Thread O' Beer!

[Morris Schæffer]

Enjoying the write-ups guys.

@Gizmo, you were really close to me, about an hours drive.

[Gizmo]

I guess that puts me living about 4 hours from you, cause it was a close to 3 hour drive each way.

[bac0n]

4 hours of driving separate you two? So, what are we talking, three, four countries? ;-)

[Gizmo]

13. Stoute Bie(de Bie)


I had the Christmas from de Bie earlier on this list, and it was outstanding. Now the 2nd de Bie of the year is the stout, and it's....well, not. It's okay for a beer, but kind of weak for what I want out of a stout, and it has an interesting tart fruit flavor going on. It's not a strong tart like some others, but enough to be a bit off-putting, for me. It's not hard to drink, so that's good, but I'll probably not worry about seeking this one out again.

11 beers until Christmas.

[bac0n]

As we hit the half way mark in our little adventure, does anybody have any beers they tend to gravitate towards during the holiday season? I sure do. Here are a few of mine:

Anchor Christmas Ale
I've mentioned this on this board several times during past 24 beers of christmases, but this is my goto from black friday through new years day. I typically buy a case in middle November when they come on sale, as this beer becomes increasingly hard to find as Christmas gets closer (and when I crave it the most)

Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale
Love their dry hopped IPA and festive bottle design.

Lagunitas Sucks
When it first came out, it was a seasonal release just before Christmas. It's since gone year round, but I just can't bring myself to buy it except in the weeks leading up to Christmas.

Trappistes Roquefort
I like to have a bottle on hand to enjoy at the end of the evening on Christmas Eve, when the kids are in bed, the kitchen is clean, the stockings are stuffed, and all that remains is to sit back, relax and enjoy the spoils of another job well done.

[Gizmo]

Nothing I have to have, which is good, since I'm not really settled into one place yet! I do enjoy the Great Lakes Christmas Ale, and I definitely favor the stouts and porters more this time of the year. Which Rochefort is your go to? 10 is one of my favorite beers for any time of the year, and I'm lucky enough to be in a place where I can keep them on hand. My most go to during the season has been gluhwein, now that I've gotten accustomed to the German way.

[bac0n]

Yeah, for me it's almost always good ol' 10. What a delightful beer.

[Ezee E]

You get to a normal/chain kind of restaurant-bar. Let's say it's kind of full, no accessible menu. You're going to order a beer. Which one do you go to?

Or do you pick something else?

[bac0n]

Personally, the only situation you would fine me in a normal chain bar restaurant kinda thing would be for a happy hour with co-workers, and even those these days are gonna have at least summit EPA, surly furious, or grain belt on tap. Failing that, if all I had to choose from is budweiser/miller/coors, I s'pose if it was summer and I was in the mood, i would do a high life. Otherwise, if they had decent gin, i'd go with a gin & tonic.

[Morris Schæffer]

Yeah, for me it's almost always good ol' 10. What a delightful beer.

Really exceptionally good, gets a sweet buzz going pretty quickly. At this moment I'm drinking:



And pretty nice it is too.

[Scar]

I’m woefully behind on listing my beers. Currently sipping a 56 Brewery White Elephant limited release.

[bac0n]

12. Flat Earth Brewing Company
Cygnus X-1 - Porter



Next we're scooting over to the other Twin City, St. Paul, to Flat Earth Brewing. Flat Earth was one of the first two or three breweries to open up during the craft beer renaissance, even before it started gaining a lot of momentum, and it was the first of these new breweries to which I tethered myself as a loyalist.

The reason was that I had met the founder, Jeff Williamson, a year or two before he opened the place up. Turns out, he is married to one of my buddies' coworkers, and in that capacity, was kind enough to give us a behind the scenes tour of the brewpub where he was working as an assistant brewer at the time. So when he opened up his own brewery, I was all in, and Flat Earth's Belgian Pale quickly became a favorite.

However, shortly after they opened, bad things started to happen. First, one of their batches, a hefeweizen, got contaminated during fermentation, and the entire batch had to be thrown out, a HUGE financial hit for anyone, much less a brewery just getting started, to try to absorb. As a result, Jeff was left scrambling to find investors in order to keep the doors open. Luckily, he found someone, who basically bought controlling interest in the company, and they were able to remain afloat.

Unfortunately, things would not remain rosy for long, as Jeff was soon butting heads with the new owners, and it got so bad that he either left on his own or got fired from the company, depending on who you ask. Annnnnd that's when I stopped giving a shit about Flat Earth. Jeff wound up brewing at Summit for awhile, and last I heard - according to LinkedIn, anyway - he's out of the industry entirely. Meanwhile, Flat Earth keeps rolling along without him.

In the intervening years, as the beer scene has gotten more crowded, Flat Earth beers have been increasingly hard to find this side of the river, and Cygnus X-1 porter was what I could find, which is fine. I rarely have porters these days. Anywho, Cygnus, named after the first discovered Black Hole, or perhaps named after the iconic space ship in the movie Black Hole, pours a nice deep black. I presume the surface is its event horizon.

On the nose, i am picking up rich chocolate and burnt sugar on the front, and, I shit thee not, the smell of popcorn. At first sip, the chocolate is definitely there, and joining the fun is coffee, again, the burnt sugar, giving way to sweetness evocative of dates and perhaps grapes, before the bitterness kicks in at the end. Mouthfeel is pleasantly medium heavy, right where it should be for a porter. Very enjoyable.

All in all, I am happy to report that, if Cygnus is any indicator, Flat Earth is getting along just fine, even if it feels a little like infidelity that I'm having one of their beers. I'm gonna give it a 4/5 - great. One of the better porters I've had in a while, actually.

12 beers to go until Christmas!

[Stay Puft]

13. Don's Choice (American Black Ale)
Innis & Gunn (Scotland, UK)



After last year's holiday monstrosity of Frank & Sense, I was wary about grabbing another Innis & Gunn for the list. This is an odd brewery, with a peculiar house style and strange one-offs, often sugary sweet and very hit or miss. They once made an IPA that I'm pretty sure wasn't an IPA and maybe didn't have any hops at all? You're a weird one, Innis & Gunn. But once I saw the word coconut, I was convinced. I love coconut, and I'll try anything once, so here's Don's Choice, marketed as a Black IPA with coconut and rhubarb. This beer is the result of Imagine & Gunn, a contest held here in Canada to develop a new recipe for Innis & Gunn. A dude named Don from New Brunswick won, and was flown out to the brewery in Scotland to make the beer with resident brew master Dougal Gunn Sharp. It spent a few months aging in bourbon barrels before being released this Fall.

Don's Choice pours pure black, with a big foamy head that quickly recedes, leaving small, spotty lacing. The first aroma to hit is rhubarb. It jumps right out of the glass. That's followed by coconut and chocolate and roasted malt. Then there's some citrus, like orange. And maybe even candied orange? Once it hits the palate, there's a burst of bitterness. Flavors of green leaf, oak, caramel, rhubarb again, dark chocolate, and then candied orange again. No real hints of coconut here. The body is full and creamy and smooth. The finish is long and bitter, with notes of coconut reappearing and finally more rhubarb. No real citrus on the finish. This is interesting, but I wouldn't say it's the most balanced or well structured beer. It kinds of moves around in different directions, with some citrus up front but then disappearing, and no noticeable hops at all on the aroma, but sudden bursts of bitterness on the palate. But at the same time, it's a real journey. There's something to be said about it continually surprising me. Compelling aromas, new discoveries on the palate, and yet another different experience on the finish. And best of all, it goes full circle, ending with strong rhubarb notes, just like the initial aromas that leapt from the glass. That's pretty neat! Not a great beer, and not even really sure what to call it (a Black IPA? kinda? but not really?), but it's a fun trip.

3/5

[bac0n]

13. Fulton Brewing
Lonely Blonde - American Blonde Ale



Another early adopter, probably opening right around the same time as Flat Earth, is Fulton Brewing, who had a few huge advantages: first, the scene was new enough that every brewery starting up generated huge buzz by default, regardless of whether or not their beer was worth a shit, and more importantly, they hit the jackpot with the location of their brewery.

You see, they found a space a block and a half from the brand new Target Field, new home of the Minnesota Twins. So, every game day saw them packed to the gills with Twins fans coming in from all over, and soon their brand was everywhere, and besides, they didn't have hardly any competition in the area, so they could get away with putting out what, if you ask me, are consistently unremarkable beers.

But, hey, I can't write them off completely. They have put out a few damn fine IPAs within the past few years, so at least they have that going for them, and they are one of the founding breweries here, so I felt sorta obligated to at least give them another try.

So here we got Lonely Blonde, one of the two beers of theirs, along with their brit IPA Sweet Child of Vine (which despite the clever name is one of the blandest IPAs you will ever have), that I regularly find in stores. True to its name, it pours a nice, well, blonde, with a nice head on top which sticks around for a little while. On the nose I am picking up bread, and a slight hint of sweet apple, perhaps a touch of tartness as well. Drinking it, well, thank god the breadiness I was expecting is nowhere to be found. Whew. I just don't like that taste in my beer all that much. And after that, well, there is the apple again, the tart, and it finishes on a slightly bitter note. What you smell is what you taste.

All in all, this beer typifies for the most part Fulton's beers. Competent but not exceptional. This would be good as a porch pounder, or maybe to give to someone you're trying to get to move beyond the world of macro brews. Otherwise, if you're looking for good easy drinking lighter ales, there are lots of other great options in town. And if you're looking for a taproom close to the Twins ballpark, you have Inbound another block north, and Modist a block east, and I'll be hitting those in a few days. As for this beer, it hits a solid 3/5 - OK.

11 breweries to go!

[Gizmo]

14. Baltic Stout(Rügener Insel-Brauerei)


Another day, another stout. This one is a strong coffee flavor, with a good sweetness to counter-balance. The bitterness from the hops also lingers a bit on the tongue, so the sweetness isn't over done. It really is a well balanced blend. Further, the head has not dissipated at all, and left a nice lacing. Unlike many other photos where what I poured doesn't match, this picture does do it justice. It's a solid stout on one of the colder days I think we've had thus far this winter.

Nearly into single digits, with 10 beers remaining.

[bac0n]

14. Inbound BrewCo
Fruit of the Loop - IPA



No more than one block north of Fulton is a brewery I am much more enamored of, Inbound, who's beers have appeared on this list several years ago - only then, they went by the name Lucid. Turns out, the name Lucid was already taken by some outfit in Belgium or Denmark or somewhere like that, legal shit transpired, and they all came to agreement that Lucid could keep their name, so long as they wrote the other Lucid a check every month. Well, the guys at Lucid got sick of writing that check to the guys at Lucid, and decided to rename, rebrand, and relocate from Eden Prairie to their current location in Minneapolis, an area currently called The North Loop.

What you might not know about Minneapolis is that it is one of the most segregated cities in the entire country. All the African American folks were essentially cardoned off to the near north side for reasons which I won't get into here (hint: racism is involved), all the Somali folks are in the Phillips neighborhood, the Lakota and Anishinabe in Little Earth, the Latinos in Whittier, etc, and nobody really talks to each other. And all the Millenials, they're in the North Loop.

Now, Inbound, I've been enjoying them pretty much from the start. The owner is best buddies with my neighbor, so we've been to a lot of the same parties, and aside from that, Inbound has always been super supportive of and involved with the local homebrew community, giving out free wort, hosting events at their production facility, giving tours, etc. They're really nice guys.

As for this beer, Fruit of the Loop, ha, I see what they did there. Fruit of the Loop. North Loop. Tres clevére, as they say in France. Okay, I just made that up. And just like the breakfast cereal inspired name would suggest, the nose is fruity and sugary, orange kicking in after the super sugar smack. Mouthfeel is extraordinarily creamy - it's almost as if they used nitro instead of carbonation, and the creaminess sticks to the roof of my mouth, coats my palate like a blanket and persists long after the beer has left. Very nice.

As for the taste, bright citrus is what was advertised, and it's what was delivered. I'm picking up navel orange, jeez, mango, which gives way to the bitterness, which itself surrenders to that creaminess, coming together like a dreamsicle. And here's the kicker: it finishes on a fruity pebble note. Yeah, it seriously finishes like a bowl of Fruity Pebbles. I have half a mind of peering in the empty can and seeing if there is a toy surprise stashed in there somewhere.

So, all in all, quite an interesting and enjoyable beer, but, well, it's the kind of beer also that I prefer in smaller doses. Half a can is defintely enough for me, so methinks the rest of this four pack I will save for when friends are around. 4/5 - great. Another winner from our friends at Inbound.

10 breweries to go!

ps - my coffee mug gets a 5/5 in case anybody was wondering.

[Stay Puft]

14. Insel Kreide (Bière de Champagne / Bière Brut)
Rügener Insel Brauerei GmbH (Germany)



Holy shit, Gizmo and I have done it again. My next beer is ALSO from Rügener Insel Brauerei. I've got a bottle of their Insel Kreide, a Bière Brut. I had never heard of the brewery before, and the paper wrapping on the bottle caught my attention. (When I read Gizmo's post I did a fucking triple take because I immediately recognized that paper wrapping, and was like, NO WAY.) I wasn't sure what style of beer this was even going to be, and the only hint was the ingredients on the back, which included "grape must" along with expected ingredients like water, hops, yeast, etc. Looking around their website, there's a lot of interesting beer they're making. That Baltic porter sounds good, and I'd love to try their sea salt gose. Anyways, onto my bottle...

Insel Kreide pours a hazy yellow/gold, with tons of bubbles slowly dancing their way to the massive, foamy white head. I was quite surprised by how quickly that head dissipated, however, and how little lacing it leaves behind. Moving on, the aromas are great. Fresh cut apple, pear, lychee, banana, clove, coriander and of course grape and lots of yeast. The body is somewhere between medium and full, with a rich, soft texture, and just a tad spritzy. Really nice. The flavors carry on in the same way, with heavy doses of fruit and spice. The aromas, flavors and mouthfeel all call to mind champagne, but it's unmistakably beer. I love this style. The words that keep popping in my head are: pure, clean, crisp. It's refreshing and satisfying. The finish is nice and long and even a bit earthy and peppery. I've been savoring this bottle for about two hours now and I'm having a great evening.

I'm gonna go ahead and call it: This is the best beer I've had so far on my list.

4.5/5

[Gizmo]

Nice!

15. Four Aces Barley Wine(Het Nest)


Typically I don't care much for barley wines. I'm not a big fan of the barley flavor/feel, and I like my wine, as.... well, wine. This one, however, seems to be more of a barley mead. It's sweet, and a touch fruity. The barley flavor is on the lighter side as well. I assume it's well packed with honey, as the flavor shines through, and the head is non-existant. Honey is also an easy way to add some ABV to beer, and this one comes in at a 9%. I like it for what it is, but it doesn't really feel like a barley wine, if that's what you're after.

Only 9 more beers to go!

[bac0n]

15. Indeed Brewing Company
Rum King - Barrel-Aged Imperial Stout



For out next stop, we're heading back to the cluster of breweries in Nordeast. Located two blocks straight north of Able (day 2) and 4 blocks west of Bauhaus (day 1), Indeed has the distinction of being the first brewery in town to open up a taproom, and it is, I must say, a really nice taproom - cozy and rustic, with plenty of beers on tap that don't make their way into the bottle shops.

Indeed is a good example of a brewery that took a while to hit their stride, but once they did, they quickly asserted themselves as one of the better breweries in town, pounding out consistently good beers among the required styles - IPA: check, stout: check, pils: check - while at the same time having a well developed adventurous side, with their Mexican Honey Blonde which is a great summer beer you need to be careful drinking as it will fuck your shit up right good, and a sweet potato beer for the pumpkin beer set looking for something a little different.

However, despite all this, I think my favorite thing about them is the design of their cans - probably my favorite can designs of any brewery that I can think of. Their cans are full-on wraparound murals. The designer of the cans was actually at an art fair my wife was at last weekend and good thing I wasn't there, cuz I woulda dropped some serious money on some of the fella's prints.

Anywho, this Rum King is one of their holiday seasonals, along with their Old Friend Winter Warmer (which I think i reviewed years past), but at 10.5% ABV, this beer is one to have AFTER all the gifts have been unwrapped and the kids are in bed, lest you fall asleep in the mashed potatoes. For what it's worth, I let this warm for about fifteen minutes before tasting.

On the nose, it's sweet and boozy, a good warning to stop if you need to drive home. Rich molasses is at the forefront here, and the rum barrels definitely are making themselves known as well. Apart from that, I'm picking up smells of raisin, of course coffee and dark chocolate too. Mouthfeel is very rich and creamy - you're not gonna be pounding this one, to be sure.

Taste-wise, the booziness is assertive and sharp, but not overpowering - not afraid of those 10.5 ABs of V to be sure. As it spreads across the pallet, it's interesting, as the middle of my mouth tastes the coffee, with the sweetness of raisin and fig at the perimeter. I'm also picking up the dark chocolate, graham, and perhaps a whisper of caramel, and black cherry too, the warmer it gets. Eventually, everything gives way to coffee, which is the taste that lingers long after the beer is in the gullet.

All in all, this is a delightfully complex beer. I am tempted to grab a few more cans and cellar them for a few years. Maybe Santa might need to leave a few in my stocking *shifty eyes*. 4.25 out of 5 - somewhere between great and awesome.

9 Beers ta goo!

[Stay Puft]

15. Mad & Noisy Coconut Porter (American Porter)
Creemore Springs (Ontario, Canada)



I confessed my love for coconut just a couple beers ago so here's another beer with coconut, this one a porter from Creemore Springs. I don't drink a lot of Creemore Springs beer these days, admittedly, but they make some good stuff. All of their beers adhere to the Bavarian Purity Law, and all the water is sourced from the Creemore Spring, hence the name of the brewery. They have a solid range of beers, from their flagship lager to a decent Oktoberfest offering and my favorite, the Creemore urBock. They were purchased by Molson back in 2005 and caused a bit of controversy in their small little town when they sought to expand their factory in an effort to increase their output and enter new markets. Needless to say, they left the Ontario Craft Brewers Association. Mad & Noisy is a separate line of beer produced by Creemore that focuses more on experimentation.

Coconut Porter pours a deep black with a foamy brown head, which retains rather well and leaves thick, drooping rings of lacing. There's a lot of chocolate and bready malt up front, as well as some roasted nuttiness. A subtle hint of hops, as well. I couldn't even detect the coconut at first, but it's definitely there. Most subtle of all is a note of toasted coconut, drifting in and out of existence. The body is medium and smooth, making for easy drinking. The flavor has more noticeable hop bitterness, but it's still second to the rich chocolate and nuttiness, which mostly has me thinking walnuts. The toasted coconut is again incredibly subtle, a little more obvious on the finish. The finish is also medium, and with the toasted coconut contains a dash of bitterness and a lot of chocolate. This is a pretty consistent beer throughout, offering a rather straightforward experience. It works to the extent that it's just a solid porter first and foremost, with the coconut being less of a gimmick and more a deeply integrated, addition note that actually compliments everything else rather well. It's not the most exciting thing in the world, but given how easily I tossed this back, it deserves points for its approachability. This was some smooth, carefree drinking.

3.5/5

[Gizmo]

16. Gluhkriek(Liefmans)


Today was a change-up. I have a #16 beer in my fridge still, but I'm not touching it, I have to work tomorrow, and I've already got a good amount of alcohol in me. Snowy day and we decided to take the train to Rüdesheim for their Christmas market. I heard rumor of a gluhbier (that is mulled [or warmed] beer) that was supposed to be very good. Well, I already enjoy the Rüdesheimer coffee, which they caramelize sugar in brandy before the coffee and fresh cream are added, so I'd been wanting to go back. Last time was in the summer, so no markets and gluhbier and gluhwein that time.

I found the gluhbier, and was a bit apprehensive to see it was a kriek, as sours and I don't always get along. However, the first hot (burned my tongue!) sip was magic. I like gluhwein, but I may never go back if I can find this again. The normal sour was all but nullified by the spicing and the heat, leaving behind just a slight tart cherry and a warm magical blend of spice and nice. It really felt like drinking a cherry pie. I could actually see myself drinking this with some vanilla ice cream and not feeling odd. Maybe sick after, depending, but not out of place. I'm already trying to see how I can get ahold of more for my personal beer collection. I want another right now, just thinking about it. It was perfect for the first big snow day of the season.

8(ish?) beers to go!

[Gizmo]

17. Extase(de Dochter van de Korenaar)


Holy mouthful of Brewery name! I actually thought that was the beer name until I was looking it up. Anyway, this is yesterday's beer, a double IPA, and it might be the only IPA offering this year, I honestly don't remember. Those following along know that I'm not a big hop head, but I've grown to appreciate IPAs more and more through the years. In fact, I brewed a dIPA last year or earlier this year that I thought was amazing (and others said they'd have paid for it, which I don't get often of my homebrews). This one is cloudy as hell, and the trub in the bottom of the bottle was quite sizeable. It's quite malty, and looks of a hefeweissen in the glass. The hops are noticeable, but restrained, allowing the malt to take the stage before running them off down the throat. This is quite a solid beer, overall, in it's well roundedness. I think if the hops were more to my liking (this is grapefruit in variety, and i prefer the other citrus blends), I'd probably be inclined to call it great. As it is, I only fault my own tastebuds for not being on the right page, as this is a solid beer.

7(or so) beers until the fat man comes. I'll do a two-fer at some point, I promise!

[Stay Puft]

I jotted down some notes but forgot to make the post last night.

16. Oatmeal Stout - East Coast Edition 2018 (American Imperial Stout)
Black Isle Brewery (Scotland, UK)



I love me some oatmeal stouts, and this right here is among the best I've tried all year. Another big win for Scotland on this year's beer list (alas, this is the last trip; I think it's just Canadian and American beers from here on out). Black Isle Brewery is yet another new one for me. I've never tried their stuff before. Looks like they focus on organic beer, and oatmeal stouts are a big part of that, with two in their core range and then a series of variations with these Barrel Aged beers. There have been a couple East Coast editions of this Barrel Aged oatmeal stout, that I can see, and I've got a bottle of the most recent one for 2018.

This oatmeal stout pours a thick and heavy black with a foamy milk chocolate head. And this thing is rich in chocolate. It's the first aroma to come blasting out of the glass, and that's followed by oak, with heavy doses of vanilla and smoke. There's also a bit of fruit in there; the bottle claims plum, and I do get hints of that, as well as fig. It also smells like a freshly cooked bowl of oatmeal and damn is that homely and inviting. The body of this thing is thick, rich and chewy, like drinking a bowl of oatmeal. That might sound weird but it's fantastic. The one fault here is a slight burn. It's 9.5% ABV and the alcohol on this one is not hiding. Flavors are great: lots of dark chocolate, smoke, leather, oats and oak. A dash of fruit but it's more subtle here than in the aroma. The finish is super long, smoky and bitter and warming. But also a touch too hot. The alcohol burn is still there, and it's a little much for this beer. That's a shame, because otherwise I think this is basically perfect. A fantastic beer. I loved it.

4.5/5

[bac0n]

16. Modist Brewing Co.
First Call - Coffee Infused Lager

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For the next spot, we're pulling a 180 and going back to almost exactly where we came from, to Modist Brewing, only two and a half blocks from Inbound, and one and a half from Fulton.

Modist's recent claim to fame came about a year ago when Superbowl Mania was really amping up in the Twin Cities, because first it was happening here in our brand new football stadium, and secondly hopes were high that the Vikes might actually be in the Superbowl. Unfortunately the defense decided to sit out the post season so that never happened.

But anyway, at the time, Modist had a double IPA they were calling Dilly Dilly, a name which unfortunately for them was the trademarked catchphrase for one Bud Light, who issued a cease and desist in the most amusing way possible. They hired some actor as a medieval town crier to issue said cease and desist, reading it out loud for all to hear in Modist's taproom. It was a viral hit, Modist got tons of publicity (and two superbowl tix courtesy of Bud to boot), Bud got them to limit the naming to a one time affair, and everyone came out smiling. An absolutely brilliant play by Bud if you ask me.



So, Modist, they can't really do anything normally, preferring to put all sorts of adjuncts in their beers. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, but I guess ya gotta give them credit for pushing the envelope. At the end of the day, I have to be in a certain mood to have a certain beer with all manner of weird stuff mixed in, either that or I am going to someone's place who I could split it with, so at the end of the day, I don't really pay these guys much attention, tho now that I think about it, I have been to their tap room 3-4 times in the few short years in which they have been open.

So, this beer. It's a coffee infused lager, at least that's what they call it, but I think a better title would be coffee suffused lager, because the coffee here is really shoving everything else way to the back. Not overpowering mind you, as in too much coffee, but more like... there's not really enough of anything else.

On the nose I get coffee, coffee, a touch of coffee followed by a hint of sweetness, can't really make out what because coffee, and then more coffee. On the mouth, it starts out coffee, a bit of bitterness, not much bitterness to speak of, then coffee, maybe a bit of sweet apple, who knows, then finishes dry. And coffee. Okay, maybe overpowering is a good word here.

So, in the end, the beer tastes good enough, because, well I am a coffee fan, but it strikes me more as a novelty beer than anything else, something to bring to a party or maybe something to enjoy if you just can't get enough of that coffee flavor to the point that you have coffee bedspread and pajamas. But for every day or even occasional consumption, no thanks. 3/5 - OK.

[Stay Puft]

17. Rosetta (Flanders Oud Bruin)
Brewery Ommegang (New York, USA)



Two years ago, I finally tried Ommegang's Three Philosophers and loved it so much I gave it a 5/5. Rosetta is similar in some ways but focuses more on approachability (and clocks in at a manageable 5.6% ABV to boot). Its relative lack of complexity is not a fault, but nevertheless, it could never stack up to something like Three Philosophers given my own preferences. Still, this is very good! Rosetta is a blend of old and young Flemish brown ales with a Belgian kriek, or cherry beer. It is named for Rosa Blancquaert-Merckx, or Madame Rose, Belgium's first female brewmaster.

Rosetta pours a muddy, murky brown, with reddish hues and a thick off-white head, receding quickly and leaving drooping walls of lacing. The aroma is quite musty. Lots of cherries, obviously, but there's also a lot of earthiness and typical Belgian funkiness. The bottle only indicates that it was aged on cherries, but I'm assuming foeders were involved at some point (i.e. with the older browns in the blend) because this smells a lot like oak. It also smells a bit like stewed fruits, and I keep thinking I get hints of strawberry in there, too. The body is medium, smooth and mildly tart. The flavors are much the same, with stewed fruits, lots of cherry, dashes of strawberry or rhubarb, and otherwise very musty and oaky and earthy. The idea here is a balance of tart and sweet, and they've completely nailed it. It tastes a little more tart than sweet on the palate, but is more sweet than tart on the finish. The finish has a long, lingering fruitiness, which is quite pleasant. This isn't terribly complex, as I said, but it's 100% delicious. It's a soft introduction to a particular style of Belgian(-inspired) beer, a mildly tart, mildly sweet, super musty, dank Oud Bruin. It gets big points for its approachability. The whole bottle disappeared pretty quick (thank goodness it was only 5.6% ABV haha). Would recommend.

4/5