1001 Beers: Bourbon County Stout

Beer Number 93: Goose Island Bourbon County Stout

This 1001 post got a little messier than other post I have done... Nothing about the beer though. That was hot, complex, and delicious... Maybe I should have waited longer to drink this one...

I don't know what made me want Orange Chicken but it started to sound, and smell better and better along the way... Now I am hungry once again...



I'm not going to bore you with the details of how I made this one... Maybe one day, but I'm not really in the mood. I just wanted to show off some pictures. If you want to make it though, here is where I found the recipe. Clicky!!!

After one hundred days in the barrels, the big stout finally emerged, spiked with the lovely vanilla perfume only an old bourbon cask can provide. Despite its appeal, it remained a once-a-year winter specialty for the pub, but was expanded into a packaged product in 2004. Bourbon County Stout became a defining beer for Goose Island and helped spawn a whole new category of bourbon-barrel-aged beers.

So, as you can see, this is a fairly new bottle. I wish I would have held onto it a bit longer... like 2 or 3 years longer, but now that it is off the list, I can just find it stock it. I mean, why not?

So, again... Fresh, This beer was Very HOT! Like on the nose, the alcohol burn... everything. Bourbon on the nose. A little malt does come through, but your nostrils are on fire. So when you are drinking it, Again, bourbon is the over arching theme. A roasted malt character comes through with a little bit of caramel and chocolate on a malty body. Again, I wish I let it age. I hear there is some awesome vanilla flavors in there as well.

908 Bottles Of Beer To Go!

Cheers!

1001 Beers: Black Gold Bourbon Imperial Stout

Beer Number 67: Full Sail Black Gold Bourbon Imperial Stout

Since I am going back home to The Great Pacific North West very soon... in a couple of days, I thought it would be appropriate to drink a few beers from there. Luckily there are two, that I currently have in my cellar, from back home... Well, 2 hours South. They are both from Oregon but that is not going to prevent me from trying them. I have a few Washington beers I am going to knock off while I am there, too.

Black Gold Imperial Stout is released every year, but the barrel-aged version is only available every other year, after it has spent about ten months in bourbon barrels. Full Sail's brewers began experimenting with aging beer in barrels when they put two beers in bourbon ones back in 1997.

The text goes on to say that they originally released this beer aged in a barrel and in stainless to let people taste the differences and they now release a barrel aged beer every year, this one and Top Sail Porter. Alternating, of course.



This beer seemed to have poured pretty thin. I guess that was just an optical illusion though. It carries on a very nice, and balanced full body with just a trace of foam around the glass where you expect the head. It appeared a bit more on the pour, rather big and fluffy but quickly dissipated. You get straight bourbon on the nose but it is a little sweet and it is questionable whether I am getting oak or not. I feel like it should be there but I am trying to convince myself to see it.

In the taste... not a lot, in my opinion. Mostly bourbon. Pretty malty and maybe a little bit of almond. Very smooth and finishes dry. Not a lot going on but it is nice. I think too much else would be overpowering on top of the bourbon but I do wish this beer carried a little more on it. It is good but very plain and simple. Then again, that is one of the things that beer should be. Full Sail did a great job.

934 Bottles Of Beer To Go!

Cheers!

1001 Beers: Storm King

Beer Number 38: Victory Storm King

Everyone seems to love Storm King. This is just another first in my Victory beer exploration. There are still a couple I need to find for this series, I believe Hop Devil & Prima Pils but this is a stop along the way. Golden Monkey was the first one I liked but something seemed off in the last bottle I had.

This bottle says best by April 09 2017. I am thinking I should put one away until or afterward then to put it to the test. I considered holding onto this one but that does not give me a baseline for future exploration. Might as well jump into this one!

Storm King Imperial Stout started life as a fall seasonal, but fans kept asking for it year-round. Heavily roasted two-row malt and a blend of Pacific Northwest hops give the beer its intense flavor. It's a big, imposing brew that caused the brewery's expensive German manufactured malt mill to grind to a halt, literally, when the equipment was first installed in 2004. Victory had to revise its process so that the hard-kilned malt did not render the milling equipment useless. The end result is that Victory has an award-winning ale that makes a bold, classic imperial stout statement and is perfect for supping during a cold winter.

This beer is dark! And the head grew big and fast. Super rocky. You can pick out all of the malt and some dark fruit in the nose. It is very warming as well in there as well. Very sharp and a big hop presence up front and a lot of coffee. Very roasty but the creamyness helps to balance the scales in this one.

It seems that the hops in this beer were very fresh and there were a lot of them. You could even still pick out some pine from their use. A little bittersweet & I get that chocolate covered cherry vibe. Pretty good overall.

I'd give it a 4/5. Though, this is just not my style of Imperial Stout... as I say this though, I keep drinking it and wishing there was more. Is that weird or does it just prove that I can judge a beer without giving into personal biases? Hmm....

963 Bottles Of Beer To Go!

Cheers!

1001 Beers: Sexual Chocolate

Beer Number 34: Foothills Sexual Chocolate

I still don't know everything I should know about beer in North Carolina, but Foothills is one of the names I do know. I ran into them at the Twin City Taps Festival and they had one of the biggest tents. I actually hovered around there for a little bit just trying each of their beers.

At the end of the festival I was feeling really good and trying to figure out how to learn more than I already knew about the brewery. One of the guys running the stand gave me their twitter account but that was a total disaster. I was searching terms like "Fullsails" & "Footsails". I never really figured it out until I got home.



One thing I did find when I started my search, was Sexual Chocolate. I have heard a lot of talk about this beer before but I never knew anything about it. I figured since I was actually in the state where it is produced this year, I should find it. I did not go out to the release event and all the local bottle shops were saving the bottles for special events and such so I went on a mission to find this one on tap... It had to be there, right?

Needless to say, after a long day out... I FOUND IT!!! and it was at one of my usual stops while in Raleigh, Tyler's Taproom. I did not have to go out of my way at all. What could be better than that?!?!

Sexual Chocolate was originally conceived in 1996 as a home-brewed beer to celebrate St. Valentines Day. A decade later, the beer was produced commercially for the first time at Foothills, and word spread quickly. Brewmaster and co-owner Jamie Bartholomaus uses cocoa nibs that are cold infused in the stout after fermentation and during conditioning. The beer's name is a semiobscure reference to the 1988 comedy movie Coming To America, which starred Eddie Murphy as Arsenio Hall. In the movie, a fictional band named Sexual Chocolate perform the song "Greatest Love of All" at a church-sponsored event.

Here is Sexual Chocolate and their performance. Anyway, this beer.



Completely dark, black. You could not see through this one if you tried and a small brown head. This glass really did not do it much justice when it comes to aromatics but you do get some roasted malts, coffee, and chocolate.

Sexual Chocolate had a lot going on, in a good way. Coffee and chocolate up front melding into a thick flavor flood. Layered on top of a nice malty body.Very rich and robust. The bitterness on this beer keeps it in line. Toffee, dark malts, and more chocolate. 10% ABV. Now that you can give half ratings on Untappd, this one got a 4.5

I wish I could have gotten a bottle of this one. Maybe I will find some lying around... or maybe when the barrel aged version is released, I can get that. I think Sexual Chocolate would probably be amazing on some wood... I didn't just say that though.

967 Bottles Of Beer To Go!

Cheers!

Narwhal

I pretty much wait around for anything new that is released from Sierra Nevada. Whether it is a seasonal ale or me anticipating something completely new that they just announced. Well, this, is just that.



Narwhal Imperial Stout. When this beer was first rumored, way back when, people thought it was going to be similar to the 30th Anniversary Fritz and Ken.

Our 30th anniversary stout, brewed with craft beer pioneers Ken Grossman and Fritz Maytag and aged for over a year in charred oak Kentucky bourbon barrels. This rich black stout has notes of coffee and dark chocolate and a delicate hint of smoke supported by a velvety body that showcases the flavors of oak, vanilla, and toasted coconut from the extended barrel aging. A slow, satisfying sipper of a beer.

I don't know, I have never had that one. But it sounds amazing. I wish I could get my hands on a bottle but I doubt there is much anybody with it would be willing to trade for it. I still have a bottle of Jack and Kens and the 30th Grand Cru but you know... Sierra Nevada broke down the beer like this.

Narwhal Imperial Stout is inspired by the mysterious creature that thrives in the deepest fathoms of the frigid Arctic Ocean. Featuring incredible depth of malt flavor, rich with notes of espresso, baker’s cocoa, roasted grain and a light hint of smoke, Narwhal is a massive malt-forward monster. Aggressive but refined with a velvety smooth body and decadent finish, Narwhal will age in the bottle for years to come.

This beer was really assertive. There is a pronounced dark malt bitterness but then comes a cocoa like bittersweet chocolate and a coffee blend thrown in there. There is an overlying creaminess to it all. It has a great full body and mouthfeel a little burnt and some toffee as well. Overall, a 5/5 beer.

Cheers!