Stone - Enjoy By 9.13.13

Stone's "Enjoy By" is a double IPA that they have released to alleviate a single problem: deteriorating hop quality.  As we all know some beers are able to be aged if kept properly and that aging can alter the flavor of the beer.  This can often yield some pleasing results and sometimes can do more harm than good.  Hoppy beers and those with high alcohol content are often good candidates for aging as both of those qualities were originally popularized thanks to their powers of preservation.  However, while hops may act as a preservative, the qualities that we all love that hops imbue to beer tend to fade rapidly as the hopped beer ages.  In rare instances, this can work out, but more often than not it is less desirable and a far cry from the original intent of the brewer.

The deterioration has implications in aging, but also on the shelves.  How do you know if your IPA or other hop dependent beers are fresh?  How do you know you're getting the best tasting, least decayed, brewer-intended flavors?  Stone provides an answer to this problem with their "Enjoy By" series.  Other brewers simply use "brewed on" dates on their bottles or cans, but Stone is definitely putting their dates front and center in an attempt to promise drinkers a fresh, tasty, hoppy experience.  If you were buying a hoppy beer, wouldn't one of the factors to consider be the freshness of the brew?  Stone hopes so.  Time to see what they're offering.  Though with an IPA from Stone, a consistent maker of hop heavy styles, one can generally count on high quality.  I wanted to drink one as close to the date as possible to have it at its "worst" and see how it holds up.  Let's pour!

Aroma 12/12

It's got almost every hoppy aroma that I can think of short of wood, pepper, and herb.  First sniffs are beautiful and sweet, full of pineapple, pine, sweet sticky caramel malts, and grape fruit.  As the drink warms more grassy and musty notes arrive and they grow more noticeable to tame the amazing initial aroma.  It only grows to a moderate intensity, blending with the sweetness for balance, but not covering or overtaking it.

Appearance 3/3

When first poured, the beer is capped with a peach pastel colored head that slowly fades to ivory shades as the beer trapped within is drawn to its brothers below.  That beer pours a golden orange shade that is screaming for fall to arrive.  It is a slightly hazed beer in an earthy tangerine hue.  The colored head won me over.

Flavor 17/20

Not what I was expecting.  Given the nose of this beer, I anticipated a nice sweet introduction full of those sugary caramel malts and a grove's worth of citrus.  In the words of the venerable Judge Smails, "You'll get nothing and like it!"  The malts at the beginning were neutral at best or completely destroyed by the mothership of hop bitterness that just landed on my tongue.  OK, so maybe it's not the mothership, but it's enough to destroy any other flavors and it looks like it's headed for the White House.  Maybe a splash of citrus survives this resin onslaught, but little else.  I wrote down earlier that I could find a semblance of the caramel, but I may have been drinking at the time.  All there is now is a distant citrus, plentiful black pepper, and lots of bitter of the back of my tongue.  Oddly, the finish shows some malt!  The beer's body clearly indicates that Stone didn't skimp on adding malt, but you're hard pressed to find much of it in the flavor.  The finish instantly ends the black pepper flavors and continues the bitter.  This doesn't even give the illusion of balance, even if the caramel and alcohol heat do become slightly more present as the beer warms.

Mouthfeel 5/5

Body is great for a DIPA, big without being a chore to drink.  Peppery tingles remain on the tongue for some time after swallowing and carbonation is spot on perfect for a beer of this size - it permits for texture while largely staying out of the picture.  This beer is 9.4% ABV and is camouflaged but can be detected in a few of the exhales when you take a break between sips.

Overall Impression 6/10

One dimensional beers just don't win me over.  Now, I will say that I have had other Stone "Enjoy By" dates both on draught and in bottles and I recall enjoying those more than I did this.  The aroma was incredible, the mouthfeel was spot on for a DIPA, the ABV well hidden, and the appearance was solid.  The flavor was the only thing that I felt was not on par for Stone's normally superior performance in the realm of Americanized IPAs.

Total 43/50

Of course my first thought is, "Did I let it get to close to the 'enjoy by' date?  Should I have drank it earlier?"  Maybe.  However, if Stone says it's good for another 2 days, then they'd know better that I would.  Besides, isn't that what this whole beer is about: making sure the beer is fresh and providing a date with which you shoul expect a lower quality?  In their defense, I suppose I drank it toward the tail end of its optimum freshness, but I also suppose that I still expected excellence inside of that date.  Granted, excellence was not far off.  In fact, in every category where flavor was not a factor this beer received perfect marks!  However, the hop bitterness seized control like an ambitious despot and cruelly subjugated its inferiors.  Do the hops play nicer in fresher batches?  Undoubtedly.  However, this beer just goes to show exactly what it sets out to: fresher is better.  If this is it close to its worst, you know it's worth picking up earlier from that date.  For those that like bitter beer, you could  even pick this up after the date on its bottle, otherwise don't expect a lot beyond the bitter of an otherwise fantastic DIPA.

Deschutes - Hop Henge Experimental IPA

This is a beer I know nothing about before tasting it.  While that might not make for very interesting reading or back story, it should provide for a very honest and unbiased review.  We just started getting Deschutes in the area within the last four months or so and I am definitely OK with that.  I don't buy sixers that often and since the selection of Deschutes we have thus far is primarily six packs I have not been picking up a whole lot of it.  I've also had all the current varieties thus far and choose to focus on new experiences.  However, when I saw this bomber which was both new and from Deschutes I had to snag it.  Besides, try and tell me that the label art doesn't look promising.  Hops are spilling forth from bags from bags!  It's a veritable monument to hops, right?  Let's pour!

Bottle gives no brewed date, but reads "Best by 08/27/13"

Aroma 11/12

A promising beginning shows plenty of citrus aromas with pineapple and grapefruit leading the way.  Floral notes are not too far behind, but resin seems distant at this point.  The caramel sweetness is present and doing its best to mingle with the hops, but its definitely second fiddle.  After the beer warms it opens up beautifully.  A rich honey note steps in to dance with the hops, which remain strong, and the piney resin begins to kick things up a notch.

Appearance 3/3

This bright beer's transparency really helps showcase the honey and pumpkin hues.  The head was particularly pleasing in texture, size, and retention.  A creamy color to match the wet, creamy looking texture as bubbles breached the surface everywhere they could.

Flavor 18/20

I had to wait until my taste buds acclimate before I could truly get a handle on everything that was going on in this bottle.  There are a pair of large flavors at work and its hard to hear anything else of the din of those two oafs.  Largely the huge caramel malts are fighting the hop pine flavors tooth and nail, but behind that are some solid flavors as well.  In fact, the caramel flavors are apparently in a tag team with some biscuity malts that take over because the sweetness seems to die away rather quickly.  The beginning shows us brief splashes of the aroma's citrus before it is almost immediately washed away by the two larger flavors.  Those two gorillas give make for a backbone thick with caramel sugars, pine, resin, and... no that's about it.  Hopheads should love the finish particularly as it gives the tingle of  hop acids, alcohol warmth, and spicy black pepper before it begrudgingly sticks and slides down your throat.  The aftertaste is what one should expect in a strong IPA with plenty of bitter resin, a persistent pepper, and a slight drying effect despite the plentiful malts.  Not the biggest IPA I've ever had, but definitely enough to satisfy those seeking their daily ration of humulus lupulus.

Mouthfeel 4/5

My first note on this was "thick."  It was accurate.  All the malts required to balance the "henge's-worth" of hops result in a big body beer that stumbles and bumbles its way across your taste buds.  The carbonation is spot on and leaves most of the tingly sensations to the resin, peppery hops, and a warmth that seems to only make an appearance in the finish and aftertaste; an interesting trick in a 10.9% ABV brew.

What a great sight!

Overall Impression 8/10

The amounts of flavor in this beer are certainly to be reckoned with.  I also appreciate the body and the fact that the beer somehow maintains a perfect level of carbonation regardless of how warm it gets in the glass.  The transition of flavor from sweet (brief citrus & caramel) to bitter (biscuit, resin, pine, grapefruit's bitter) is also an interesting characteristic to which one should pay attention.

Total 44/50

I'm trying really hard not to be fickle or hypocritical.  On one hand, I often criticize beers for not "bringing the thunder" when it comes to flavor.  This beer certainly does bring with it some substantial flavor, but brings it with all the nuance and tact of a bowling ball.  It's just... asserts itself with flavor.   Again, flavor is good!  I'll never fault a beer for having flavor, I just want to taste more than just the splatting of ingredients on my tongue.  Sure, I tasted several different flavors, I just  really had to search for them behind the giants in the way.  The imagery of a paintball being fired on the tongue refuses to leave me.  Not because this beer was so over-the-top intense, but because it basically all came at once until you get to the finish.  SMACK!  Where was the chance for flavors to develop on the tongue?  I don't know.  The more I type the more I sound to myself like a whiny idiot.  Maybe this is what happens when an amateur tries to put into words the subjective notion of flavor.

TL;DR:  Good beer.  Lots of flavor.  Expect a car wreck of hops in your mouth, but not a wide spectrum of flavor.

Dogfish Head - Burton Baton (2007)

Today my quest to break out some of my weird an unusual beers takes me back to 2007.  It was a troubled time for America and I give you the following alliterative list to prove it:

• Barbaro is euthanized
• Bears lost the Super Bowl
• Britney Spears shaves her head.  Gets new tattoo
• "Breakfast of Champions" author Kurt Vonnegut dies
• Boris Yeltzin dies
• Bob Barker leaves the "Price is Right"
• Boston wins the World Series

Gratuitous Barbaro pic.

There were a lot of bad things, beginning with "B" that happened in 2007, but thankfully Burton Baton flew in the face of it all.  Having been brewed off and on since it's release in 2004, it eventually gained enough popularity to become brewed year-round.  Thank goodness.  It's labeled as an Imperial IPA, but Burton Baton is actually a blend of an DIPA and an English-style old ale, which is then aged in a big ol' oak tank.  Normally, I would not review an IPA or DIPA that is one month over 6 years old.  However, the bottle contradicts my logic by clearly stating, "Lush & enjoyable now, this beer ages with the best of 'em."  OK, I'll bite.  Let's pour!

Aroma 10/12

Oak notes are prominent, but nothing about this beer is harsh or aggressive.  The vanilla and oak touch the nose and bring with them some interesting travel companions.  A faded citrus is next.  It carries the remnants of juicy grapefruits and pineapple, but those fruity bits have all but disappeared completely.  Thankfully, we still have a slight acidity that gives the scent a bit of a bite.  The old ale notes come in after that and carry with them all the things we love about the style: sweet malts, a light roast, raisins, and a nice gentle warmth.

Appearance 2/3

I'm not expecting the world when it comes to carbonation in a 6 year-old bottle, but I was pleasantly surprised at the half finger of head that formed after a fairly aggressive pour.  Unfortunately, the head was the high point for the appearance of this beer.  It sits in the glass the murky color of a sun tea that has steeped too long and grown too dark. Held up to the light an attractive red can be found in the center of the glass, but it is poorly situated amidst a fog of rusty hues.

Flavor 19/20

Whoa!  One is immediately lambasted by dark fruits, caramelized sugar, honey, a deceptively sneaky warmth, and a wash of malty sweetness.  There's no fading in here; this beer is sweet and it means it.  There is a richness of flavor that cannot be anticipated from the aroma.  I wish there were more to say about the backbone of the beer, but the flavors are so robust and well-blended that there is little opportunity for nuance.  If held in the mouth a pepper note arises, but I am uncertain if that another remainder of the hops or just alcohol tingle.  I swear that at times this beer even shows glimpses of maple syrup.  The finish shows a slight warming and a moderate bitter to show us that the hops cannot be forgotten just yet.  Both sensations linger well into the aftertaste where that pesky pepper note appears again as a dot on the horizon.

Mouthfeel 5/5

Excellent work here.  Not only is this beer smooth thanks to some barrel aging and some cellaring, but also thanks to gads of malt.  Remember the honey and syrup mentioned earlier?  Well, it's nowhere NEAR as thick as those, but it's just as silky and smooth.  Since we're on the subject, it definitely has a full body and loads of sugars to let this beer absolutely slide all over the mouth.  It avoids becoming to heavy and thick by utilizing perfectly present carbonation, alcohol warmth, and that peppery prickle.  The alcohol warmth, of course, gets stronger as the beer warms and helps contribute to a dryer finish.  Prior to warming no one would have a clue about the 10% ABV.

Overall Impression 9/10

This aged incredibly well.  True, the hops are not at their peak freshness, but that doesn't mean their hallmark cannot still be found 6 years after bottling.  The aroma was not the strongest trait of the beer, but the less impressive introduction made experiencing the rest of the beer an exciting surprise.  The flavor was intense and sweet and the mouthfeel was amazing.  This beer did great things with its dark fruits, oak, and camouflaged warmth.  What a treat!

Total 45/50

Silky without being syrupy.  Sweet, but not one-dimensional nor cloying.  What more do you want?  This beer gave big flavor without feeling like it was beating you.  I would definitely say that at this age it errs more on the side of the English-style old ale than an Imperial IPA.  It's abundance of sweet malt, dark fruits, color, and apparent ability to age well all point toward the old ale.  The aroma would indicate an IPA that is too old!  A beer that clings to its "big beer" status and former glory with a thick body, now unbalanced sweetness, and perhaps a high ABV.  Thankfully, it became much more than that over the last 6 years.  Maybe Burton Baton was one of the best things to come out of 2007.  It sure as hell wasn't James Blunt.

And they ain't kiddin'!

SOURCES:

http://www.dogfish.com/brews-spirits/the-brews/occassional-rarities/burton-baton.htm

http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-12-28-2419931004_x.htm

Surly - Wet

Well, this is one of those beers that I never thought I was going to be able to try. It sells quick, it doesn’t distribute outside the brewer's home state, and while I have plenty of family in Minnesota, I don’t have a go to trading partner up there. So when my wife brought back some Boston-based Wachusett beer for some friends that used to live there, imagine my surprise when they responded in kind with this little gem! Thanks Jim & Anne!  In fact, I only received this beer last night, but so much of its reputation is based on freshness that I wanted to drink it and review it as soon as possible.

For those not familiar with Surly’s Wet, it boasts on its can that the hops are picked on Day1, shipped on Day 2, and used on Day 4 so that the hops never have a chance to dry out.  Different hop varieties are used so the brew may vary a bit, but rest assured that will this much attention being paid to freshness (or "Ultra-Fresh" as the can states) you are all but guaranteed a big resiny treat.  The beer that I am reviewing today was canned on 10/1/2012.

Please excuse both my recent posting infrequency as I have just moved into my first house. There are features of said house that will definitely warrant their own post in the coming months. This also means that I haven’t yet set up a great spot to take pictures of these amazing beers, so bear with me.  Let's pour!

Aroma 12/12
Things begin with some very pleasant pine and orange rind notes. Rising up just behind those are mangos, pineapples, and some resin lingering in the background. However, once the beer begins to warm the resin takes on more of a primary role with the rind and gives a very “bitter orange” vibe to the overall character. Along with this resin comes some pretty strong grassy notes and since I happen to love that particular hop trait, it is most welcome. For those of you keeping track, yes I’ve only talked about the hop aromas thus far. The malts are in there, but are very far back and only open up once the beer has warmed. I’m thankful they show up as it gives the beer a more substantial, intense aroma and their sweetness helps to emphasize the sweet hop aromas like the pineapple. 

Appearance 3/3
This beer pours lighter than I expected, but still looks like a million damn dollars. It shines like a orange sapphire (yes, there are orange sapphires, smarty pants) and enjoys much of the same brilliance and clarity. Its robust eggshell colored head is maintained by a constantly ascending carbonation. The head forms slowly but builds tall and fluffy, before settling a bit and taking on more of a whipped cream texture. If any photographers out there are looking to create stock images of beer and what it should look like, this is it. Wow! Also worth mentioning, I’ve written the review up until this point with beer in my glass and the head is still present! I’ve never seen retention like this. Top marks and extra sparkle magic unicorn rainbow brownie bonus points to Surly for this! 

Flavor 19/20
First impressions are everything and this beer’s impression is bitter. I’m anxious to see what happens once my taste buds acclimate a bit more to the bitterness. Interestingly enough, the bitter in the first sips can be sensed in accented waves, each punctuating its own beginning. My initial notes read as, “woody, resin, long lasting bitter” and I’m pretty sure a part of my tongue went numb. Thankfully it recovered, finally acclimated, and then other flavors begin to emerge. Most notably are a muted pineapple and a sweet malt that I am having trouble placing. It’s sweet and lighter and almost sugary, which makes me think honey but the flavor isn’t correct for honey. This malt flavor is more fruitlike and definitely not the typical caramel malts used in making heavy duty West Coast IPAs. A quick wine taster’s slurp gives me little additional information, only a splash pineapple, a hint of the warmth, some nice pepper spice, and shot of pure resin. The finish is (obviously) not as intensely bitter as when I started this glass, but it still unapologetically offers its own take. Immediately after swallowing is a mellow sweetness, detectable only after one’s tongue has been adequately prepared for the resin, and then an intense aspirin-like bitter that fades in to tie up any loose ends. In hindsight, the sweet malts that confused me earlier are probably caramel malts that taste sweeter with melding with pineapple from the hops. It’s a great combination!

Mouthfeel 5/5
A big bodied beer to hold some big flavors. It rolls around in the mouth like mercury, but the hops’ spicy pepper note give a prickly sensation on the tongue and keeps it from becoming sluggish. The carbonation that was so present in the glass and contributing to the head is still ascending in subsequent pours, but this diminishes its presence in the mouth. The result is a beer that feels exceptionally smooth and silky thanks to an unobtrusive carbonation that dies quickly once inside the mouth. The warmth that became present during a slurp really never had much more presence than that. 

Overall Impression 9/10 
This beer is impressive, but definitely has the potential to be more-so if drank closer to its birth date.  I feel that the main consequence is that the fruits in the aroma do not come out as well in the flavor, resulting in a less complex beer than it was created to be. At 2 ½ months of age, this beer still has plenty going for it. It’s head and appearance were fantastic, its aroma was excellent, and it’s tasty as all get out. Right now it stands as a strong West Coast IPA, but at a younger age it could truly stand out from the pack. The only question is how to do that. How can you possibly get this beer with any less hop deterioration than Surly has tried to do?

Total 48/50

The answer to the question in the previous sentence is, “you don’t.” Surly has made more than an earnest effort to get a beer into its customers’ waiting hands that is as fresh as they can possibly make it and can it. Any further action lies in the hands of distributors, retailers, and how quickly craft beer drinkers can snatch it off the shelves. I dig this beer as a whole, with only minor nit-picky issues here and there. If Surly had the same distribution abilities as Oskar Blues, this beer would compete nationally with Deviant Dales. Hop heads should of course seek it out as fresh as possible, but if you’re not accustomed to how relentless hops can be, you may wanna sit this one out. This beer is a stern reminder than Minnesota is not just a state of quiet, polite, church-going folk. It’s also a state filled with potential hockey defensemen ready to administer a hockey stick enema if you stand in their crease too long. So noted, Surly. So noted.

Green Flash - Palate Wrecker

When you see a beer emblazoned with such an appellation, it really demands that you pick it up.  I mean, c'mon... Palate Wrecker?  It jabs your curiosity with a red hot poker and challenges you at the same time.  I know exactly what this beer is made to do and when you're in the mood for that hoppy, bitter, sticky goodness, nothing else will do.  There's no IBUs listed on the label, but it states a 9.5% ABV.  Good, I never really liked my liver anyway.  I'm ready to crack this open, I just hope it doesn't crack back.  Let's pour!

Aroma 11/12

Starting off, this beer leaves no hop scent unturned.  It begins with a strong grassy smell, adds resin, grapefruit, pine, and dabbles with some oranges.  The malts come through as hay-like with a touch of mustiness, but also offer a distant bit of brown sugar which has to shout to be heard through the citrusy hops.  Once the beer settles a bit, the hops fall into a pine & citrus partnership, with a bit of herbal tickle that keeps us mindful of the hop plant's relations in the Hemp family (cannabaceae, pronounced can-uh-BAY-shee-ay).  The citrus comes across as so sweet and fragrant that it borders of floral.  Very nice.

Appearance 3/3

As expected this beer showed great head, lacing, and retention.  The sticky head was a slightly yellowed ivory color and covered the surface well after the pour.  The color is more copper and amber than I expected.  Well, I guess most IPAs are copper and/or amber, but this appears more red when just sitting in the glass.

Flavor 17/20

I was about to take the first sip of this beer and I began to wonder as I raised the glass to my mouth, "Will this be a really sweet opening to this beer to balance the malt or just rush right in with bitter?"  Answer:  It SLAMMED me with bitter.  I take that back, there's a light sugary citrus note that floats for just a moment before being comically crushed with an anvil.  Despite this barely exaggerated description, there really is more to this beer but you've gotta pay pretty close attention to find it behind the "These-go-to-eleven" level of hops.  After the bitter explosion, if you hold the beer in the mouth, you'll get quite an intense resin flavor mixed with a pseudo-balancing citrus sweetness, honey, and some sugary, caramel malts.  Not only does holding the beer in the mouth help find these flavors, but so does acclimating your palate to the bitterness.  Halfway through the bottle, these flavors become much easier to detect.  Good heavens is this beer bitter!  The finish is, you guessed it, ridiculously bitter.  However, a quicker swig lets the caramel malts help fend off most of the bitterness.  The beer is sticky in the back of the throat and makes saliva difficult to swallow.

Mouthfeel 4/5

Adequate carbonation in the beginning, but toward the end of the bottle the carbonation has abandoned ship which does not help to finish off this monster beer.  The alcohol warmth is invisible behind the hops and the body is just as heavy as the sticky head and remnants in the back of the throat would have you believe.  Normally, I'd say the minimal level of carbonation is perfect, but in a beer this strong and heavy I could really use a few extra bubbles.  There is nothing small about the mouthfeel of this beer.

Overall Impression 8/10

For what it is, it's a kick ass beer.  No really.  It might just kick your ass.  Large aroma, gargantuan flavors, and a car crushing mouthfeel all make this not a beer to be taken lightly.  True to it's name, it is a palate wrecker.  Those looking for balance or nuance look elsewhere.  You'll not find it here.  If you've got a hankering for hops... this. is. it.  

Total 43/50

Well, I was looking for hops when I bought this and boy did I find them.  This beer absolutely walloped me in the mouth and did not apologize afterwards.  It then kicked my cat and pinched a baby.  I'm not sure where it got the baby because I don't even have kids.  Palate Wrecker is an insanely accurate name and description for this beer.  This is both good and bad.  It's good because it doesn't leave you wondering if the brewer meant to make a more nuanced, balanced DIPA/IIPA.  He/she did not.  They made this beer to destroy you.  It's bad because FAR more often than not, I want to drink a beer with balance.  This beer sacrifices drinkability, balance, nuance, and complexity all in the name of what your tongue can endure.

This is not a beer I could drink every day.  It is, without question, a special occasion beer.  It's the beer you keep on hand to see how many IBUs your craft beer buddies can take or when you're REALLY in the mood for something hoppy.  However, it never claims to be anything but.  It says Palate Wrecker right on the friggin' label.  What did you think you were getting?  Due to its honesty and implying the brewers' intentions, I cannot rate it lower.  This beer is exactly what it wants to be.  No apologies.

Firestone Walker - Double Jack

Everybody clamors about Parabola.  The masses murmur over Abacus.  But since I live in a smaller market,  I wanna talk about one of their more widely available beers: Double Jack.  However, I won't really have much to talk about since I've never had a Firestone Walker beer before.  Looks like the only way I'm going to be able to speak on this is to get pryin'.  Let's pour!

Aroma 11/12
This is not what I expected at all from a DIPA when I first opened the bottle!  At the start the aroma was a rather striking partnership of honey and hops.  Quickly thereafter, a strong, sweet aroma appeared and presided over a wide variety of hop characteristics.  The sweet note was dominant at first and reminded me of tangerines and mangoes.  It tinged all the other characteristics in interesting ways.  It brought out the sweetness of the grapefruit, it made the beer as a whole seem brighter, and it really covered up a lot of the pine.  After a while this odd, yet not unpleasant, sweetness subsides and let some more traditional aromas take over - plenty of biting grapefruit and pine.  After a brief warming, a light grass note speaks up along with a subtle mustiness.

Appearance 3/3
The beer is surprisingly clear and bright for the style.  The change is appealing and the color is all orange peels, golds, ambers, and if rust had a pastel shade, this would be it.  The head is slow to form and provides a neat visual trick to watch it slowly struggle to the top of the tulip glass.  The head is ample in size, moderate in longevity, and leaves tons of sticky lacing.

Flavor 20/20
What a great start to a beer!  The beginning is loaded with a very smooth, delicious caramel malt.  Thankfully, that is not lost when the beer transitions to the backbone.  In fact, I wouldn't say the beer changes like most others do, rather it keeps adding flavors on top of the existing ones.  So that delicious sweetness?  Now, it begins to be balanced out by the grapefuit, a moderate resin-based bitterness, and combined with a brighter honey-like sweetness.  The darker sweetness of the caramel and the resin are a flattering combination.  This is really a treat!  The citrus and honey of course combine on the palate and remind one of orange blossom honey, however this is not a dominant flavor.  It's one of the many, distinct, balanced flavors in this wonderfully layered beer.  The finish is the only time the beer hints at its 9.5% ABV and even then it's not readily apparent.  It also yields a darker, more concentrated, intense bitter than has been previously shown, but other than those two additions, it's really an extension of the backbone.  Also, if anyone figures out how a beer dries the tongue, but remains a bit slick in the back of the throat let me know.  Shouldn't one or the other take over?

Mouthfeel 4/5
This is about as much carbonation as is appropriate.  By being plentiful, but not overly aggressive, it really bridges the dual characteristics of the bright color/aroma and darker sweetness/heavier mouthfeel.  This does leave the mouth slick at times.

Overall Impression 10/10
This is a most impressive beer!  It doesn't follow the typical DIPA recipe and comes out ahead for it.  All the technical prowess is there, but it provides a sweeter, yet still balanced, version of the style.

Total 48/50
Normally, I'm happy if a DIPA doesn't try to beat my tongue to death with hops.  Anyone can pull that off.  It takes talent and prowess to pull off a balanced version of the style and Firestone Walker succeeds with flying colors.  Not only does it provide that much sought after balance, but it also refuses to play the same ol' song and gives the craft beer world some much needed variety in a style whose popularity continues to soar.  This is anything but the "usual" flavor and aroma and it's damn good.  Even my wife likes it and she is not the biggest fan of IPAs, let alone DIPAs.  Caramel, orange citrus, honey, a gradually evolving bitter, grapefruit, and a pleasant mouthfeel all make for an excellent, tasty beer and ensure that my first Firestone Walker will definitely not be my last.  Prost!

Brewdog & Stone - bashah

In the interest of full disclosure, I'd like to first say that I am the proud owner of some Equity for Punks!  If you don't know what that is yet, check it out here.  After finally taking the plunge last week after a near immediate blessing from my surprisingly understanding and slightly dismissive wife (quoth her email, "Just go do it"), I find myself doing something new, exciting, and a bit helpful to the craft beer community.  With my new investment in mind, I figured it was time to break out this bottle that had been sitting in my beer fridge for quite some time.  This bottle is called "bashah" and is the collaborative effort betwixt our friends at Stone and Brewdog.  I know!  It DOES sound good.  My only concern was that the bottle might be a little too old considering this is supposed to be a black Belgian DIPA.  To be specific, this bottle is from batch 352 and was bottled on 12/19/2010.  Under a year should be fine for a beer this steeped in hops and darkness, right?  Is that not the story behind imperials and IPAs?  That their strong flavors preserved them?  One way to find out if that legend holds true.  Let's pour!

Aroma 7/12
Granted, this is an older bottle, so it should come as no surprise that the majority of the aroma is cocoa with no detectable hop character.  There is some Belgian yeast sweetness that makes a faint appearance, as does some coffee and some roast, but the IPA goodness (let alone the Double IPA goodness) has died out a long time ago.  At this point, it smells like a pretty tasty stout.  I find that the roasted malt appears as the beer continues to warm.

Appearance 2/3
Not pitch black, but very very dark. The traces of mahogany are only visible along the edges when held to light.  The khaki-colored head was small and lasted as long as it had to, but where it touched my glass it left a rather impressive lacing that indicated lots of good pitting.

Look at that lace!

Flavor 19/20
For a beer with a less than impressive smell, this beer still has what it takes to knock your socks clean off!  Initial flavors are the sweetness of malt, raw sugar, and caramel.  Then the backbone begins to rush in and this beer gets big in a hurry!  Lots of coffee, hop bitter, dark caramel, roasted chocolate malts, and a light saltiness that I have had in other dark beers (notably Mikkeller Beer Geek Brunch), but can never seem to place.  This is big and complex - a great combination.  The finish is very bitter, hints at the former sweetness, and drys the mouth quickly.  Maybe those hops did not disappear completely after all!  This beer leaves a great inky, hoppy bitter aftertaste way on the back of the tongue that seems to skulk about like some sort of great, black predator crouched in the back of its lair.  It lives back there.  It belongs there.

Mouthfeel 4/5
Its carbonation is barely present without feeling flat; I love that in a dark beer.  The body is not as heavy as one would expect from a beer this dark and with this much flavor, which is a nice surprise when you're finished and not weighed down.

Overall Impression 9/10
This is a damn good beer, but I felt I had to dock a point for not being at all what is on the label.  It claims to be "The Black Belgian Style Double India Pale Ale."  Granted, that's a pretty tall order to fill, but it can (and has) been done.  The black is definitely present, but the rest gets lost.  Any Belgian characteristics are slight at best.  The hops offer no flavor nor aroma (in a bottle this aged), even if they certainly have their say in the finish.  Those DIPA hops really come out in the aftertaste, too.  The beer that was present was a delightful, hoppy stout that was good enough to score a nine here.  Big, complex, bitter, and not heavy.  What more do you want?

Total 41/50
I thought this was going to be a brief review. I respect Stone and Brewdog a LOT and when I first smelled this beer I was ready to be disappointed by the rest. It smelled simple and weak. I didn't even really want to post a crappy review about two breweries I like so much, but figured I might be able to get away with it if I screamed loud enough that this was an old bottle.

Then I tasted it.

Wow! What a complete 180! While it's not the style on the label this is still a damn good dark beer that I keep wanting to call a stout. I don't want to rehash the beer description, but I can't reiterate how much this beer redeemed itself. To reward such a redemption, I'll stop calling it a stout and begin calling it my "bête noire." Cheers and kudos to the boys at Brew Dog & at Stone!! You boys can get together for a playdate any time you like!

The legend held true.