Oskar Blues - Ten Fidy Imperial Stout

This beer was given to me by my good buddy Keith in Tampa, FL.  We had first sampled it at World of Beer (Carrollwood location) and were very impressed.  It is definitely a beer a that deserves a more in-depth evaluation.  Please note, that this blog will include more pictures than usual because there are several cool visual features to this beer.

Picture is my own.  Bottle art image used without permission for educational uses only.

Aroma 12/12

Wow, there are some amazing things going on here!  There is definitely dark chocolate present and I'm not talking milk chocolate.  I'm talking bitter, dark, 90% cacao beans type of chocolate.  Please do NOT read that as the beer smells like 90% chocolate; that is not the case.  The aroma is based in a dark fruit/black licorice smell, but is not so overpowering that you cannot also detect the other contributing members: dark roasted malt, woody hops, and a dark toffee note.  What more could you ask for?!  While it smells like coffee and dark sweetness, it still maintains a balance with its hop and malt friends.  Perfection.

Appearance 3/3

This beer is exactly what they style demands.  It pours like used motor oil into the glass and produces a good-sized brown head.  Awesome.  In an imperial stout everything about the beer should be dark and Ten Fidy does not disappoint.  The head is dark-khaki brown and the beer is black.  I mean tar-pitch black.  Outer space black.  Keith (the giver of this beer) would say its "blacker than the blackest black times infinity."  Even the head retention was decent and it stuck around long enough for me to get a sip.

Picture is my own.

OK, so one last note on the appearance.  I know the EPC scale apparently goes down to 138, but can we give this beer a ranking of "infinity."  It is completely opaque!  In fact, to demonstrate how opaque this beer truly is, I held it up to the sun.  You still cannot see through it.  There are no ruby hints around the edges or dark brown variances toward the border of the glass; it is simply black.  Or as I like to quote, "darker than a black steer's tookus on a moonless prairie night."  Check the picture and judge for yourself!  Do you see how washed out everything in the background is?  That is how bright it is behind the beer.  This is the black hole of beer.

Picture is my own.

Flavor 19/20

This flavor is just short of what its aroma offers, but that is hardly a criticism.  Things initially come as one would expect - an assault of bitterness.  However, this wave gives way quickly to the sweet notes present in the aroma.  The dark fruits are here with the coffee and toffee, and accompanied a puff of smokiness.  The sweetness is the primary theme, but it is far from lonely.  There are so many "chords" of flavor, with each note making the others better, that when one holds it in the mouth, you can keep coming around and "re-noticing" each flavor.  Its finish and afters continue the dark fruit flavors and give hints at Ten Fidy's warmth.

Mouthfeel 4/5

With how thickly this beer seemed to pour, I was surprised how light it felt in the mouth.  Not to say that this is a "light" beer by any means, but appearances can be deceiving.  One could safely classify it as a medium bodied beer with low carbonation.  The warmth of this beer is very deceptive, hiding itself away and only making it occasionally known that this is a 10.5% ABV beer.  It is a bit easier to detect during exhale.  The lighter-than-style body of this beer and its camouflaged  warmth make this beer much easier to drink than it should be.

Overall Impression 10/10

If you are going to do something, do it 100%.  The people at Oskar Blues have obviously taken this to heart. The beer meets nearly all of the style guidelines, adds interpretations, and comes out a winner.  It is flawless in aroma and appearance.  Other categories, while not flawless, are still excellent and result in a superior beer.

Total 48/50 (Outstanding)

This beer rightly earns the description of "world-class example of style."  Stylistically on the money with complimentary creative license, this beer was fantastic.  It is big, bold, and black.  Hard to believe that beer like this comes in a can, but in the future I believe that this trend will not be as surprising as cans continue to grow in popularity.  Not only is the beer amazing, but the people at Oskar Blues do some pretty cool things.  They include a "shotgun target" on the can so you know where to puncture the can (not that I would EVER shotgun this 12 oz. of nectar), they have musical events in their facilities, encourage recycling on their packaging, and they distribute their beer in cans.  Not only does Oskar Blues make beer to be unashamed of, they also unabashedly do what they love.  Kudos to you Oskar Blues!  This is one of my top beers.  Ever.

Things that make this can awesome: "this dog'll hunt," "Pack it in.  Pack it out."  Shotgun target.

Stevens Point Brewing Co. - 2012 Black Ale

As you may have noticed, I have been a bit out of commission since St. Patrick's Day.  While it certainly felt like the end of the world, I indeed recovered and decided to get cracking on some new brew reviews.  I decided to take on the "end of the world" theme and review Point's - 2012 Black Ale.  Let's pour!

Picture is my own.  Bottle art image used without permission for educational uses only

Aroma 6/12
The aroma is rather light for something claiming to be a black ale.  Instead of robust bitters and über-dark roast there is a dark roast present (though not nearly dark enough) with a hint of chocolate.  Perhaps even a smoky scent peeking its head out, but only ever so faintly.  But sweetness in a black ale?  It is a bit troubling and I carried on to other areas of the beer hoping for more hints.

Appearance 2/3
When they said black ale, they were not kidding!  This thing is opaque!  It is pitch black and you can barely catch a brown from the edges even when held to light.  Very nice.  The head is a dark tan that cannot maintain retention long enough for me to even take a few snapshots and take a sip.  It leaves only a small collar and no lace.  I wish I could tell you its consistency, but it had vanished.  It keeps its points for its color and clarity (or lack thereof).

Picture is my own.

Flavor 12/20

This beer definitely has flavor, but it is not true to style.  It should be considered a robust porter before it is considered a "black" anything.  Perhaps the marketing folks are getting a bit out of hand?  I have had other great beers from Point, but this particular brew misses the mark.  The first sensation is sweet; the aroma did not mislead.  While the chocolate I detected in the aroma was a mix of sweetness and roasted malt, the flavor lacks chocolate.  Instead, there is a caramel that is made darker by the roasted malt.  Hops are not individually detectable, but do make their presence noticed with a slightly bitter finish and their contribution to the coffee afters.

Mouthfeel 3/5

There were some conflicting sensations here.  However, the mouthfeel is one of the more noticeable attributes of this beer.  Before noting any flavors whatsoever, I noted at least two different mouthfeel sensations.  The first was that this beer is smooth.  I almost confused it for a creaminess, but the body was not heavy enough for that.  This is a light bodied beer (again, not true to style) but tries to cover that up with a technique that could come in handy with some other styles of beer.  That technique was the carbonation.  The carbonation in this beer was almost that of nitrogen and not carbonation at all.  It was a very light, thin carbonation that made this beer feel "creamier" than its body actually was.  A neat trick and I would not mind seeing it again.

Overall Impression 5/10

This is not a bad beer.  It is simply not to style.  This is a porter masquerading in a black ale's bottle.  It is dominated by sweetness with very little in the way of bitter.  The appearance was fantastic!  I have had imperials that were not this black.  Overall, I'd say this beer takes some of the finer points of a stout (thin carbonation, color) and a porter (sweetness, lighter body) and mashes them together quite pleasantly.

Total 29/50
This ranking puts this beer in the very top of the "Good" category as that it "misses the mark on style and/or has minor flaws."  There were no flaws I could detect.  All I can say is that this beer was sweet and that is not what one expects from a black ale.  It was a dark sweet from the get-go in both aroma and flavor and while it would be pretty darn good as a robust porter, it is not a black ale.  In fact, as a porter or brown ale, this beer would rank significantly higher.  If someone was looking to get into the "super dark" beers, I would recommend this as an introduction to the style or a transition beer from something lighter.  After all, there are few things as nice as introducing friends to new beer experiences - or exbeeriences.  Oo!  Consider that trademarked.