Winter Abbey Ale

Due to the season, I felt obligated to try some big name winter beers. I was able to pour myself some of this Blue Moon Winter Abbey Ale. This is by Blue Moon which is owned by Coors, which is owned by Miller, which is just freaking huge. It is 5.6% abv, which is heavier than your average macro brewery.

The brew pours out a dark red with little to no white head. It basically started off as lacing on the top. It smelled like winter fruits and bready malts.

The flavor was sweet but not heavy or syrupy. It had a lot of bread doughy flavors. There were hints of toffee mixed with just a bit of caramel. At the end there were light flavors of dried fruits. This gave it a hint of spiciness that added a winter feel to the beer. It finished off with a light herbal hop flavor that was not very prominent.

I would probably not buy this beer for myself again, but if someone offered it up I wouldn't turn it down. This is a situation where a big name brewery tried to make a craft beer for the masses, and it just feel flat. There was nothing distinct about this beer and nothing impressive. Other than the fact that the abv was higher than your average Coors product, there wasn't much to redeem it.

Try it for yourself, but do it at your own risk. I think I got the beer for a buck at some Kroger sale, so no big loss.

I give it a 1.5

The Velvet Fog, Batch 333

Creation: "The Velvet Fog"
AKA: Batch 333

Style: Belgian Quadruple
Masterminds: Sun King Brewing
Location: Indianapolis, IN
ABV: 9%
IBU: 24
Hops:
Availability: Limited Release
Drinkability: Almost a desert beer to be served after a meal.  I could have two, but would be sipping them all night.

Awards:  

• 2012 World Beer Cup Gold Medal Winner in the Belgian-style Dark Strong Ale category
• Named one of Draft Magazine’s ‘Top 25 Beers of 2012′

"A large malt forward beer with a complex fruity aroma and flavor. Hints of caramelized brown sugar and dried cherries delight the senses before a slight alcohol warming on the finish."  Sun King Brewery

Served cold, right off the Sun King Truck.  Yes, I was the guy that showed up at the liqueur store right as the Sun King Truck pulled up Monday after my first day of my new job...  A brief car ride home and popped it in the luxury of my own home.  I think it would be creepy if I bought it and started drinking in front of the store...  Like I said beer connoisseur, not alcoholic lush!

Pours with a dark nearly brown in color body with ruby, crimson edges.  Minimal head that quickly dissipates. Sound reminds me of that first bowl of Rice Crispies as a kid on Saturday mornings.  All snap, crackle, and pop!

Sweet malt cherry nose with a boozy bourbon character.  Notes of brown sugar, molasses, wood, and  dark fruits with light carbonation throughout.  Other tasters noted vanilla as well but I didn't really taste/smell it.

Finishes with a boosey bourbon taste.  The sugar leaves the mouth with a coat of sweet tart cherry thickness that puckers the mouth slightly then dries out the mouth.  Similar to a white wine finish in that respect.

Serve Warm(er) if you want the bourbon boosieness to be more pronounced.

O-Dawg:  4 heads

Post-Mortem
I started a new job today..  It just so happens "The Velvet Fog" graced the beer community of Indiana with its presence as well.  Random Happenstance?  I think NOT!

I have been looking forward to this beer ever since  I heard about it a few months ago.  I am a self proclaimed Hopp-Head, Lambic/Sour, and Belgian guy and knew I should put this on the "to drink" list.  It didn't disappoint.

After my rousing first day at my new job, first day paperwork and all, coming home to this was like coming home to a home cooked meal by my lovely wife.  Just a slice of heaven!  Or warm apple pie... ;-)

The Big Guy: This was a damn good release. When I hear that a brew has this much of an abv, I worry that all you are going to get is alcohol flavor. This was a smooth beer, velvety smooth... pun intended. It was sweet and malty with a great blend of flavors. Brown sugar and toffee dance across your tongue with subtle fruit flavors. I give it a 5

Professor Beer: Velvet Fog has strong dark fruit and bourbon flavors.  Also has a warming at the end.  Very smooth (The Big Guy beat me to the "velvety smooth" line, but it's definitely appropriate) and very complex, but balanced.  This is definitely a beer I could drink a lot more of, if it wasn't so expensive and limited.

Sanitarium

There are certain things that drive me to get out of bed like Christmas morning, cooking bacon and a rare limited release beer. Sanitarium was Bier Brewery's silver medal winner at the Great American Brew Festival. Because this was a limited run of bottled brews, Bier released 50 gift sets on the 21st and 50 gift sets on the 22nd when they opened. Both days there was a line out the building of craft beer fans looking to get their hands on this bad boy.

It is a Belgian Quadruple (Abby Style Ale), which makes it one of the booziest beers around. A beer is a quad because when they were brewing on the Belgian countryside they would reuse wort. Wort is the grain sludge mixture used to make beer. The first use would be higher in sugar to produce more alcohol. This made it last longer since alcohol helped preserve the beer. A triple would be the first of three batches of beer, so it had to have a bunch of sugars. Just imagine what a quad would have to be like...

No more imagining. This beer was 13.1% abv, which is more then a lot of wines. The beer poured a hazy brown that you could not see through. It had a light tan head that falls away to lacing quickly. There was a light fruit and alcoholic smell to the beer. Normally I am a heathen and drink out of a pint, but Bier supplied a tulip glass with each gift set, so I classed it up.

The first thing I noticed was how effervescent the beer was. I was not expecting such nice carbonation from such a dark beer with so little head. The flavor was very malty with strong notes of caramel and banana. The booziness was noticeable but not in a bad way. Since I was drinking out of a tulip glass, my hands were heating the beer up faster than normal. As the beer warmed up the flavor opened up. Some of the alcohol flavor faded away and more of the fruits came shinning through. 

This beer had a long lasting sweetness that lingered on the tongue  I tried to wait to have my next sip until I couldn't taste any traces of it, and this kept me going for hours. Sanitarium was a great beer for the cold weather. If you were lucky enough to wait in line and snag one, enjoy it. I have one more that I will be holding on to for another six months or so to see if the booziness mellows out. Expect a report then.

By the way, your burps taste like banana

I give this one a 4.5 very tasty brew.