Deschutes Black Butte XXI Imperial Porter

Deschutes Black Butte XXI
Deschutes Brewery, Bend, OR
Grade: A-

Another big, bold, cellar-ready release from Deschutes, this one an imperial porter brewed with coffee and chocolate, 20% aged in bourbon barrels. How will it stack up to Deschutes' superb The Abyss? The suspense is killing me! 22oz bottle poured into a goblet. Elusive creamy tan head disappears gracefully. Gorgeous brown color that thins to a seductive amber-red at the edges. The aroma, aside from the expected coffee elements, is strangely similar to a Belgian golden ale, with notes of pear, sour apple and bubblegum, and traces of musty earth, gourmet mushrooms and molasses. Veeeery interesting... Sticky/chewy mouthfeel gives birth to intense initial flavors of bittersweet chocolate, honey and brown sugar, followed by interesting pomegranate and berry tones, capped by a jarring bitterness that unfortunately feels a bit overplayed. The high alcohol content makes for a pleasant, warm finish. All in all, an enjoyable and deeply interesting beer (I'd expect nothing less), though the overall balance just seems a touch skewed. Perhaps cellaring will bring out more of the sugary and earthy flavors lurking beneath the surface and take this beer to the next level.

Andrew

Deschutes Brewery - Red Chair NWPA

So what is this NWPA?
  Well its an inventive ale from the greatest brewery in Oregon, Deschutes.  Named after the mighty central Oregon river, the brewery has few beers that disappoint.  This seasonal, Red Chair NorthWest pale ale, is a real top 10.  Before delving into the taste odyssey that is a sweet brew, I want to give a little personal history of my relationship with Deschutes.
  At the time of moving to Oregon, a little over a year ago.  Rogue was my favorite beer.  Rogue Rogue Rogue.  Loved that shit.  But the more I headed over to Newport for a beer tasting, the more I realized that their beers were often quite full of gimmicks and less full of substance.  However, I was still a supporter.  I love their brewery and respect their courage in designing their brewery after a motto as simply as, "Fuck it man, try it.  Lets move on to the next one."  awesome.  Rogue is the jam.  Don't get me wrong.
  So how do I segue on to the NWPA.  Well let me just say this... Cinder Cone.
  A beautiful red ale seasonal by deschutes that is well developed, tasty and refreshing.  That should be the motto for deschutes, "We make a god-damn developed beer" and thats all there is to it.  Deschutes does not have a beer a minute, but they do have a damn good arsenal.  Every Deschutes beer is thought-out, planned, calculated, perfected.  After the recent great special editions, Mirror Mirror and HopTrip I was justifiably excited when I saw Red Chair NWPA.  Fucking NWPA! Yes Deschutes, make a beer of the Northwest, make a beer that embodies the taste and harvest of Oregon.
  Red Chair NWPA begins like a golden, with a sweet refreshing tone.  Symbolizing the sweeping desert of eastern Oregon.  The Alvord coming to its summit near Bend, OR the home of the Deschutes river and the brewery.  The terrain shifts steeply upwards in the Cascades just as the hoppy pale ale hints at the Willamette Valley in its shadow.  As it glides across your senses the hops stick with and continue to the bitter end of the rugged Oregon coast.  A spray of golden malt arrives as you are left to the open ocean.  The flavors combine and sink in, a fully developed beer, malt, hops, yeast and water in perfect harmony.
  Just as I finish my last sip of my last beer of my only case.

it was a good week.

A+

A. Diamonds

Rogue Double Dead Guy

Rogue Double Dead Guy Ale
Rogue Ales, Newport, OR
Grade: A

I never cared much for regular old Dead Guy, but the Double's matte fire-engine red bottle always caught my eyes at the liquor store, so here it is... 22oz bottle poured into oversized pilsner glass. Pours a hazy copper-amber with a tall, sticky, sand-colored head that fizzles away a bit before it floats around indefinitely, trailing a moderate lacing. Massive and unmistakable nose of fruit pastries, complete with pie crust, peach, cherry, nutmeg and sweet cinnamon. Hope you left room for dessert... Big bready caramely roasty malts roll out the carpet and turn up the PA for a textbook Rogue hop bouquet, coming on strong with resins and crisp pine, riding a wave of ripe stonefruits, fading out on a gentler lavender and citrus tang. Leaves a unique spicy tingling long after you've finished sipping. Whew! This is one badass mutha of a maibock (a doppelmaibock...?) Dig it, and dig the sweet painted bottle.

Andrew

Bourbon County Stout
Goose Island Brewery
Chicago IL

C

Wow. This beer is intense! This is like an insane chocolate milkshake drowned in booze with a cherry on top. Honestly, and I don't say this very often, this beer was way over the top. I have been racking my brain for a food that would make this beer palatable, but I haven't come up with anything yet. Smells like a pecan caramel brownie covered in bourbon. Lots of alcohol in the nose along with some fruity esters. Feels like a sweet flavored sludge-shake that coats the mouth and leaves that same feeling you get after stuffing too much dark chocolate in your mouth. Lots of flavors happening here but a bit over the top for my personal taste. Carbonation is almost nonexistent and really makes the syrupy mouthfeel worse.

The label advertises that this beer can age for up to 5 years. My personal opinion is that a year or two in the cellar could only do this sludgy potion some good. I think there is potential here, but right now it's not doing anything for me.

The Abyss Imperial Stout

The Abyss Imperial Stout
Deschutes Brewery, Bend, OR
Grade: A+

22 oz bottle poured into goblet, allowed to warm just a bit before consideration. Holy god, this beer is dark and heavy. Unflinchingly deep black alllll the way to the edges of the glass. Gnarly caramel-coffee head leaves a thick kiss of foam around the rim. Ridiculously complex on the nose! Rushing forth, in no particular order: coffee, chocolate, toffee, lavender, lilac, smoked salmon, blueberry, ocean breeze, sand, kalamata olives, pear, molasses, vanilla, truffles, mushrooms, redwood, oak, maple syrup... dear god, does it ever end? Flavors are similar, coasting on coffee, chocolate, burnt sugar and vanilla maltiness that bleeds into an expansive dark and spicy bitterness with prominent caramel and maple. Sweet and buoyant mouthfeel - all I can think of is a chocolate malt - is just as intense as everything else about this beer. Seriously, it could take several bottles to decipher what exactly is going on here. We're aging a bottle for a while, check back later on as we see how this gem changes with the seasons.

À votre santé,

Andrew

Lagunitas Hop Stoopid

Lagunitas Hop Stoopid
Lagunitas Brewing Co., Petaluma, CA
Grade: A-

22 oz bottle poured into standard pint glass. Thin and foamy head disappears quickly with little trace. Gorgeous copper color thinning to pale yellow, with incredible clarity. Citrusy fruits on the nose with a mild floral bite and surprising touches of chocolate (!) The 102 IBUs manifest mostly as juicy citrus, mandarin primarily, with sweet candy and pine atop a supple malty backbone. Thick and rich mouthfeel is almost visible as the beer thins toward the edge of the glass, and finishes with a dry, deep resinous bitterness. I'm really glad this is more than a seasonal or limited offering - deliberately overhopped beers like this often flop gracelessly, but Lagunitas (as always) strikes a perfect balance of boldness and pure enjoyability.

À votre santé,

Andrew

Rogue Shakespeare Stout

I'm going to take this opportunity to review one of my very favorite beers. Is it presumptuous to say Rogue is one of the world's great breweries? The Oregon experimenters have produced some crap in their day (I absolutely detest Hazelnut Brown Nectar, and I think Dead Guy is one of the most overrated beers in the US), but their wild and uninhibited experimentation has also led to the creation of some of America's finest craft brews.


Rogue Shakespeare Stout
Rogue Ales, Newport, OR
Grade: A+

22 oz bottle poured into standard pint glass. Luscious, thick, creamy mocha-colored two-finger head hangs out forever, leaving beautiful and persistent lacing all the way down the glass. Deep brown/black and opaque, with a touch of deep ruby red translucency at the bottom of the glass. Complex and evocative aromas rise from the pour, including bittersweet cocoa, toffee, tart fruit, earthy grasses, mushrooms, and wood smoke. Flavors are just as complex - the coffee and chocolate notes inherent to the style are present and beautifully balanced, along with sweet toffee, butterscotch and a welcome brushstroke of flowery hops. An impression of smoked meat and rich desserts lurks underneath the surface. Unbelievably smooth, almost cream-like mouthfeel with a gently lingering bitterness that appears at the last moment. This beer should serve as a benchmark for American stouts, and stands as one of the great achievements of American craft brewing.

I had the opportunity to try this beer on a nitro tap at the pub in Newport - if you see Shakespeare on nitro, DO NOT PASS IT UP!! While the bottled and carbonated version of this beer is spectacular, nitrogen shoots it into the stratosphere, giving it an even thicker, creamier, richer head and an insidiously decadent texture.

À votre santé,

Andrew