Beer Review: Remy's Pappy

Reviewing the Remy's Pappy from TAPS Fish House & Brewery out of Corona, California. This beer is their award-winning Imperial Russian Stout aged in 23 year old Pappy Van Winkle bourbon barrels.

Score: 97

2013 vintage bottle served in a snifter glass and enjoyed on 04/21/14. Review is from iPhone notes.

Appearance: Pours an inky black color with a thin layer of khaki head that settles to a ring around the glass. No lacing or retention. Good oily legs. 4/5

Smell: Bourbony chocolate and milk chocolate. Vanilla, coconut, graham crackers, and molasses. Bold bourbon notes present, but not in a boozy/fusel way. Ample dark fruit too. Light caramel and toffee notes. What an appetizing aroma! Bold and well-integrated. 5/5

Taste: Big vanilla-forward bourbon flavor and milk chocolate, with a bold and lasting bourbony finish. Lovely coconut and graham cracker flavor towards back half. Dark fruit comes out in the finish more and more as the brew warms up and breathes. Really, it tastes an awful lot like it smells. Not boozy or fusel at all. The flavors meld nicely! I love how much milk chocolate comes across despite the bourbon-forward characteristics. 5/5

Mouthfeel: Medium bodied, low carbonation. Creamy mouthfeel, just a touch dry on the finish. 4.25/5

Overall: My only knock on this beer is that the mouthfeel was lacking relative to its big bold nose and flavor, but it was not a "thin" beer by any means. The bold coconut/vanilla/graham cracker flavors are magnificent. I think I slightly prefer to Trace of Remy due to the relatively better mouthfeel, but both are excellent twists on the normally Heaven Hills-aged Remy (a delicious brew in all its own right). The guys at TAPS really know how to get the most out of a bourbon barrel! Seek this one out with confidence.

Cost: $35 for a 750 ml beer.

Beer Review: Mocha Wednesday

Reviewing Mocha Wednesday from The Bruery out of Placentia, California. This beer is Black Tuesday imperial stout with coffee and cacao nibs added.

Score: 91

2014 vintage bottle served in a Hill Farmstead stemmed glass and enjoyed on 02/22/14. Review is from iPhone notes. Thank you Moe for sharing this brew with me!

Appearance: Soda pop brown in color. Virtually no head off the pour. Decent oily legs, but no head or retention. 3.5/5

Smell: Milk chocolate, fudge, roast and a little vanilla. Big booziness, but not a ton of bourbon aroma relative to the alcohol esters. Simple and boozy, but effectively appealing. 4/5

Taste: Milk chocolate, vanilla, and mild coffee flavor with a nice light bitterness that's refreshing relative to most diabetes-inducingly sweet Bruery stouts. Still, despite this bitternes, this beer is still awfully sweet. Boozy, but more bourbon character than the nose and less sheer alcohol. I thought this was tasty, but it is a sweet sipper that is probably best enjoyed in small doses. My four ounce pour was sufficient for a lifetime. 4.25/5

Mouthfeel: Full bodied, low carbonation. Not cloying or nearly as sweet as Black Tuesday, but its on the sweeter side of stouts. 3.75/5

Overall: A really solid stout, but certainly not as good as its reputation would indicate. I prefer Chocolate Rain to this, but felt Mocha Wednesday was better than Grey Monday.

Cost: $40 for a 750 ml bottle.

Beer Review: R&D Bourbon Barrel Kriek

Reviewing the R&D Bourbon Barrel Kriek from the New Glarus Brewing Company out of New Glarus, Wisconsin.

Score: 87

Brewed 01/18/10, bottled 08/06/10. Served in a Firestone Walker reserve series mini snifter and enjoyed on 01/24/14. Sampled side-by-side with New Glarus R&D Bourbon Barrel Kriek, R&D Sour Ale and R&D Very Sour Blackberry. Review is from iPhone notes.

Appearance: Pours a reddish brown “oh hey, are you a Flanders red?” color with a thin layer of fizzy head that settles to a ring around the glass. Good lacing and retention. 4.25/5

Smell: Cherry juice, vanilla and oak. Brown sugar too. Minimal apparent sourness, comes across as being sweet in the nose. 4/5

Taste: This is basically bourbon barrel aged Belgian Red. Sweet cherry juice, bourbon, light vinegar and funk, vanilla and oak. The cherry flavor is a bit medicinal towards the finish. No real sourness here — just a little crisp tartness towards the finish as it warms, lacking any real bite. Finishes with sweet cherry/oaky vanilla. 3.75

Mouthfeel: Viscous, low carbonation. Sweet and oily mouthfeel, with a modestly dry finish. 3.75

Overall: This beer is basically just bourbon barrel aged Belgian Red and sweet Flanders red-like in taste. Take that as you will, and seek out accordingly.

Cost: $8 for a 500 ml bottle.

Beer Review: Geuze Cuvée J&J Blauw

Reviewing the infamous Geuze Cuvée J&J Blauw from Brouwerij Drie Fonteinen out of Belgium.

Score: 99

2003 vintage bottle served in a Drie Fonteinen fountain logo gueuze glass and enjoyed on 02/11/14. Huge thank you and shout out to Paul for graciously sharing this whale! Review is from iPhone notes.

Appearance: Pours a murky, unfiltered honey color with a nice fade to yellow at the bottom of the glass with three fingers of head that slowly recedes to a thick half finger layer. Poor lacing and retention, but what else would you expect for an 11 year old gueuze? 5/5

Smell: What is striking about this beer is how complex and balanced it is. The big unique character here is a distinct cedar wood aroma, which I absolutely adore. Cedar wood, hay/straw, lemon rind, and a very light/subtle barnyard funk. There’s also a little bit of “raisin” that comes through around room temperature. At first, there’s a touch of pool water/chlorine in the nose, but that breathes out and disappears after 15 or so minutes. Very subtle barnyard character and a hint of resinousness. Has a nice residual citrus/fruity brightness, which grows as the beer warms up. 5/5

Taste: Straw-forward upfront, with a little more barnyard funk than nose but still pretty mellow and surprisingly subtle overall for an 11 year old gueuze. Growing bitter lemon rind flavor and tartness and a little orange too as it warms up. At first, at fridge temp, there is minimal sourness. However,t by the time this beer reaches room temperature it gains a nice tartness and bright citrus character that reminds me of the 2007 OGV we drank the other night. Mineral water, straw and faint cedar round out the taste. The cedar is not nearly as pronounced in the taste as it is in the nose, but it is still there. Everything is nicely mixed here. I am shocked by how relatively not unpleasantly funky this beer is. 5/5

Mouthfeel: Light bodied, low carbonation. Nice light, but growing tartness with a very dry finish. Acidity level is perfect. 4.75/5

Overall: The cigar lover’s sour! This one largely lived up to the hype for me. The cedar-forward nose was absolutely incredible, and the taste, while different (in that it had less citrus and cedar and more straw/must/funk and mineral character) was just as good. My only knock on this brew is that I would have liked a little more carbonation or tartness to give the taste a bit more liveliness on the palate. Cheers!

Cost: $250 for a 750 ml bottle.

Beer Review: R&D Gueuze

Reviewing the R&D Gueuze from New Glarus Brewing Company out of New Glarus, Wisconsin.

Score: 90

Brewed 03/24/09, bottled 08/06/10. Served in a Firestone Walker reserve series mini snifter and enjoyed on 01/24/14. Sampled side-by-side with New Glarus R&D Bourbon Barrel Kriek, R&D Sour Ale and R&D Very Sour Blackberry. Review is from iPhone notes.

Appearance: Pours a translucent, pale golden color with a thin fizzy layer of head that settle to a ring around the head. Poor lacing, average retention. 3/5

Smell: Straw grain, light barnyard funk, sweet malt, brown sugar, lemon rind, apple and faint peach. This might be the best smelling bottle of this I have had yet, with others being much funkier, grainier and less citrusy in the smell/taste. 4.25/5

Taste: A light kick of wet wood flavor upfront, followed by sour lemon, sweet apple juice, white wine and a hint of cherry. The lemon flavor lingers nicely. Not very complex or tart as hoped, but more so than the R&D Bourbon Barrel Kriek. 4/5

Mouthfeel: Medium bodied, low carbonation. Quire juicy on palate. Very muted tartness. Dry finish 4/5

Overall: The previous two times I tried this beer, it lacked any tartness and was overly funky, but this was a surprisingly good bottle for whatever reason. 

Cost: $8 for a 500 ml bottle.

Beer Review: Black Gold

Reviewing Black Gold from Central Waters Brewing Company out of Amherst, Wisconsin. This is 1414 aged for 35 months in 25 year old Willet bourbon barrels. Less than 500 bottles were made and released as part of a charity run hosted by Central Waters.

Score: 98

2013 vintage bottle served in a Black Tuesday taster and enjoyed on 01/24/14 side by side with Central Waters Fifteen. Review is from iPhone notes.

Appearance: Pours a dark soda color with a wisp of head that totally settles. No lacing or retention. Really nice oily legs. This beer looks exactly like you would expect of a big stout. 4.5/5

Smell: The glass exudes fudge and fig and high percentage cacao dark chocolate. Ample vanilla and molasses too. Big bourbon undertones and a kiss of oak. As it warms up, the chocolatiness grows and grows. The aroma is big, but perfectly integrated. I could smell this beer all night. 5/5

Taste: Lots of fudge and molasses upfront, along with a big, boozy bourbon flavor. Some fig and date flavor too. A nice vanilla/oak flavor comes through towards finish, but it is not overly oaky and dry like Fifteen. Has a nice underlying alcohol warmth. Big chocolatey linger. Like the nose, the flavor profile is bold and marvelously integrated, albeit boozy as hell. So delicious. This one burns a bit, like a good bourbon. 5/5

Mouthfeel: Full-medium bodied, low carbonation. Nice mix of bitter and sweet flavors. Oily, modestly dry finish. Good alcohol warmth, lively on the tongue. 4.5/5

Overall: Easily Central Waters’ best beer. Unlike Fifteen, the extended aging did not render this brew overly dry, but instead imparted a lot more bourbon-molasses and dark fruit character, while still retaining a lot of the chocolatiness that defined 1414 and was lost in Fifteen. Seek this one out!

Cost: $15 for a 12 oz bottle.

Beer Review: Saison Du Fermier

Reviewing the Saison Du Fermier from Side Project Brewing out of St. Louis, Missouri. This bottle conditioned saison is aged and fermented in Chardonnay oak barrels.

Score: 94

September 2013 release bottle served in a Surly Darkness chalice and enjoyed on 11/28/13 (Thanksgiving dinner). Review is from iPhone notes.

Appearance: Pours a murky orange-ish golden color with a half finger layer of fizzy white head. Leaves a line of lacing with good retention. 3.75/5

Smell: Orange peels, white wine, oak and light/young Bretty funk. There is a dandelion-like grassy aroma too. Nice citrus undertones. Most of the aromatic complexities hit upfront, while the Brett notes and a subdued "strawiness" make up the back end of the whiff. 4.5/5

Taste: A nice citrus/tropical fruit flavor and mild tartness hit upfront, with the citrusy flavor lasting and acting as a nice backbone for the beer. Overlaid is a white wine spriztiness, oak and a lighter amount of earthy Brett than the nose led on. A little musty, with zesty lemon rind notes too -- reminisce of a fresher Cantillon Classic Gueuze in this regard. The Brett and citrusy flavor linger nicely, with the citrus outlasting the funk. The Brett/funk growls slightly as the beer warms up and breaths. The oak and white wine come across stronger when the bottle is colder, akin to how The Bruery Confessions tastes, but the taste opens up nicely from there. Everything integrates well, making it hard to really single out any flavors. Quite pleasant. 4.5/5

Mouthfeel: Medium bodied. Has a good dryness, with a light tartness to it -- more so than most saisons. 4.25/5

Overall: Whatever yeast and bacteria Cory is using in his saisons is pure money. I love how citrusy/fruit his saisons come across, despite there being no fruit being added to them. It is no wonder why Fuzzy and Blueberry Flanders are so delicious. Saison Du Fermier is probably my favorite of Cory's bottle releases to date, but that is only because Fuzzy and Blueberry Flanders have not been released in bottles...yet...

Cost: $15 for a 750 ml bottle.