In case either of my two faithful readers have forgotten, Sanctified was a sorta=clone of Russian River's Consecration. I started fermentation with Abbey Ale yeast, then added Brett Lambicus and a pound of dried black currants after just under a week. Seven weeks later, I pitched a packet of Wyeast's Roeselare Belgian Sour Blend for the lactobacillus and pediococcus included in that package. Last month I took a gravity sample and it was down to 1.012 and tasted pretty darn good, despite edging towards vinegary. I got all ready to bottle last week and pulled another sample...and it was absolutely horrid! Almost "omg, give me something to rinse my mouth out" horrid. Yikes! So it is going to sit in the bucket and get tasted monthly till it comes back around. With all the critters dumped in that bucket, I'm pretty hopeful it will come back around to something worth putting in a bottle given time.
And speaking of things worth putting in a bottle! This year's list of top beers is going to be a good bit longer than previous years': I had a LOT of really fantastic brews this past year! As I've done in previous years, if I gave a beer a 5-star rating on Untapp'd, it's going to get listed here. Also, these will be listed in the order I drank them throughout the year, so placement in the list is no indication that I preferred one over any other.
1) The first 5-star rating I handed out in 2017 went to Crooked Stave's L'Brett d'Apricot, an American Wild Ale. Decently funky and tart, with some really pleasant apricot flavor going on. Lexington's best beer store, The Beer Trappe, had this lovely brew on tap that weekend.
2) I handed out my second 5-star rating shortly after finishing off that lovely apricot sour, because the Beer Trappe also had Founder's Lizard of Koz on tap! This lovely stout was aged in bourbon barrels on Michigan blueberries, with rich additions of chocolate and vanilla. The result tasted like a very rich blueberry chocolate bar, and ya'll know how long my sweet tooth is! Also, do not be surprised by a recurring theme of "Beer Trappe had this on tap..." The Beer Trappe didn't get to be the best beer store in Kentucky by keeping mediocre beers around!
3) Horizon Tokyo Black from Nøgne ø in collaboration with Brewdog and Mikkeller. This lovely stout has a fairly simple ingredient list: Water, Maris Otter, Chocolate malt, Roast barley, Peated malt, Amber malt, Black malt, brown malt, Aurora hops, demerara sugar, Flaked oats, yeast No fancy adjuncts, no barrel aging. Just water, malts, oats and yeast, with a little extra sugar tossed in for good measure. Quite possibly THE BEST STOUT, EVER. At least one of the best stouts I've ever had the opportunity to try. And I owe that opportunity to The Beer Trappe's Cellar Reserve List!
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| Best Stout Ever?!? |
4) The next beer to knock my socks off was also a collaboration, this time between BFM (Brasserie des Franches-Montagnes) in Switzerland and Terrapin Brewing in Georgia: Spike and Jerome's Collaboration Ale (Cuvée Delirante). Bottled in 2011, this is a rum barrel aged Barleywine, with 20% of the grain bill being made up of rye. This one really floored me with all the flavors it had going on. (This was a year to note in Terrapin's history, for those of you interested in the Great Buyout Debates. Miller Coors purchased a minority interest in Terrapin in a complicated loan reduction that resulted in the original founders owning MORE of the company than they had prior to this investment by "Big Beer." Though several years later, the founders sold a majority interest to Miller Coors, I think this highlights the fact that nearly all of these "buyouts" are much more complicated financial dealings than they may appear at first glance.)
6) Hoppin' Frog, out of Akron, OH has a Silk Porter that brought a smile to my face, though some of it may have been from that hoppy frog on the bottle?
7) And yet another Cellar Reserve List brew at the Trappe: a 2012 bottling of Bell's Black Note Stout. A delicious stout on its own, with a few years under its belt it mellows into something above and beyond.
8) The first 5-star rating I handed out at a beer festival in 2017 went to Dragon's Milk Reserve: Coconut Rum Barrel from New Holland Brewing. I have loved all the Dragon's Milk variants I've tried, but emphasizing the coconut and then aging in rum barrels really brought some delicious flavors forward in this brew. This turned out to be the only 5-star rating I handed out at Lousiville's Tailspin Ale Fest. Lots of great beer there, but this was the only one that jumped up and grabbed me. This may have been affected by the rainy (though unseasonably warm) weather, the uber driver who knew better than google maps where we were going and left us at the wrong brewery to catch our (prepaid!) bus ride to the fest, or even the 2 hours of fest missed due to that wonderfully confused uber driver! (She spent the entire twenty minute ride complaining about how she would not get paid enough due to the map mix-up, and cheerfully pointed out "they've got great food right there" as she passed by our intended location!) So all that drama may have had an effect on my ratings, but if it did, then you can be assured the one beer that did get a 5 really, really deserved it!?!
9) Another stout shows up next in the ratings: Black Xantus from Humboldt Brewing. An outstanding stout, that I'd happily recommend to anyone!
10) Evil Twin's Aún Más Todo Jesús is a fantastic variation of the Even More Jesus series of stouts. And yes, even more everything makes Even More Jesus even more better! I'm not sure about general production on these Even More Jesus series, but it seems Westbrook Brewing in Mt. Pleasant, SC, has been considerably involved throughout. (As well as brewing some very tasty treats of their own!)
11) Imperial Mexican Biscotti Cake Break was the next beer I opened up, and the next 5 on my list. Also an Evil Twin beer, this one listed on Untapp'd as a collaboration with Westbrook Brewing, An Imperial stout brewed with coffee, cinnamon, almonds, cocoa nibs, vanilla beans & habanero peppers, ya'll can tell just by the adds this is gonna roll right up my alley! And they certainly rolled a strike with this one! Yum!!! This is precisely the sorta beer that make "pastry stout" a sought after appellation!
Wow! That beer finished off my top beers of 2017 all the way through March! And we hit TLDR territory about 3 beers back, even for both my ever so patient Faithful Readers. I need to do this on a quarterly basis, or find more stringent criteria for inclusion on this list in the future. However, lacking the latter and having not thought of the former until now...we must forge on through this perilous task (in that in this lengthy post I might lose one or both of my faithful companions to a sense of tedium that might accompany reading about delicious beers without samples of such to ease the passage! Let me hope you both have tasty beverages before you, to ease the burden of your faithful endeavors.)
After that brief intermission of sorts, back to the task before us!
12) Ei8ht Ball Brewing's BA K-Hole, a collaboration with Quaff Bros. was some tasty stuff. Alas, Ei8gh Ball is no longer, so there will be no further variations of this tasty bourbon barrel aged brew. I enjoyed this sweet bit of delicious at Hopcat. They get some lovely brews on tap (with 120 taps, it would be difficult not to!) You'd think I'd be there weekly, but I usually only drop in if friends ask. Perhaps I'll visit more often now that they're a Verified Venue on Untappd?
13) Bourbon Barrel Aged Porter, from Moody Tongue, spent a year in 4 Roses barrels. And didn't that just do wonders! I made it to Beer Trappe just in time to snag the last glass of this beauty be4 the keg kicked. Woot! 4 Roses Distillery is on the Bourbon Trail, and definitely on my list of spots I need to hit soon! At any rate, that lovely 4 Roses barrel-aging brought this list fully into April! Nearly a quarter through the year, and mebbe that long before either of my faithful readers return for more of this nonsense? Surely not!
14) The Trappe also had 3Floyd's Berliner Weisse Deesko! (2016) available that night. I've loved this brew since I first tried it at 3Floyd's brewpub in 2014. Absolutely delicious stuff, though having just dropped by their website for the link, I really, really want to try this with some Habanero Lime syrup! Holy Hot Sauce, Batman!
15) Abbaye de Saint Bon-Chien (2014) was the next brew to Wow! me. The second time BFM (Brasserie des Franches-Montagnes) made this year's list, it seems the Swiss can rock a beer just as well as they do cheeses!
16) 4/15/17 Lambickx (2008/2011) from Vanberg & DeWulf was the next amazing brew on tap at the Trappe. This 5-star rating was from April 17th, and it just dawned on me--why on earth don't I put the date at the start of each listing?!? If I get ambitious, I may go back through and do just that in the previous 15 listings...or not. If you've read this far, you are either rooting for me to get ambitious or longing for an end to this post. Adding dates would at least give you hope, dear reader, that the end is near...though with my attendance at FOBAB so late in the year, it may prove a false and misleading hope. Like installing a light smack in the middle of the tunnel, flat-out cold hearted.
17) 4/21/17 Tequilacerbus from Avery Brewing really hit it for me. The aging in reposado and añejo barrels really gave this brew some incredible flavors. Avery does some really interesting brews, and some lovely barrel aging, but their tequila barrel brews are so incredibly innovative and absolutely outlandishly tasty. Let's hope Duvel's recent investment can help them bring more brews like this to local markets.
18) On that same date in April, I gave Barrel Aged Blonde - Bruichladdich from Brouwerij Hof Ten Dormaal a 5-star. A lovely beer on it's own, what really shines here is the Bruichladdich barrels. They've gotta be kickin' out some fine whiskey for a blonde ale to knock me willy. I'm sure the Dark Lord Day tix had nothing to do with my opinion of this brew!
OK, yeah....Dark Lord Tix make every beer taste like a12!!
19) 4/29 So Happens It's Tuesday (2016) from The Bruery turns out to be great brew any day of the week! Those folk do come out with some tastiness!
20) 5/03 Bell's Traverse City Whiskey Neptune was definitely a "rock your world" stout, found on tap at the Trappe that evening. They may have had a tap takeover event that week, as I ck'd in a couple lovely Bell's there that evening.
21) 5/3 Yet another Cellar Reserve offering from the Beer Trappe, Little Korkny Ale (2008) absolutely hit my happy buttons! This delicious barley wine from Nørrebro Bryghus is truly a testament to their brewing skills, so please don't hold that horrid website against them!
22) 5/17 Black Fist from Mikkeller, at 26% abv, is bound to be complex, but delicious? It worked for me, despite the noticeable booze. The two years in ten different bourbon barrels mellowed and mixed the flavors to a very enjoyable tone.
23) 5/17 When I got home that evening, I decided to pop open one of my bottles of Dark Lord. This was the first time I'd opened any of the bottles from my allotment at Dark Lord Day. Wowsers! Without seeing a barrel, this was at least as good as the best BBCS I'd tasted. It even gave Tokyo Horizon Black (my all time favorite stout) a solid run for the money.
24) 5/25 Blue Stallion's Velvet Lurker was the next brew to bowl me over. Chriminetleys, we're not even through half the year??? Always love Blue Stallion's stuff, and I hit their bottle release for a full selection to take to Dark Lord Days next year!
25) 6/4 Bourbon County Brand Stout (2012) from Goose Island. Tasty stuff indeed, and the years did it up well.
26) 6/11 I happily enjoyed a bottle of Bourbon County Brand Stout (2013) during Beer Trappe's 7th anniversary week!
27) 6/17 Who doesn't luv some gooseberries? Gooseberry Reinheitsgewhat!? from Little Fish Brewing Company was delicious and really took me back to picking gooseberries down by the creek behind Grandma's place. Yum! The brewers seemed a little surprised someone knew wtf a gooseberry actually looked like! Too much fun at the Cleveland beerfest!
28) 6/17 Barrel Talk #1 - Barrel Aged Farmhouse Ale from Butcher and Brewer was another Cleveland Beerfest find. When I asked the brewer of this outstanding farmhouse ale if there might be any pork belly dishes served at their local butchershop/nano brewery, he was quick to point out that THIS lovely dish might be available:
Pork Belly Eggs Benedict but with a much more creative name, and much better looking had I taken a picture before eating 1/4 of the dish! Was just too delicious to contain myself...have to say, that was nearly the perfect post-beer-fest meal! Woohoo!
And that, faithful readers, has brought us halfway through 2017! Who knew it was going to be such a delicious year?!?
29) 7/07 Even More Coco Jesus was the next brew to get me to swipe all the way right. Nearly all the "Even More Jesus" variants from Evil Twin Brewing have just knocked my sock off. I initially thought it was going to be more "cocoa" but OOOH, COCONUT!!! Yes, please and more, thank you?!?
30) 7/07 And with barely time to catch a breath between them, Big Ass Money Stout 2 was next to grab my attention. From Evil Twin, though this time in collaboration with Lervig, this beauty was brewed with frozen pizzas added to the boil, then "dry-money'd" rather than dry-hopped. There are punny beer names and there's taking things to extremes...this was both to excruciating degrees, but the resulting beer was freakin' delicious!
31) 7/31 And yes, yet another Evil Twin brew, in collaboration with those fine folks down at Westbrook Brewing Co. in South Carolina: Maple Bourbon Barrel-Aged Mini Growler had just boatloads of flavors going on, all at once and then some!
32) 8/11 Just after my birthday, I got a chance to open a can of Noa Pecan Mud Cake Stout from Omnipollo. Love the artwork on their labels and (usually) love their beers. This particular brew proved positive on both counts. A label that can't help but bring a smile to the coldest heart, and a taste that would do the same to the coldest palate. Delicious stuff, bound to please.
33) 8/17 Rio Reserva (2012) from De Struise Brouwers. I'd missed the "best by" date of 12/2016 by a few months, but with a date four years out, there's bound to be plenty of leeway. This was still absolutely delicious! A collaboration with Rio Brewing, this brew underwent some complicated barrel-aging. As the brewers described it on Untappd: "First aging took place in St.-Emilion oak wine barrels from Tour Baladoz. Bourbon barrels from Kentucky were next due to their very special soft roast quality and noble vanilla flavors" No matter the process, the result was extremely tasty!
34) 8/18 Eternal Rest 2017 from Nøgne Ø was the first 5 I found at this year's Shelton Brothers The Festival. It was held in Atlanta this year, at the Southern Exchange. Boatloads of brewers brought some very tasty samples, as always at the Festival, and this particular sample was no exception!
This incredibly patient brewer tried his best to teach me how to pronounce Nøgne Ø, to no avail whatsoever!
Before the second day of The Festival, my festival buddy, Ben and I made a quick visit to Three Taverns Brewery the in Atlanta. Lovely location, delightful brews and one of the coolest brew wagons ever!
35) 8/19 On the second day of The Festival, I ran into Hourglass Brewing's table, where I acquired a sample of Giant Giant Dwarf. This bourbon barrel stout with espresso, vanilla and maraschino cherries was exactly what a bourbon barrel stout should attain to...absolutely delightful and truly knocked my socks off.
I'm really looking forward to more opportunities to taste the wonderful brews these fellows are cooking up down in Florida!
36) 8/19 Shortly after sampling that delicious stout from Hourglass, I ran into a lovely milk stout from Bluejacket Brewing. Mexican Radio is a lovely sweet stout with just enough ancho chili bite to close the deal. Wall of Voodoo reference for the win on this delicious stout!
37) 9/01 Shortly after The Festival, Lexington's Fest of Ales gave me a chance to sample my next knockout brew. Sixfold X: Flanders Red from Lexington's own West Sixth Brewing. This lovely red had some lovely funk going on, bringing to mind dusty tackrooms filled with old leather.
38) 9/01 Also at Fest of Ales, I came across Black Butte XXIX from Deschutes Brewery. Brewed to celebrate their 29th anniversary, this was a truly outstanding beer, and the barrel aging (half in rum barrels, half in bourbon barrels) really brought out some wonderful flavors.
39) 9/01 Yet another Fest of Ales stunner, Living Proof: Wild Red Balaton Cherry from Country Boy Brewing really hit the mark. Three solid 5s at this year's Fest of Ales, and two of those from local breweries, really surprised me!
40) 10/28 Pump[KY]n (2014) from Avery Brewing. Avery brews up some delightful beers, and this pumpkin brew, aged in bourbon barrels, is one of my favorites. The barrel aging really adds some wonderfully interesting notes to the pumpkin and spices.
41) 11/09 1 Year Barrel Aged Mixed Brett Foreign Extra Stout from Apocalypse Brew Works turned out to be much more impressive than I'd anticipated. As their first bottle release, let's hope this bodes well for future bottles!
42) 11/10 Dragon's Milk Reserve: Triple Mashed Stout (2017) from New Holland Brewing was the first sample to pull a 5 star rating out of me at this year's FOBAB. I have loved every variant of Dragon's Milk I've encountered.
This was my first time attending the Festival of Wood and Barrel Aged Beers in Chicago, and I'm sure it won't be the last. So many amazing beers!!! With soooo many awesome beers in such short succession, my notes may be a little less complete than otherwise, so pardon the uncommonly brusque descriptions that may follow, faithful readers. There were a boatload of 5 star beers at this fest, and nearly everything earned at least a 4! Crazy good beer flowing at this one!!!
43) 11/10 Bourbon County Brand Stout (2017) 14.1% from Goose Island. BCBS is always a treat.
44) 11/10 Brasserie Noir from Goose Island is an imperial stout aged in Cabernet barrels. Surprisingly delightful.
45) 11/10 Quercus Reserve- Fragaria was a delicious sour golden ale aged in oak with strawberries grown within a mile of the Woodfour Brewing Company.
46) 11/10 Bourbon Wizard from Short's Brewing Company. What a wonderful barleywine!
47) 11/10 Money, Love, And Change from Chicago brewery On Tour Brewing Company. A golden ale aged in Chardonnay barrels with brett and lacto. These complicated blondes always get the best of me!
48) 11/10 Who the Funk Is Brett Mannion? wheat ale aged in Pinot Noir barrels. From Smylie Brothers Brewing Company
49) 11/10 Whiskey Barrel Aged Supervoid from Coppertail Brewing Company in Florida. This delight took home the gold in the Strong Porter/Stout category; obviously I wasn't the only one impressed by this one!
50) 11/11 The first 5 I encountered on Day 2 of FOBAB, Scotch Parabola from Firestone Walker Brewing Company. With a lovely hint of smoky peat imparted by barrels from the Distillery Ardbeg, especially in the finish, this stout may have been my favorite of the entire festival.
51) 11/11 Barrel Aged Imperial Pajamas, a sweet oatmeal stout aged in Heaven Hill barrels. From Begyle Brewing in Chicago, this one really made my sweet tooth sit up and take notice! Yum!
52) 11/11 Blackbeard’s Rum Barrel Aged Bear Hug Stout from Bell's Brewery is a rum barrel aged, cinnamon and coconut and vanilla and brown sugar infused, monster of flavor, guaranteed to shiver yer timbre or some other appropriately piratical attack on your senses and your sensibilities. For what it's worth, this brew got more emojis in my tasting notes which were saved from profanity only by Google's ducking efficient auto-correct!
53) 11/11 Bourbon Barrel Aged Wee Heavy (2017) from Zaftig Brewing pleased my sense of humor nearly as much as it did my palate.
54) 11/11 Softly Spoken Lies from Mikerphone Brewing. "Cinnamon and sugary, and softly spoken lies..." Butthole Surfer reference for the win on this delicious stout!
55) 11/11 Bourbon Barrel Aged Gingerbread Imperial Stout from Moody Tongue...these Chicago breweries are just runnin' away with my taste buds here.
And that was the last of the 5s at FOBAB. Yikes, I gave THIRTEEN beers a solid 5 rating in two days. Definitely got my money's worth attending this festival!
56) 11/17 Samuel Adams Utopias from Boston Beer Company. Beer Trappe was pouring samples, and ya'll knew this would tip me over the edge.
57) 11/22 Callipygian from Avery Brewing is everything you'd imagine an Avery brewed big-ass stout should be! Beer Trappe had a bottle of this in the cooler when I stopped in....
58) 11/22 Colorado Reserva Palisade Peach from Crooked Stave Artisan Beer Project was on tap at the Trappe that very same night! Crooked Stave folks do brew up some amazing sours and wild ales!
59) 12/08 Beer Trappe again came through with this next brew: Barrel-Aged Ten FIDY Imperial Stout Aged in Bourbon Barrels from Oskar Blues Brewery. Who couldn't love a stove-pipe of this deliciousness?
60) 12/08 A fellow Trapper was kind enough to share a taste of Canadian Breakfast Stout (CBS) (2017) from Founders Brewing. Absolute proof the patrons of Beer Trappe are the most gracious and generous humans on the planet! Every sip of this stuff is just a precious joy!
61) 12/08 Xocoveza (2017) from Stone Brewing. On tap at the Trappe! I think this set some sort of record, for me at least--3 out of 3 beers sampled at The Beer Trappe, all with 5 star ratings!
62) 12/17 Sixfold VI: Wild Sour W/ Tart Cherries from West Sixth Brewing. West Sixth is really starting to bring out some amazing beers in their Sixfold series.
63) 12/19/17 Willettized Coffee Stout (2017) from Lagunitas Brewing Company is a delightful coffee stout aged in Rye barrels from Willett Distellery. Willett makes some of the most under-rated bourbons in Kentucky, in my opinion, and they also seem to have won the internet, so far as bourbon-focused domain names go: https://www.kentuckybourbonwhiskey.com/ Nicely done, Willett!
This beer was also on tap at the Trappe, bringing this list and the year in review in full circle. All the best beers find their way to the Trappe, and that's the best place to find them! I truly hope, faithful readers that the coming year hold as many outstanding beers as you can find time to drink! As always, thanks for your exemplary patience and Cheers!
