de proef brouwerij, 12.5% abv. this is another part of the leftover shelton brothers stock, only I know for a fact this one sat around their warehouse and not the store I bought it from. I emailed to øl to ask how old this is and they said the code on the cap means it was probably brewed in 2018. barley wine is probably the beer style that ages best, so it’s unsurprising that this seems like it has a lot of life left in it. it’s got a nice mixture of the basic barley wine flavors - toffee and dried fruit - along with a little bit of pear, vanilla, and a little bit of citrus left over from the huge amount of american hops this was brewed with. there’s absolutely no apparent alcohol at this point, but there is some bitterness in the finish that goes well with the apple and fig. this isn’t as good as the best english examples of the style, but it’s not that old for this kind of beer and I like that you can still tell it was an american style beer. strongly recommended to someone with my preferences.

[AaronS]

three floyds barrel-aged behemoth barleywine ale - released jan 2022, 13.6% abv. I can’t remember if I had this right when it came out or if I had the 2021 version, but I remember really liking it the first time around and this is excellent. this is a great example of a barrel aged beer - it starts out with the huge toffee and fig notes you get in a barley wine, and then the barrel takes over and there’s some roasted coffee, cocoa, vanilla, pear, and bourbon. this doesn’t have the depth of the much more expensive anchorage beers mentioned above, but it’s a little bit better put together and the way that the bourbon plays off the huge toffee malt notes is really pleasant. it is a little bit sweeter than the rest of the similar beers I’ve had recently, and I guess it’s nice that it’s a relatively low abv for the style. recommended.

[AaronS]

three floyds alpha klauss christmas porter - 7.3% abv. this is the dark version of their venerable alpha king pale ale, which gets english chocolate malt, mexican sugar, and “tons of strange american hops” and a slightly higher abv. this is really nice - there’s a nice mixture of cocoa, coffee, and other roasted malt flavors followed by some sweetness and some orange citrus and mint that works really well with the chocolate malt. there’s a nice amount of detail here, it’s really well put together, I always love three floyds, and so on and on. strongly recommended.

[Sneakeater]

Aaron loves his dark brown ales.

[AaronS]

jw lee’s harvest ale 2011 vintage limited edition - 11.5% abv. this has always been one of my favorite examples of my second favorite kind of beer, and I’ve posted about a couple different vintages over the years but this is the oldest one I’ve had in a while. this really seems older than anything I’ve had in a while. it’s still mostly enormous malt notes, but it’s not as sweet as it was and it’s more fig and raisin than anything else, with some bitter toffee underneath and orange treacle in the finish. these are exactly the same flavors it has when it’s younger, but they’ve been rearranged and dried out a little. this seems like it’s a little bit oxidized, and the end result is something like a pretty simple (or bad) sherry. as long as the oxidation stays in check I would expect this to continue to improve over the next ten or so years blah blah blah. recommended.

[StephanieL]

After much searching, I finally found the elusive Baltika #6 Porter at one of the local Eastern European groceries a few months ago.  We had it last night, at room temperature (it was a last-minute "let's have beer" decision).  Mild and sweet on the finish, and seemed much stronger than 7% ABV.  I liked it and would like to try it chilled at some point.

[AaronS]

finback ba banna drip barrel aged imperial stout with banana, coffee, vanilla, and peanut butter - 13.2% abv. the coffee is from finback's own invisible force roaster and the barrels they used previously held an unspecified type of bourbon. I really don't know why I like these so much, but... this starts out with a pretty bitter combination of roast coffee and chocolate that's followed by the adjuncts. it would be easy for something with this set of adjuncts to be cloying, but each of them works well with the bitterness and there's a lot of depth here. it's definitely sweet though, I guess I'm still a child, blah blah blah. recommended.

[AaronS]

three floyds x pig destroyer permanent funeral imperial ipa - 10.5% abv. this is one of those old school beers I’ve been so into recently. the recipe goes back to 2013, but it actually seems older even though it’s all citra. this is a huge, bitter beer that’s also fairly sweet, which gives the pineapple and citrus the carmelized or marmalade character I like so much in these kind of beers, and there’s a mixture of honey, pine, and resinous mango in the finish. these cans are a little older than usual, and this isn’t as good as the way I remember previous years versions, and so on. recommended to someone looking for this kind of beer.

[AaronS]

to øl goliat maple beacon edition smokey imperial coffee stout matured with bourbon barrel chips - brewed at de proef, lochristi, belgium, 10.2% abv. this is probably more new old stock left over from the shelton brothers bankruptcy, but I’m not sure how old it is. this was first released in 2018 but tastes like it’s about a year old to me. this starts out with a great mixture of peat, roast coffee, and vanilla, which is followed by some really well done bourbon and a mixture of milk chocolate, fig, raisins, and a hint of anise and maple. there’s a lot of detail here despite the relatively low number of adjuncts, and this comes off as subtle and demure compared to the finback stouts that I’ve had so many of over the last few winters, and a lot of these roasted notes even taste like beer. recommended.

 

[Sneakeater]

Check this out!

[AaronS]

lawson's finest liquids fayston maple imperial stout aged in mad river distillers rum barrels - 10.5% abv. the only other dark beer I've had from lawson's is the black ipa that they released in the fall. that's a style that I was convinced shouldn't exist - even maine beer co can't make a good one - but theirs really blew me away, and I was really happy to finally come across a lawson's stout. apparently the base beer is made with made with maple syrup, and while the rum is local to the brewery they don't make one with maple sugar, which could be impossible or otherwise unwanted for all I know... whatever they used didn't impart the kind of depth the rum barrels to øl and prairie use, the initial set of flavors are an oaky sweetness that's well integrated with the maple flavors but doesn't have much depth. there's some roasted malt underneath that's got some nice mild chocolate and coffee notes along with the maple and some flavors that I recognize as rum. this is a lot better put together than most of the hoppy beer I've had from them and actually exceeds my expectations. recommended.

[AaronS]

sierra nevada celebration fresh hop ipa - 6.8% abv. this is the fortieth release of sierra’s malty, centennial focused winter seasonal, which was the first real ipa I had from them. this has the usual bitter mix of pine, citrus, and actual malt flavor. it’s hard to say why, but I remember liking previous vintages a little more. my strongest recommendation.

[AaronS]

finback bqe vietnamese coffee imperial stout with cocoa beans, mostra vietnam lotus coffee, vanilla bean and condensed milk. aged in bourbon barrels. 2022 - 14.8% abv. this is from the newest release of finback's oldest stout, I picked this one over the base chocolate and coffee version as well as the double banana coconut and double nut caramel that completed last years variants. the bqe variants are usually my favorite finback stouts, but this is a little bit hotter and sweeter than the way I remember previous versions and while you can clearly taste all the adjuncts the usual depth is missing and the booze overshadows everything else. I'm disappointed enough I'll probably pick up another variant for the next time I drink blah blah blah.