Goose Island - Bourbon County Stout (2012)

Deliberately left for a friday chill out out after a grinding working week... It is one I've been meaning to try for a good while but just never got around to picking it up so getting it as a present was perfect. At 15% abv it ain't exactly one to take lightly. So, the following below is based on the whole temperature range from the cellar at about 10c through to 20c room temperature. Ok, on with the show...

Woooft, lots of bourbon, vanilla, chocolate, coconut and malts from the pour.

This one pours like engine oil (thick black) with a tan head that vanished 30 secs after. Heavy with bourbon and roasted malt on the intake along with oak, vanilla, coffee, nestle condensed milk ! and a touch of dried fruit. Very long warm aftertaste that leaves you smacking your lips, consisting of the bourbon calmed down a bit/more subdued, chocolate, vanilla and a dab of coconut. Low low carbonation, thick bodied to almost as described above 'engine oil' with a full on double cream like mouthfeel, which is better than it sounds, small sips only !  While you can feel the alcohol presence from the very first sip, to me it is well hidden and does not impair the other flavours.

I took 85 mins drinking the 355ml bottle which just might be the longest I have taken to drink 355ml of anything. It is nice just to sit back, sip and enjoy a beer and come to the conclusion only a third of the way down that what you are drinking is absolute sheer class in a glass. If you don't like the taste of bourbon then I would suggest you avoid this one as it is very prominent. I would buy this one again as it is probably perfect for putting down the cellar for a couple of years. Summing up, world class stout to be sipped and savoured...I'm left wanting more as I have forgot to mention the 'finish' above, good enough reason ?

This scored a perfect 10/10 on the 'it could not be anything else, it's bloody marvelous' Beerometer,

Alc : 15%
Where to buy CPH : Bought in Høkeren, Ravnsborggade 13, 2200 N

Carlsberg - Imperial Stout/Gamle Carlsberg Porter

I have to admit, I'm having a hard time just now with new blog posts as I have seemed to lost the urge to try new to me craft and not so craft beer since I have started brewing my own. I do have about 30 untried and untasted stashed away so hopefully I can start churning posts out again, certainly 'she who must be obeyed' will be pleased as I seem to have beer everywhere at the minute. Having a fermenting vessel in the kitchen and one in the bedroom is doing me no favours whatsoever on the wife acceptance factor scale. Writing blog posts describing how good..or bad my own beer is is not my style as apart from family and friends no-one else is going to taste it so what is the point ? I will say though that my own version of a vienna seems to be a real winner with a few colleagues at work wanting to buy a case load.

So, on to this one which I noticed started appearing in kiosks and supermarkets a couple of months ago. I have no idea if it is a re-release as information is sketchy. If it is anything like Carls Porter then I'm onto a winner. It still makes me wonder why they don't export beer/brew it in the UK like that one. Coming from Scotland my initial impression of Carlsberg was cheap lager pishwater or cheap lager pishwater aimed at alcoholics(special brew). I do not get why they do not try to change the image and at least release one of the stouts/porters or any the better ones from the domestic danish market over there...ok, the last bit I might have took too far :).

Gamle ( Gam-le) = Old. Right, let's get cracking..

Wafts of roasted malt, licorice(arrrggghhh) and raw cane sugar from the pour.

This Imperial Stout pours pitch black with a beige to brown head. Sweet intake with dark roasted malts which are almost smokey like, chocolate, toffee, plums and only a dab of licorice(pheeew) which lead into a roasted bitter finish. Dark fruits, berries and chocolate linger in the short aftertaste. Lowly carbonated, the mouthfeel is quite rich and creamy. Although you can feel the presence no alcohol shines through.

What a cracking VFM beer. I think I like this better than the afore-mentioned Carls porter, though I think it fall short against it's cousin Wiibroe, which coincidently also is 8.2 abv, hmmm...though it is a different recipe as they don't taste the same. I have absolutely no problem buying this and drinking again. Summing up, one of them beers that if it had a fancy non-macro label it would be marked up.

This scored 8/10 on the 'don't tell anyone who makes it, pour it in the kitchen, dish out and let people make an arse of themselves' Beerometer.

Alc : 8.2%
Where to buy CPH : Basically anywhere.

Amager Bryghus/Cigar City - Xiquic And The Hero Twins

This is my second of Amager's latest collaboration series, first one here. This one being an Imperial Stout, blurb below....

Who Xiquic was, is a bit hard to explain - but we all know the hero twins: Wayne Wambles and Jacob Storm - headbrewers of Cigar City Brewing in Tampa, FL and Amager Bryghus, Denmark respectively. Since his first visit at Amager back in 2011 Wayne has been quite the idol for us. We don’t believe it’s possible to find anyone with a bigger heart in brewing - combined with the utmost passion and sense for detail. Therefore it was a great honor to us that Wayne accepted our invitation to come brew at Amager Bryghus - even on his birthday! A recipe was created from what seemed like an endless stream of emails. The Cigar City signature cedar wood was ordered and a birthday cake was baked. We had a fun day - we hope you’ll have fun enjoying this double mash cedar infused black pepper Imperial Stout, yeah, no kiddin’. It’s a bit of a beast - but a gentle one. 

Nice aroma of roasted malt, mild coffee, chocolate, black pepper and wood from the pour.

This one pours pitch black with a creamy tan head. Spicy ! intake with roasted malt, hops, dark bitter chocolate and coffee while the finish is dry, sweetish and hoppy. Cocoa powder and mild chili pepper spice linger in the long aftertaste. Lowly carbonated, the mouthfeel is smooth and creamy. Alcohol is noticeable but more as a warming effect than masking the flavours.

Wow, extremely busy beer with a whole lot going on. One minute I had something down as juniper berries, the next it was gone and replaced with something else. I'm also sure there is a spice in there that is in a lot of danish xmas beers but I failed to pin it down. If I drank another bottle another day I could pick up a whole lot more different flavours...which I might just do. This is certainly a beer to make you think. I really enjoyed this one, no problem here drinking another. Summing up, a cracking complex beer that will make you think, well worth trying !

This scored 8/10 on the 'yaaaas !, no licorice' Beerometer.

Alc : 9.0 %
Where to buy CPH : Kihoskh and Ølbutikken had it in stock at time of writing.

Wiibroe - Porter

So what is all this about you brewing I hear you not ask ? Well, it is a simple project of mine to learn about brewing and go from absolute novice to being able to produce a good standard everyday beer that I would be happy with...a pretty low goal to set myself but of course there is the hobby factor which I am enjoying, well apart from all the cleaning and sterilizing...and bottling. So far I have brewed using beer kits, extract recipes, partial mash, steeping speciality grains, adding extra hops and dry hopping.

No doubt I will take the plunge and go all grain sometime in the coming months but so far I am happy/comfortable with what I've done so far. The first brew, a golden ale, is just passable to drink. The second, a stout, is very promising although it needs a good amount of conditioning still. The third, a mongrel amber concoction/vienna/steam beer is not long bottled, the sample pint I drank from the fermenting vessel while bottling was very tasty so I have great hopes for it, using san francisco lager yeast seems to have paid off. The fourth, an extract belgian ale is fermenting away like mad and the whole place stinks of malt, not so good wife acceptance factor with this one as the fermentor is in the bedroom with the windows closed to keep the temperature up :/ I have an IPA then a red ale to do after then I will take stock and probably buy a lot more equipment than the 2 fermenting bins and soup pot I am using just now.

Ok, enough about this, lets get back to the ready made beer from Wiibroe, owned and brewed by Carlsberg....

Mild aroma of malt, chocolate, coffee and cigar !? from the pour.

Porter pours black with a quick falling brown creamy head. Mildly sweet roasted malt in the intake with  hints of smoke, heavily roasted coffee beans and touch of licorice which leads into a dark chocolate bitter finish. This has a very nice long chocolaty aftertaste. Lowly carbonated, the mouthfeel is smooth and creamy. No alcohol shines through.

Absolutely solid and simple imperial stout....for the price. This has such a well rounded taste, for me it is perfect for sipping while contemplating why I bother paying five times more for a local craft beer or an import. Definitely in my top five of Danish great value for money beers. No doubt, a regular again in my house in the coming autumn and winter months. Summing up, superb Danish value for money macro stout which puts a lot of the micro breweries to shame.

This scored 9/10 on the 'this came from an industrial, really ?' Beerometer.

Alc : 8.2%
Where to buy CPH : Most larger supermarkets.

Sierra Nevada - Narwhal

I seen this one on another blog a few months ago which inspired me to buy this. The price, which is double what you give for the normal sierra nevada range available in supermarkets here ie. pale ale, ipa, torpedo ipa(a steal at the price) and kellerweizen..so will this one live up to the high price tag ?.....

Aroma of roasted malt from the pour with coffee, licorice and dark chocolate covered raisins.

Narwhal pours pitch black with a tight creamy brown head. Heavily roasted malt on the intake with dark chocolate, licorice and a touch of coffee while the finish is hoppy, bitter and warming alcohol. The long aftertaste is more of the same but with a tannin/leathery tinge to it ? Yeah, there is a question mark there for a reason. Full bodied and low carbonation, the mouthfeel is creamy to being a tad oily. While you can certainly feel and taste the alcohol in this it does not detract from the flavours.

Maybe I have drunk too from the fermenting vessel this morning while checking gravity but this left me slightly disappointed. I'm left questioning while writing this post if the alcohol is overriding the flavours and the sweetish licorice through this is too much and spoils it totally for me. Saying all that, I still enjoyed it. However, I would not buy it again apart from to store it for another year as I think storing will really benefit it. No doubt some bottle shop with be selling 2012 which this is in a year or two for two times the price.

Summing up, bold malty imperial stout that if I had never tried it I would buy two. One to try now and one to forget about for another year.

This scored a generous 7.5/10 in the 'what's this about keeping beer for another year about ? It's not wine for gawds sake' Beerometer.

Alc : 10.2%
Where to buy CPH : Superbrugsen

Mikkeller - Beer Geek Brunch Weasel

With all the Mikkeller posts someone asked me about this one and if I would blog it. Well here we go, much hyped and rated in various places in the top 25 beers in the world. Not that I have much time for ratings sites as I am very skeptical of beer tickers, the numbers game and comments of 'one dimensional' and 'boring' 600 times but hey, if that is how some people get their kicks out of beer then fair play to them.

Onto the beer in question. I can't say I am going in blind as I have had this before pre-blog. Blurb first...

This imperial Oatmeal stout is brewed with one of the world’s most expensive coffees, made from droppings of weasel-like civetcats. The fussy Southeast Asian animals only eat the best and ripest coffee berries.Enzymes in their digestive system help to break down the bean. Workers collect the bean-containing droppings for Civet or Weasel Coffee. The exceedingly rare Civet Coffee has a strong taste and an even stronger aroma.

Big aroma of coffee, heavy roasted malt, chocolate and light hops from the pour.

Brunch Weasel pours pitch black with a creamy light brown head. Heavy dark roasted malt on the sweet intake with strong coffee, bitter dark chocolate and a touch of pine while the finish is quite hoppy and bitter. This has a long lasting aftertaste of malt, coffee and dark chocolate. Softly carbonated, the mouthfeel is smooth and creamy. While you can certainly feel the warming presence of the alcohol it does not shine through to impair the flavour.

For quite a miserable monday..what a start to the week ! Now I am not the greatest fan of coffee in stouts as some can be overpowering and in some cases I'm left wondering if they chucked it in for the sake of it however with this I can only come to the conclusion that the world needs more coffee bean eating weasels ! I really really, no really enjoyed this one and it was a total pleasure to drink. Definitely one you could drink as a treat for yourself. Summing up, if I had only 25 beers to drink before my lights go out this would be one of them. Hunt it down and give it a try.

This scores a perfect 10/10 on the 'did you expect anything lower on this, the 'raters' got it right this time ?' Beerometer.

Alc : 10.9%
Where to buy CPH : Kihoskh, Ølbutikken, Fish & Beer & Høkeren all stock it.

Mikkeller - Beer Geek Vanilla Shake

The second of a stout double and latest in the 'Beer Geek' range from Mikkeller. I love a good oatmeal stout, I like coffee and vanilla but all three together, will it blend ?...

Nice aroma of dark chocolate along with coffee and vanilla from the pour.

Vanilla Shake pours pitch black with a thick creamy milk chocolate brown head. Very intense flavours in the intake of dark chocolate, malt, strong roasted coffee, dark berries and a subtle sweet vanilla which ends in a mildly bitter finish with warming alcohol. Roasted coffee and dark chocolate are most prominent at the start of the aftertaste then the vanilla creeps in and rounds it off. Very rich mouthfeel to this, almost chewy.

I was surprised by how subtle the vanilla was in this. I was expecting more but it blends in well with the other flavours so no single flavour is dominant. Yet another cracking beer ! Definitely one I would happily sip to while watching repeats of top gear for the 5th time on a sunday night. My only gripe would be I think there is too much alcohol though it is well hidden and certainly hits the spot with me. Another one bottle only, reserved for a special occasion or a treat for myself.

This scored 9.5/10 on the 'damn, now that would make a great nightcap' Beerometer.


Alc : 13%
Where to buy CPH : Kihoskh, Sønder Boulevard 53, Kbh V

Porterhouse - Celebration Stout

I have a confession to make...I don't normally drink stouts or porters in the summer months and tend to go for lighter beer though an occasional pint of Guinness hits the spot. Well today it's been absolutely hammering down with rain all day so I got soaked going to work, at work and going home from work so what better than a good stout or porter to warm up a bit and chill out ?

An Imperial Irish Stout on the label ? Never had one before until this... Pours black with small tan head, actually I lie as I made an absolute arse of it pouring this and had to wait ages until the head fell ! :) So, well lasting and good lacing head. On the intake roasted malts, coffee, lightly smoked and some licorice  while finishing slightly dry with mild hoppy bitterness in a long aftertaste. Smooth and easy to drink, no alcohol shining through.

I don't know about the Imperial bit but I enjoyed this one and it reached 8/10 on the beerometer. One thing that bugged me, whats with the ring pull top ? Just put a nice crown cap on it, bloody hipster-like move that.

Alc : 7%
Where to buy : Fish & Beer , Amagerbrogade 143