Expressively easygoing single-batch bock maintains mellow disposition despite wide-ranging mocha-bound flavor profile. Advertised ‘spicy heat’ from the chili peppering stays subtle beneath milk chocolate creaming and nutty dried fruiting. Intricately woven sherry-bourbon warmth underscores black-breaded molasses stead, coffee-roasted tranquility and cinnamon-spiced cola nuttiness. Belgian chocolate spicing heaped upon ancillary bruised cherry, purple grape and sugared fig nuances. 2012 re-tasting: Improved obsidian-browned dessert beer gained richer chocolate-covered cherry theme above bourbon-doused raisin puree, stewed prune, fig and cherry fruiting dovetailing soft chili backdrop. Chocolate-caked toffee-butterscotch sweetness, maple-sapped Blackstrap molasses sinew and wavered espresso-cappuccino hints crowd back-throated black anise tongue coating.
Category Archives: Beers A-Z
MIKKELLER NUGGET SINGLE HOP I.P.A.
Wonderful ‘American-styled’ barleywine-like India Pale Ale goes beyond any stylistic comparison, maintaining an easygoing ‘nugget hop’ appeal that won’t preclude softer palates. Stimulatingly sumptuous syrupy Scotch sweetness embraces bruised orange-cherry juicing and wafting orange blossom nicety. Tangy cantaloupe, peach, tangerine, melon and orange marmalade illusions sweeten cotton-candied marshmallow undertones. Way more expressive than coarser Scotch-licked orange fruited elixirs.
FULL SAIL ELEVATION IMPERIAL I.P.A.
Beautifully well balanced and stylistically efficient medium-to-full-bodied Oregonian deserves ‘elevated’ status. Floral honeysuckle aromatics seep into crisp-watered, piney-hopped, grapefruit-peeled sure shot. Sweet spruce overtones and creamy caramelized crystal malting caress expectant apple-peach-orange-melon-pineapple medley, contrasting heightened juniper-like bittering.
BLUE HILLS THREE PEAK HOLIDAY STOUT
Indelible coffee roast sidled by milky brown chocolate sweetness all the way through for uniformly lactic winter-spiced medium body. Cocoa, toffee and vanilla saturate subtle burgundy-rum boozing and muted cinnamon-toasted nutmeg spicing to affably nutty coffee bean finish.
BALASHI CHILL
Crisply light-bodied with minimal grain-toasted hop roast, stable French bread-crusted affinity and salty lemon lime brining. Fizzy phenol astringency kept down. Goes well with cheap snacks on a sweltering sunny afternoon.
BRUGSE HENDRIK QUADRUPEL
Exquisitely detailed multi-layered strong ale (11%) brings immediate warmth as engrossingly rich dessert tranquilizer. Floral-soaked cognac, bourbon and spiced wine illusions float to the surface above dank-cellared fungi yeast, informing dried-fruited black cherry, raisin, prune, and date nuances. Chewy brown-sugared caramel malting and sweet vanilla daub contrast underlying black-peppered hop bittering and vinous grape snip.
ATWATER GRAND CIRCUS INDIA PALE ALE
Trivial canned IPA with evaporative pine fruiting lacks specificity and character. Metallic sheen overrides distant pineapple-grapefruit snip and bland white-breaded graining. Perhaps closer to a British IPA with its dryer grain mash and saltier earthen bottom.
AVERY JOE’S PREMIUM AMERICAN PILSNER
Terrific light-bodied straw-hazed pils contrasts mild bitterness with tingly citric sweetness to perfection. Wafting skunked pungency never negates easygoing grassy-hopped crystal malting. Challah-breaded biscuit, sourdough and flour undertones whisk by arid straw-grained pine-barked astringency and sudsy carbolic Seltzer fizzing. Docile lemon custard, key lime pie and marmalade illusions fill floral backdrop. A simple soft-toned pilsner with some legs.
SAMUEL ADAMS THIRTEENTH HOUR DARK BELGIAN STOUT
Vigorous ‘Kosmic Mother Funk’ aged in oak barrels overlays sour Belgian yeast funk with dark-fruited rum, bourbon, burgundy, and Courvoisier toxicity as aromatic black pepper fills the air. Chocolate-spiced raisin, plum, fig and dried cherry illusions form at the vanilla-daubed molasses midst while back-tongued cardamom-nutmeg-ginger seasoning reaches a light-roast brown coffee simmer. Advertised ‘oaken’ aspect gets downplayed.
WACHUSETT MILK STOUT
Efficiently expressive milk chocolate creaminess picks up oats-sugared vanilla, crème de cocoa, hazelnut coffee, cappuccino and toffee illusions over dewy peat. Rich lactic layout slightly embittered by hop-charred roast. Serve to Milk Dud lovers.
JACK’S ABBY KIWI RISING
On tap at Atwood’s Tavern, interestingly deviant Imperial India Pale Lager (aged longer than its well-known India Pale Ale variety) brought faded kiwi, mango and passion fruit tropicalia to a more pronounced piney grapefruit-peeled bittering. Incessant white-peppered spicing seasoned the less intricately detailed pineapple, red grape and peach regalia filtering through the backend of this uncommon dry-hopped strong lager. On tap at Growler & Gill, sweet ‘n sour kiwi influenced by musky lemon-rotted souring.
(SOMERVILLE) SLUMBREW PORTER SQUARE PORTER
On tap, gritty mocha nutty obsidian-hued full body relies on intense hop-roasted oats toasting to engage prominent coffee-stained black chocolate richness, deepening the wood-burnt walnut char and subsidiary vanilla bean jab. Honey-glazed hazelnut sweetness, chocolate-caked cocoa powdering and pine-sapped maple gradually contrast the coarsely bitter end. In the bottle (despite an aggressive pour), richly creamed full body (brewed with cocoa-powdered cacao nibs) picks up gooey anise influence on its way to the nutty black chocolate finish. Dark-roasted mocha malts and deeply charred hops inform black coffee, raw molasses, vanilla and fudge undertones.
