So since it's the International Stout Day, I decided to pour myself a little something I've been keeping for a while. The Miles Davis' Bitches Brew by Dogfish Head. Surprisingly lighter than I was expecting. Very drinkable.

Speaking of, I tried Stone's Imperial Russian Stout on Tuesday. Holy shit was that good. Dark, thick, strong but not too boozy. Might even be better than Old Rasputin.

And speaking of that, anyone have any Bourbon County plans this Black Friday? I'll be in the Milwaukee suburbs visiting my fiancee's family again so I'll be able to avoid the normal 5 AM line clusterfucks you get in Chicago. Excited to try the Rare and the Rye versions if I can, though the whole 16 oz single bottles thing is pretty fucking stupid.

Pick me up some. I love you long time.

The whole single-bottle format has kind off turned me off to the whole thing this year. I liked being able to tuck some away to age and I don't know how enthused I am about the idea of waiting in line for a couple hours to only get one or two bottles. Plus, I thought it was lame that Goose Island seemed to exclude local mom & pop stores in the Chicago-area on Black Friday (or, at least the ones near me). The one plus is that last year, people in the Chicago-area were seeing it pop up at some Oscos and Costcos so I might swing by one of those and see if I get lucky (I did score a 4 pack at Costco last year).

I wish there were more stouts available in this country

Tonight I'm trying out a couple of cheapo limited release things from some Korean macro breweries. After being pleasantly surprised with Max's American Hop 2015 run, I'm trying out their Oktoberfest Special Hop edition and it's...well. Not great. Better than regular Max, still, but doesn't hold a candle to some of the better Oktoberfests I've had or even really average ones like Sam Adams or whatever. It's a bit bolder and more well-rounded than regular Max but it's still missing that body and caramel malt that I look for in a good Oktoberfest.

I also checked out OB's new dunkel lager. Nothing special going on there, either; just a fizzy macro lager with some food coloring and maybe some extra residual sugars to convince you you're drinking something heavier on the malt. Again, the slightly more robust flavor profile is a step above standard OB Golden Lager and maybe this would be even better on nitro tap to cut out some of that wretched overcarbonation, but as it is it's just not really worth buying again when I can get much better beers for not much more at the store.

In related sad news, Lotte Mart finally caught on that they should not be selling those high ABV decent Hoegaarden beers for the same price as run of the mill Hoegaarden and upped the price to just shy of double what it was before. It was glorious cheap decent drinking while it lasted, though.

Had my first go with Ommegang tonight. Got myself a pack of Three Philosophers from the store cause I've heard good things and this did not disappoint. Really rich and smooth with just s hint of berries at the end like I love in a beer. It's also deceptively strong at 9.7%, can't even feel it while you're drinking. Great beer too bad it's really freaking expensive.

Holy shit, Dragon's Milk Reserve line is in 4-packs now? This and Backwoods Bastard at the same time?

Hmph. Ballast Point was considering listing on NASDAQ and I was sorta looking forward to nabbing some shares in there, but apparently Corona made them an offer they couldn't refuse. I couldn't really offer an opinion on how the consolidation of craft breweries by macros has affected the quality of the beers. Say, with Goose Island or Boulevard - depending on whether you consider Duvel-Moortgat a macro or not. Good for the owners of Ballast Point in any case.

Goose Island is weird because all their non-Bourbon County beers are unremarkable to bad while Bourbon County is the best thing. Lagunitas doesn't seem to have any problem after being bought by Heineken and Boulevard is all good in my book, so I don't foresee any problems with Ballast Point (though if anyone fucks with Victory at Sea or Grapefruit Sculpin I will hate them forever.)

I actually really like Goose Island Sofie with at least 1 year of age on it, preferably two. The brett really dries it out. Sofie is 80% fresh farmhouse ale, 20% farmhouse ale aged in wine barrels with brett and oranges; the oranges are too strong when fresh. Goose Island Pere Jacques used to be spectacular but the recipe change back around 2010 wasn't as good, though still good with some age. Goose Island Fleur was just perfect, I still miss that one.

I've only had Goose Island Halia once but that one is great as well, and the latest batch was actually a bit cheaper so I would recommend giving that a try if you can still find it. It's basically a modified Sofie that is 100% aged in wine barrels with peaches and souring bacteria.

They don't bottle it but Goose Island Green Line is actually quite good.

I generally like the Goose Island "Sisters" although I think the sours are overpriced. I thought the Ogden and the Illinois were also good beers. Their regular IPA is an English-style IPA and I've seen some people that like that style swear that it's a good representation but if you go into it expecting an American-style hop-bomb you'll be disappointed. The other IPA and Pale Ale offering they have are just average, IMO. 312 is what it is. You can't escape it when you live near Chicago and, to a person, anyone that I know that thinks it's fantastic is also a regular drinker of Miller products and I suppose that's who they are targeting.

I don't drink Goose Island all that much but I remember 312 being very unremarkable. You'd be better off just spending the extra three or four dollars to get something infinitely better.

Just scored a haul of three Brooklyn Brewery offerings for free: Sorachi Ace, Greenmarket Wheat, and Black Chocolate Stout. Looking forward to trying these out, even though the more straightforward lagers and such that I've tried from Brooklyn Brewery were painfully average and just boring. These are fairly highly rated on BA and I guess the Local 1 and 2 are supposed to be good...still haven't gotten around to trying either of them.

Had Sorachi Ace on tap once, was great. The reason I haven't bought the bottles is because of the wild fluctuations in price, whenever I see it and want it I find it around $14.99 per bottle, whenever I see it for cheaper I happen to be in the mood for something else.

Black Chocolate Stout is a bit misnamed---it doesn't contain chocolate or coco in any form---but it's delicious. Frankly it ties with Sierra Nevada Narwhal for me when it comes to "regular," unspiced imperial stouts that aren't barrel-aged and are easily found on shelves. Boulevard Dark Truth is probably my second favorite in that regard.

When it comes to off-the-shelf impy stout four-packs I know a lot of people rock the Rasputin and I don't begrudge them that (it's a fantastic beer) but like Great Divide Yeti it leans too heavily on the hoppy side of things for my stout preferences.

It's just pretty damn hard to fuck up an imperial stout, I reckon. All the beers you just named are great in my book, but if I had to pick one I'd go with Dark Truth because it's just so fuckin' complex. I used to really, really dig BCS but the last few batches of it I tried seemed to drop off in quality a bit, going for a lighter, more accessible thing or something. Still damn good, mind, but there was something missing.

Fuck I wish I could get some decent stouts or porters (or barleywines or...) here. There are practically none. Only stuff I've ever seen is Guinness*, a local macro "black beer stout" which is a macro lager with food coloring and some kind of syrup, and Cooper's Best Stout. Thankfully the last of those is really tasty and it's fairly easy to come by and not a total bank-breaker, but I still wish I could get some bigass imperial stuff. Not much like sipping a snifter of massive stout on a cold winter's night with some good tunes.

*Anyone seen this "Guinness Original" lately? I'm used to seeing the Extra Stout in the squat bottles with the old style label alongside the broshirt allover print Draught bottles with the widget in them, but recently I haven't seen any Extra Stout and instead there's another long neck that looks similar to Draught but with the word "Original" under it in red script. Is this just re-designed Extra Stout packaging, or is it an actual new product? I guess I should just try it. Regular Guinness Extra Stout is pretty meh but the Foreign Extra was really good stuff and I was happy to see it finally hitting US shelves in the past few years.

Right, Lagunitas it was! I was sure another big one was recently nabbed by a macro. I had Grapefruit Sculpin a couple of weeks ago and I felt the grapefruit was really artificial and tagged on in there, not meshing well at all with the drink itself. Though of course, personally I prefer Big Eye over regular Sculpin.



I've tried the Sorachi Ace and Black Chocolate Stout and wasn't a really big fan. I don't really like Sorachi Ace in general (dill usually isn't my preferred flavor in beer) even though the hop doesn't overpower it too much. It just tasted a tad harsh. The same with Black Chocolate Stout, nothing too special.



Well, even if it's often considered a crowning style and the mark of a proper brewery to make one (?), imperial stouts are rather hard to fuck up. The massive amounts of malts, and especially strong flavored malts, that go into an imperial stout means that a lot of brewing flaws that might show up in a weaker, less overt beer, the big flavor of an imperial stout will cover them up easy enough. And with the big flavors of chocolate, roasted malt and coffee, a lot of mistakes in recipery are often just drowned out in the background.

The Guinness Original is just a re-branded Extra Stout, yeah.

Never had Big Eye but this pretty much sums up my feelings on Grapefruit Sculpin as well. I've had the regular Sculpin and the Habenero versions as well. Habenero is really really good but the other two just fall flat.

Interesting, I like GS because it's the only grapefruit-flavored beer that tastes natural to me. I do need to try their non-Sculpin IPAs though.

Ever try their Indra Kunindra? It's a stout spiced with chili peppers. Spice is a little too on-the-nose for me but I do appreciate the unusual flavor combo.

I went to Lost Abbey over the weekend and picked up a bottle of Santa's Little Helper aged in bourbon barrels. I really liked it; the bourbon wasn't as overwhelming like it usually is with new micro's like Mother Earth. A few nights before that I had Barrel aged Brown Ale w/ Balaton Sour Cherries from Stone. It was a sweet sour similar to Duchesse but with stronger flavor overall.

Any Bourbon County hauls yet?!

I got a bottle of the regular BCBS and a bomber of barrel-aged Narwhal this morning. Would be nice to grab a few more BC variants but I really don't feel like dropping the money (that whole single 16.9oz format is still a crock of shit). A lot of the craft beer bars in Chicago will throw them on tap once in a while anyway, which is convenient.

I was gonna try but when I drove by Binny's the line was wrapped around the building with two hours to go before the store opened. Fuck that.

I had work in the morning so no dice for me. It seems like there was a lot more Barleywine made this year than last, maybe I'll get lucky and find an errant bottle somewhere. I'm still drinking through last year's supply of the regular stout so I'm not too interested in that one. Won't even bother trying to find Regal Rye or Proprietor's 2015. Kind of a shame, the Prop sounded very interesting this year.

So I told myself the barrel-aged stouts would be all I buy this weekend but I had a moment of weakness and grabbed a sixer of O'so Brewing's Hop-Whoopin'. Basically just a super-bitter piney IPA, which is exactly what I was in the mood for. Some people these days are lamenting the proliferation of so-called "gimmicky" super-hopped/bitter IPAs, but fuck em, that's exactly what I like.

Was in the fancy grocery store yesterday and they had two interesting beers that I tried:

ARK Brewing's Be High. This is either an actual Korean craft brewery or a macro masquerading as a micro, it's hard to tell. I tried their Hug Me wheat beer before and that was pretty pleasant so I was keen to give this IPA a try. It was pretty good - nice and malty to balance out the bitter hops. This was bottled back in May, so the citrus and floral notes were pretty well gone, mostly just bitter pine but not quite a huge hop bomb. Enjoyable enough but far from greatness.

St. Peter's Ruby Red Ale - I was sort of hesitant to buy this since I've historically had bad luck with getting skunked bottles of St. Peter's, but I'm happy to report that this one was just fine. Nice biscuity, sticky ale. Really hit the spot as it warmed up. About as good a bottled bitter as I've had, though it would've been better had there been a bit more body to it. I suppose some might complain about the lack of carbonation but that's right up my alley and definitely how I prefer the style. I'll be buying this again if I see it in shops I frequent more often.

*whimper* .. guess I'll stop buying sixers and only get the periodic single bottle now and again to test the anticipated decline.

Drinking my first Eisbock right now. It's kind of tasty, and certainly strong, but I don't think this syrup as beer thing is really my jam.

Well, I managed to get lucky on Black Friday. I decided that I wasn't going to bother waiting at Binny's or driving all over the place for any BCBS. Went to Costco (because I was going to go there anyway) and managed to grab one bottle of regular BCBS. Later, in the afternoon, I was heading to the grocery store and decided just to check a little liquor store on the way. They didn't get any BCBS last year but the year before I had scored the Prop blend there. So, it was like 2pm when I stopped in and there it was. No limit, but the guy always upcharges on Boubon County, so I did't buy too much. I missed out on the Prop blend and, if I heard correctly, the Rare, but I did grab one bottle each of the regular and barleywine and two bottles of Regal. So that was pretty cool. My cousin posted a picture on his haul on Facebook and he had probably 15 or 16 bottles (including to Prop blends).

My god...

http://www.delmarvanow.com/story/blog/2015/12/01/dogfish-head-hoppy-beer/76565276/?utm_campaign=buffer&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_content=buffer7cf74

658? sounds fucking gross. I'd try it, but .. gross.

Yeah, I love ultra-hoppy shit (can't wait to grab some of Short's Liberator from my Michigan friends) but I bet that'll just taste like bleach.

(I've never tasted bleach, but I'm making an educated guess.)

Yeah it would probably be the worst thing you've ever tasted and run the chance of ruining you on beer for forever but I would try it.

Relax. The 658 IBUs is only theoretical and apparently they haven't heard of Mikkeller's [url=http://shop.mikkeller.dk/shop/beer/mikkeller-1000-ibu/]1000 IBU[/b]. The quote goes "The new beer, named Hoo Lawd, has apparently received scientific confirmation and documentation from two independent labs that it is, in fact, the hoppiest commercial beer ever brewed.", but how many beers actually get scientifically tested actually? The 1000 IBUs in Mikkeller's 1000 IBU is only theoretical as well and while it was a bitter beer, there's a huge amount of malts to contrast all that. Also, if you've ever followed the IBU amounts of beers you drink, the one with more IBUs doesn't necessarily taste more bitter than the one with less. It all depends on a whole slew of things. I doubt it would be undrinkable, the worst thing ever, gross or like bleach in any way. The bittering units just don't work that way.

It's Dogfish Head: The ridiculous amount of IBUs, the scientific lab testing, proof of most bitter ever. It's all just PR bullshit to get people talking. With all that said, it will probably be a bitter beer, probably too bitter for its profile - though it's going to be a "dark IPA" so maybe an imperial stout with plenty of hopping so the malt bill might balance all the hops added, but still, it will definitely not be to everyone's liking.

I dunno man, it is Dogfish Head. They probably made it as ridiculously bitter as possible just to say it is that way. Seems like something they would do.

Just drank Ballast Point's Calico amber ale (bought as one of the guests in Brewdog's online store). Enjoyed it a decent amount. It's not going to be one of my favourites - ever, ambers aren't really my thing - but it is really good for the style. A nice bitter punch across the centre of the tongue which gives way after making its point to classic American hops.

The first beer I ever enjoyed was Killian's Irish Red.


I was going to make a reference to Psychostick, but...

Got some more Cascade Lager tonight. I think this is my favourite lager. It's also really affordable at the one bottle store I know of where it's available. Maybe I should keep buying it, just so they keep stocking it.

This Dogfish Head Indian Brown Ale is fucking amazing - so flavorful, so rich. Refreshing as hell. I love it - can't believe I never tried this before now.

Yeah, everyone's huge on DFH's IPA hype and their gonzo massive beers, but some of their older staple beers are really tops stuff if you ask me. The Indian Brown, Raison d'Etre, and Chicory Stout are all damn fine beers.

I'm not saying their beers are bad. I haven't tried too many of theirs - Only the 60, 90 and 120 Minute IPAs and I wasn't too impressed with those. I'm just saying that they're very fond of their publicity stunts and aren't afraid of muddling the actual facts a little to meet their needs.

Apparently it was nation crate day today. Which means I should have go a got crate of skanky bushman's or something. Who gives fuck. I drank a homebrew that came out of a crate if that counts...