Stack N Stabb

I've been on a solid Three Floyds kick lately. Stack N Stabb is their Belgian Strong Ale, but it reminded me more of a Belgian IPA. It was clear and golden with just a little bit of head forming on the top. It laced well and hung for a respectable amount of time.

It had a citrus aroma with sweet dried fruits and a little funky Belgian yeasts.

It had a nice Belgian yeast banana flavor with a very light sweetness. It had a complimentary spiciness to it with cloves and a bit of a peppery finish. There was a nice bready ale flavor. Like all things done by FFF, they hit it with a strong punch of hops that was good for this brew. It had a good mix of earthiness and pine. Stack N Stabb had a crisp dry finish with a bit of bitter astringency that I didn't love. The body of the beer was not strong enough to balance out the bitter finish for me. This really wasn't a bad beer, but I do like Belgian Strong Ales and this one just didn't do it for me.

  

The beer did get better as it warmed up. Everything blended together better the longer I was drinking it, but I hate to wait and it just wasn't something that I would get pumped up about.

I hate to do it to the guys up and FFF but I give it a 2.5.

Founders Imperial Stout

We have not talked much about Founders Brewing Co., but their Breakfast Stout is one of my favorite everyday craft beers. Founders does a great job and they're just across our northern boarder in Michigan. I figured while watching the IU VS Michigan State game last week, what better beer to celebrate with than the Founders Imperial Stout. This is my favorite style of beer. I pretty much love every single Russian Imperial Stout (RIS) that I've ever had... maybe not quite every one of them but damn near it.

Russian Imperial Stouts have big bold flavors. They have extreme malts, hops and alcohol content. This came from a day when brewers were exporting to northern Europe. Heavy hops (originally a preservative as well as a flavoring) and alcohol both allowed them to transport long distances without spoiling. It was named Imperial, because Russian nobility took a liking to the strong style. You better believe that this kind of brew could keep even a Russian winter chill off you.

Founders Imperial Stout has 10.5% abv and 90 IBUs. It pours dark and heavy black color, with no real head to speak of. There are just wisps of tan crossing the top of the brew. It has a big sweet coffee aroma with hints of coffee and a pretty nice forward bitterness. It is like a giant warning sign saying this beer is not messing around. The mouthfeel is smooth and creamy.

As you might expect this beer is big on flavor. The flavor has strong notes of bitter, sweet chocolate up front. Ther's a hint of bitter coffee that mixes in well with the bitter hops towards the end of the beer. There's a slight roasty, toasty malt flavor throughout the beer that gives it a nice smokiness that is very subtle and helps calm some of the big sweet notes that are so in your face in the beginning of the brew. There's also a pretty nice boozy heat mixed in at the end. It has a nice alcoholic sharpness that, when mixed with the bitterness of the hops, really closes off the beer well.



















This is an awesome seasonal release, granted I am always pumped for any RIS but this one sets the bar very high. I keep it marked on my calendar, and so should you (January/February release but it gets harder to find as it gets further into February).


I give it a 4.5

The Scene: "Dude... Where's my Lambic?" Upland Lambic Spring Cleaning

This past Saturday was a bit of fun brought to you by your local Upland Beer Brewery and Tap house.  They not only found their car, but also found a few cases of their precious limited release Lambics in the trunk!

 Raspberry, Blackberry and Gilgamesh were the assortment of flavors up for grabs Saturday at noon.  Granted we got there at 11am and almost didn't end up with anything for our troubles.  Tickets were given out and rules stated plainly in the twitter feeds, blog posts, facebook, and once you received your ticket to ride.

Hi-jinks were had.  Brews were enjoyed.  Random conversations about Hopquila, HopHead Vodka and ReThinker Mead where discussed.  Yes... they are a real thing! Ticket 39 I hope to bump into you again to snag your recipe on how to really enjoy the HopHead Vodka with your favorite IPA.

Ticket number 43 got me one Raspberry Lambic.  If i had shown up at the crack of dawn with the crew in tow I could have also snagged a Gilgamesh or a Blackberry to go with it (shakes fist at ticket holder 32).  Rules is rules.

What are some of your favorite Lambics/Sours?  Are you going to show up at this year's Sour Wild Funk Fest?

Links to Last Years Sour Wild Funk Fest:

http://uplandsourfest.com/

http://uplandbeer.com/eat-n-drink/events/calendar/sour-wild-funk-fest/

Chocolate Cake

When you're a beer geek even your romantic side likes a good brew. Valentines Day just came and went and in the spirit of the holiday I got the wife chocolates, roses and chocolate cake beer by Sun King Brewing Co. That's right, you can say it, "Playa, play on!!!"

Chocolate Cake is an incredibly dark Brown Ale with 14 IBUs and 6.5% abv. It is so dark and chocolatey I thought for sure it was a stout until I checked out their site.

This beer pours super dark brown, verging on black. Whatever head may have been there quickly disperses and turns into a very light brown or tan lacing. It has a roasty cocoa aroma. There is chocolate and just a hint of smokiness.

The beer was not as big as I expected. I thought this was going to be closer to a really dark imperial or something like the Bourbon Country Brand Stout. Take that out of your head because it messed up my taste buds when I first went into it. It is not, it is a Brown Ale- more like a super amped up version of a Newcastle. The flavor is not too sweet, with bitter chocolate and slightly dark toasty malts. It is rich and smooth with less bitterness than I expected. This beer could have had a very crisp bitter finish, that would have rounded it out more but Chocolate Cake had almost no hop flavor. I guess with 14 IBUs I shouldn't have expected too much more. The mouth feel was moderate to, lighter on the tongue than a stout would be, but still very solid.

 

Since it was a holiday, my wife and I each enjoyed some Godiva chocolate truffles. The beer goes great with the sweet milk chocolate and gooey fillings. The bittersweet flavors of the beer blend well with the sweet candy and the light mouth feel helps to not override the creaminess of the tasty treats. The beer was good, but I've come to expect at least good from Sun King. I would drink it again without question, and my wife totally loved it.

 

I give it a 3.5

The Scene: The Brockway Public House

The Brockway Public House is right down the street from where I live, and has become one of my favorite places to grab a pint. It has a nice quiet dark atmosphere with plenty of booths and tables tucked away in the nooks and crannies.  In the summer they have a great patio and can open garage doors to let fresh air in. They have a great schedule of live bands, featuring a lot of Kilt Rock, or Irish Rock. When the bands are on stage the atmosphere is anything but quiet.

They've done a great job in bringing local beers and great pub food to Carmel. They mix traditional bar food with Irish Pub food to create something unique and delicious  I had the KP Burger, which is one of my favorites there, and O-Dawg had the bangers and mashed. The KP Burger is infused with cheddar cheese and cooked on a grill with a cover to hold in moisture. Then it's topped with the Brockway's special onion rings. The burger was done to perfection and is always fantastic. My favorite appetizer is the Dublin Pub Crisps. These are thick cut potato chips with their beer cheese covering them and topped with bacon and green onions.

Their beer list is pretty extensive. They have a handful of local beers from Indy and around the Mid West, as well has plenty of imports, specifically from Ireland and the rest of the UK.

We were in for Firkin Friday. This is something new they have worked out. Every Friday they are getting cask conditioned beer from somewhere local around Indy. My impressions were good. We had the Firkin Wee Mac which, I obviously liked. The firkin added a nice okay flavor to the beer that I enjoy so much. On a side note, I give the Firkin Wee Mac a 4 head rating.


I give the food a 3.5

I give the drink menu a 3.5. They do a good mix of local and international.

The Hop-off: Hopslam VS. Dreadnaught

I'm just starting to get on the IPA band wagon. I figured the best way to get into hops was to go for the best. Dreadnaught and Hopslam are both Imperial IPAs with 100 ratings at www.ratebeer.com. These are arguably two of the best examples of their styles brewed here in the Midwest, and I'm lucky enough  to have them both in glasses next to me.

They pour out the same damn color. There's no noticeable difference as far as I can tell. I held them to the light, to the dark and in front of my monitor. The Dreadnaught does seem to be a bit more clear than the Hopslam, but not by much. The most noticeable difference is the head retention. Dreadnaught is hanging around, while Hopslam has just become slight lacing.

The aroma on both of them is heavy with citrus hops, but the Three Floyd's has more sweet fruit scents while the Bell's seems to fade away.

Taste is hard. These are both notorious for wrecking your taste buds. I have notes on both of them from drinking them by themselves earlier, and now I'm drinking them side by side with pita chips to cleanse my pallet. Hopslam is totally sweeter than the Dreadnaught. Dreadnaught has an almost grapefruit flavor with some citrus peel and Hopslam is more of a blend of orange, grapefruit and pine. The blend of hops really makes Hopslam such a big win for me. The Dreadnaught has more of a bready back bone where the Hopslam seems to have almost a honey or syrupy sweetness. They are both high alcohol content beers, but with the heavy hops you really can't tell. Halfway through my taste buds are starting to hurt. It's like eating a sour patch kid then a lemon head over and over again.

• Hopslam is a bit sweeter
• Dreadnaught has 100 IBUs and Hopslam only has 70 IBUs
• Dreadnaught has 9.5% abv and Hopslam has 10% abv
• Head retention was way better on Dreadnaught 
• Dreadnaught comes in a 22 oz bomber bottle and that is a BIG plus, who wants just 12 oz of this!!!

Hopslam has the higher rating on beeradvocate. I think I agree with their take. The sweetness balances out all of the big bitter American hops. All in, I think that Hopslam is just a more balanced brew. The beer has a start, a middle and a finish all of which are very pronounced and super tasty. Dreadnaught's sweeter flavors started to come out a little bit more as the beer warmed up. I wanted to like Dreadnaught better because it is a good ol' Indiana beer, but the heart wants what the heart wants.

I give the Hopslam a 4.5

I give the Dreadnaught a 4.25 (we don't actually give out that rating but for this one I think I have to)

Special Holiday Ale

Okay, I know the holidays are over, but it doesn't mean I have finished drinking all of my Christmas presents. When you have great friends, you tend to get great beers in your stockings and under the tree. I got this winter warmer, and based on what I had read, I was excited to pop it open.

This is a yearly collaboration done by Nogne O, Stone, and Jolly Pumpkin Artisan Ales. This year it was done at Nogne O. It poured out a beautiful dark brown with red around the edges where the light came through better. It had almost no head, less than one finger, but it was off white to light tan. The beer is 8.5% abv. It had a syrupy mouth feel, that was perfect for a cold winter day.

The beer had a heavy bread and cinnamon aroma. The first sip did not disappoint. It was a very malty beer, with great holiday spices. There was a good amount of cinnamon and nutmeg. Hints of dried fruit and berries came through at the finish. It was almost like a tangy cinnamon raisin bagel. There is a piney alcohol flavor that hits the tongue after each sip and lingers just long enough to remind you how good it was.

The beer was lighter on the hops than I expected from Stone, but with all the other spices and flavors I didn't feel like it was missing much.

The only draw back to this brew was a sticky feel that was left in my mouth after a large drink.

I give it a solid 4.

Can't Dutch This... well actually you can.

An ode to Thr3e Wise Men's Can't Dutch This Belgian Style Belgian Strong Ale. On a stout, whether dry or otherwise I enjoy the head, the foam, flavor of it all. On a Belgian, I think it's the equivalent of meringue on a coconut creme pie; an absolute waste. On this particular beer it is a barrier one must suffer through to arrive in paradise. While the effort may be worth it, I just wish there was another route or at least a better pour. As I've less than subtly hinted at the the newest seasonal from Scott Wise's crew at Thr3e Wise Men's brewing in Broad Ripple is absolutely delicious. The start is smooth and even a bit sweet then transitions into the classic and spicy notes of a traditional Belgian and finishes with a champagne crispness that is surprising as it is delicious. I say all of this without being much of a Belgian fan. There's a particular brew just down the road from here that has some mighty fine Belgians and in a blind taste test I might confuse this brew as one of theirs; a compliment to both establishments.

Ok, now the facts: ABV: 8.1%, IBU: 20. It's golden and is a bit clearer than a lot of similar brews in this category.

Winter Warmer

I needed to make sure that I got this in before winter was officially over. I have fallen in love with the guys down at Fountain Square Brewery. Their mainstays are not my favorite but I am always very impressed with their limited release beers and their seasonals. When we start getting snow and stuff gets cold and dreary, I really appreciate a good winter warmer, it lifts my spirits and warms the cockles of my frozen heart. I was not sure what to expect when I ordered up the one at FSB, but it totally hit the money shot. They listed the abv as "a lot" and the IBUs as "not very much" but the internet told me it was 6.5% abv and 34 IBUs.

There was basically no head when they poured it out for me and the beer was a beautiful red / brown mahogany color. The aroma reminded me of Christmas movies, fires in the fireplace and Santa. If you can't translate that, it was cloves, mulling spices and bready malts.

There was a big sweet malty flavor up front. It reminded me of a cinnamon raisin bagel. It had a lot of big caramel flavors with cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg and something that reminded me of when you go to a fancy restaurant and get a flower on your food. There were light hints of citrus fruits on the back end of each sip. It was well blended and balanced, where nothing was the rockstar for too long. The mouthfeel was nice and thick without being syrupy. It was heavy but in all the nice comforting ways that you look for in the winter.

This totally turned into one of my favorite winter warmers. I give it a 4

Lips of Faith: Tart Lychee

The Lips of Faith series is put together by New Belgium Brewing Company. It is an American Wild Ale with 7.5% abv and 20 IBUs. It is a blended ale that is 56% ale aged in oak and 44% ale brewed with lychee and cinnamon.

It poured a light caramel color with no head to speak of. The beer itself had a cloudy color. It had a fruit and berry aroma with a little bit of cinnamon.

Each sip was like a fruity bundle of joy in my mouth. It was sweet and sour with a nice tart cherry or raspberry flavor up front. The body of it was still tart but it had a nice oak-y backbone with hints of cinnamon. The woodiness helps to mellow out the sour flavor. It finishes off tart and dry with a lasting tanginess. It is a very well balanced sour beer.

This had a light mouth feel with almost no carbonation. It was smooth and dry. It was the perfect beer to have with Chinese food. The sweet and sour flavor matched up perfectly with my pork fried rice.

Great beer, and my wife liked it too. This is one I will look for again.

I give it a 4

The Scene: Black Swan

I spend a ton of time in Plainfield for my job. I started off just eating at this place and the food is great. It took me an embarrassingly long time to get them on my monthly tasting rounds.

They have a great location just off of I-70. The atmosphere is a nice combination of rustic style and modern clean lines. The whole thing is well put together and reminds me more of a restaurant than a pub or tavern. Their bar is warm and inviting with half a dozen seats and a handful of small tables near by. It is made out of beautiful dark woods with all the taps lining the back wall along with the classic brewery chalk board. I am pretty sure that without the chalk board no brewery could function. The beer is obviously their passion but the food seems to be what brings in the patrons. The restaurant is by far the larger part of the building.

Black Swan serves up some great food. I've been having lunch there for a while and I have not had anything that disappointed me. Their food is high end rustic Midwest cuisine. There are a lot of Indiana classics that are done with bit of flare.  One of the dishes that they are best known for is their Signature Reuben sandwich and it is outstanding. The corned beef is nice and tender. It is hunks like you get from a pot roast instead of your normal sandwich slices. The kraut is great and they use just enough bread to keep it all in place without ruining the flavor. 

Another one of my favorite things is their french fries. When you order, you have to choose a seasoning for them to be tossed in and a sauce to dip in. The flavor combinations are great. I love the salt and vinegar toss.

This place is an excellent place for lunch, but that is just half of it. They also do some pretty good brews. I have had a few of their standard beers and a few of their sours. This brewery does a good job of taking some risks and playing it safe. Their anniversary beers were some of the best local brews I have found. 

Check them out for lunch or dinner.

I give their food a 4

Black Crown

Everyone saw the Superbowl adds just like I did. I'm positive that everyone had the same thought... "That can't be any good... can it?" 

Budweiser is trying to get on board with more craft beer style beers. They have picked up people like Goose Island (for a whopping $38.8 million), while doing things internally to add more lines that appeal to today's beer drinker like Bud Light Platinum and now Black Crown. The thing Anheuser-Busch needs to realize is that you can't take the craft out of a craft beer and get the same result.

I will preface this with the fact that I'm a Miller guy when it comes to my beerpong, gameday, and raceday drinking in excess. I don't have any major problem with Bud, in fact I loved their tour out in STL (check it out if you haven't).

Black Crown was as expected a whopping disappointment. It is 6% abv with approximately 180 calories. It pours out a honey golden orange that is perfectly see through. The head is hardly noticeable but a light even white lacing sits on top of the beer right after the pour.

The beer smells like honey and caramel, very heavy on the sweetness. The taste mirrors the aroma. It has a strong honey flavor with serious hints of a caramel and toffee. There is a lot of upfront corn sweetness as well. I found it to be almost sticky sweet, and that's saying something because I love a nice Russian imperial stout. It lacks the typical crisp dryness of an American style Lager. There's absolutely no hop flavors in this brew. It has a long lasting sweet flavor with nothing to really cut it off other than a slight hint of alcoholic heat. There's not a lot of complexity, but the good thing is that makes it pretty unoffensive. 

This seems like what you would get if you took everything daring and innovative out of a craft beer. It's like this was brewed by committee to make sure that no one from any demographic was offended by any flavors or ingredients. It's better than most other Bud products, but this is not a craft beer. I am a bit embarrassed that I even got my hopes up.

I will drink a High Life over this any day of the week. I give it a 1.5

The Quest: In Search Of the Perfect Stout Float/Shake

In 1998 I found myself at the T.G.I. Friday's in Austin, Texas. I was being put up by my employer at the time while considering a relocation opportunity there. For the week I stayed at the hotel I would head down to the bar while waiting for my dinner. Each night I ordered a Guinness, and eventually my dinner would come and I'd finish the stout, grab my food and up to my room I would go.

On the third night, the bartender asked me if I had ever tried a Guinness Float. That night, back in March of 98 was the first time I'd had the magical combination of a dry Irish stout and wonderful Blue Bell's Vanilla Ice Cream. Since that night, I've been trying different combinations of ice cream and stouts in search of a more perfect shake or float. In those years I've come to appreciate the stout float as much as the shake; in fact one of the benefits of the float is that one often gets a sidecar of stout in addition to the float proper  to make a complete and legal pint. Shakes, on the other hand are/have been.. shaky at best in this department.

Recently I was at 10-01 in Broad Ripple and while perusing the menu I happened to notice that they had the following: Brown Butter Maple Caramel Ice Cream - house made and as I would find out, absolutely delicious. This ice cream sounded amazing and was even more so than the name hinted at. The stout on hand that night was Rail Jumper from People's Brewing in Lafayette (BOILER UP!). The stout by itself is a wonderful chocolate stout and deserves its own post. The real magic though is in the combination. The chocolateness of the stout AND the dryness pair perfectly with the amazing ice cream. This is, without a doubt, the quantum leap in stout/float/shakes that I've experienced in a long long time. At 10-01, you can order the "stout float" and one day *cough* The Good-Knight (tm) and get this awesome combination yourself. Sure, you can buy a Founder's Breakfast Stout and mix it with a good Bryer's Vanilla Bean ice cream at home and have an awesome dessert but THIS combo is truly an amazing mixture. Right now, it's the dessert on my "last meal" list.. if I had one... ahem.. Anyway I recommend it to anyone who likes this rare (or is it?) treat. For the stout or ice cream fan it is well worth the experience. At a minimum, it's a good reminder that beer can be a wonderful ingredient and not simply a beverage. This is one combination capable of challenging anyone's notion other wise. Oh, and if you disagree.. I'll be happy to finish yours.

Cheers!

Abraxxxas

Freigeist is taking regional German beer styles and turning them into Sturm und Drang poems worthy of Goethe. In your mouth.

If you're not a nerd for Proto-Romantic German literature like I am, then simply put, instead of a rational and objective approach to German brewing, the brew master, Peter Esser, imbues his beers with thoughtfulness and lets them tell their own story.  He brings old styles back to life and looses them upon the world like a Frankenstein monster.

Abraxxxas is billed as a Smoked Lichtenhainer. Lichtenhainer is an old east German beer known as a sour wheat beer with smoked malts.  Like the character it is named after, Abraxxxas is not only one thing, but in a very zen way, it's everything at once.

This can be said about the beer.  It has very strong and distinct flavors that you wouldn't think would play nicely with each other.  It smells like a typical wheat beer with a noticeable twinge of smoke. As weak as it smells, the flavors are powerful and explode on your palate.

The smoky malts hit you strong at first, but the wonderfully smooth sour apple slips in there.  The first taste is utter confusion.  It's acidic, but smokey.  It does the same thing to your brain like chocolate covered bacon, or honey glazed ham.  It's success is that it cleanly activates your whole tongue with distinct flavors that are strange, but leave you staring at the glass thinking, "Why is this so awesome?"

It ends smooth and balanced, and has a light, watery mouth feel.  I was worried about a gnarly aftertaste, but the smoke nicely folds itself into the sour apple wheat.

This beer is definitely for the adventurous.  I strongly recomend this beer for the adventurous type, or those wanting to broaden their catalog of European beers.  Freigeist and Esser are really pushing old forgotten styles to their limits with thoughtfulness and meaning.

4.5 out of 5 heads

Why Not?

I have been so happy with the Union Brewing Company moving in down the street. Having something so close to home where they really care about quality is excellent. Their Why Not? is a great example of why I've totally fallen for their stuff. It's an American Pale Ale with 6% abv and 34 IBUs, which is way lower than I expect from an APA, but works out great for someone who isn't a huge hop head. Just goes to show that an APA, IPA, and AIPA are all totally different things and you shouldn't judge a beer by it's style.

This beer came off the beer engine a mild orangish color. There was a wonderful cloud of head floating on the top of the beer. I love watching the cloudy suds slowly form when you are drinking off the cask. The lacing goes on forever when the beer comes off the cask. It had a sweet bready smell with a hint of citrus.

On the first cool taste, it is sweet and bready. There's a tangy hop vibe but nothing crazy bitter or with an unpleasant astringency. It was a big hit of caramel flavor mixed in with some tropical citrus fruits. The mix of flavors goes so well together and keeps it balanced. The beer itself has a light, light mouth feel. I have totally fallen in love with the smooth carbonation of the cask ale. All of this combines to make it a sweet, delicious easy drinking brew. There is a great balance of malt and hops. It is a sweet and tasty apa that I could totally drink every day of the week.

I give it a 4

Lips of Faith Brett Beer

I picked this one up on a whim. I really like a lot of what New Belgium does out there, and I am always excited to try a collaboration beer. This is part of the Lips of Faith Series as well as a collaboration with The Lost Abbey brewery. It has an abv of 7.5%

The beer poured out very light with a clear golden yellow color. It had about one inch of white fluffy head. It had a very fruity sweet aroma.

The beer was not what I expected. It had a sweet and fruity flavor with some strong bready malt taste. The fruit gave it a slight tang that made it the most mild sour ever brewed. I didn't think it was a sour until I checked their website. For a style that is so in your face this was subtle to the point of disappointing. There was however a nice, light complex hop finish that did its best to cover up the tang and additional alcohol flavor but didn't have much success. It was a fine combination of citrus and pine which finished the beer off very clean. Although the flavors were good, the beer was not very impressive.

It had a very light mouth feel to it with light carbonation. It lacked much back bone, and came off a little bit light and boring in taste and feel. The hops were light. The sour was barely noticeable and the malt was nothing to write home about. Really there was nothing exceptional about this brew.

Seriously I think I am being generous, I give it a 2