The Brooklyn Brewery was started in 1987 by Steve Hindy and Tom Potter. Hindy used influences from his travels to the Middle East, where he learned to brew in a land where alcohol was forbidden. Brooklyn Black OPS is a very hyped release each time the brewery sends it out, the most recent being in December 2010, with around 1000 cases going produced. The beer is a Bourbon Barrel Aged Russian Imperial Stout (a mouthful in both a literal and figurative sense), and is pretty highly rated on BeerAdvocate and RateBeer. A Russian Imperial Stout usually has a pretty high ABV and dates to the 1800′s, when brewers tried to win over the Russian Czar. Called the king of stouts, they normally boast low to moderate levels of carbonation with huge roasted, chocolate and burnt malt flavors and are often dry.
The Bourbon Barrel Aging is what makes this one so interesting. They brew the stout, and age it for, I believe, four months in barrels previously used to age Bourbon. It normally results in a pretty heavy Bourbon taste and smell effect, but also leaves behind some vanilla or woody hints from the actual wood of the barrel. Something it can be overwhelming, and completely hide the beer. However, this is not the case with Brooklyn Black OPS, which is a beer with some hints of Bourbon.
Now to the review. The pour is of absolute darkness, nice brown head stays around for just a little bit. Head doesn’t get any darker than this one. Still trying to properly pin down the smell, which has a slight roastiness, minimal bourbon, almost a sweet woodiness with some hints of alcohol. Really interesting. Roasted malt heaviness up front on the taste, vanilla woodiness to follow. Really amazed at how little the bourbon comes through, it’s more prominent the more I drink it at the end. Very well balanced. Heavy and creamy, and nice bite of carbonation. Really drinkable, tried this one directly after Victory Dark Intrigue, which is another bourbon aged russian imperial stout, Black OPS was the clear winner.
.@ is playing Miles Davis and serving Dogfish Head's Bitches Brew. Good music, good beer, good friends I concur, it was delicious. Gotta love Zeno’s Beerfests!
Last night my beloved Steelers held off a furious second half comeback from the Jets to win their Eighth AFC Championship 24-19, and are now looking to add to their NFL best 6 Super Bowl titles. The best part of this game for me? That I went.
I’m not going to recap the game, or talk smack on the Jets, I just wanted to share some thoughts now that I am almost a day removed from kickoff. It was definitely the coldest game I have ever attended. I was told the wind chill was 4 degrees, but I know it dipped down below 0 at some points. It is closely rivaled by the 2009 Penn State vs. Michigan State game in Beaver Stadium, which Penn State won and earned the right to lose to Mark Sanchez in the Rose Bowl, the same quarterback the Steelers held off yesterday. It was the largest crowd in Heinz Field history, 66,662 in total. I was also at the largest crowd in Beaver Stadium history, when Penn State rocked a top 20 Nebraska team in front of 110,753 people in 2002. Watching Franco Harris and Rocky Bleier hand the trophy to Rooney, Tomlin and Roethlisberger was really worth the price of admission (which is really saying something).
While I won’t be traveling to the Super Bowl, I will certainly be glued to my TV two weeks from now, let the waiting begin!
Here we go, Steelers, here we go! Pittsburgh’s going to the Super Bowl!
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The Allagash Brewing Company was founded in 1994 in Portland, Maine. They brew a variety of traditional and experimental Belgian beers, using a unique style. All of the bottled beers at Allagash are bottle conditioned. From their website:
Prior to bottling, a fresh dose of yeast is added, along with a measured amount of Candi Sugar. After bottling, the beers are moved into a temperature controlled cellar, where the yeast will actually begin a new fermentation in the bottle. This new fermentation naturally carbonates the beer, and greatly enhances the traditional Belgian character.
Another trademark of Allagash is barrel aging their beers. This is a concept I will revisit, but basically it means that they brew a beer like they always would, but then they place it in barrels (Bourbon is a popular one) and age it for anywhere from a few months to a few years. This changes the character of the beer completely. It normally brings out tastes of wood, vanilla, or whichever liquor (or wine) barrel it is aged it. It is really experimental, but normally comes out tasting great.
The style I chose this week is a Tripel, which holds some of my favorite beers (La Fin du Monde and Victory Golden Monkey). It is traditionally Belgian, and is very sweet and light, but has a high ABV. Most of the time, you can’t even tell you’re drinking alcohol, which isn’t necessarily a good thing. This one has a hazy yellow pour with a small white head. The head sticks around for a while and laces nicely. When I smell it, I get Belgian yeast, candied sugar, and bananas. Perhaps a bit of orange also, really interesting smell. Taste is sweet up front, most likely the fruits, banana and orange. A warming boozy feeling persists throughout the entire drink. The finish and body is light and crisp, very refreshing overall. The warming alcohol taste leaves a nice warning of the high ABV. I only wish I had more access to Allagash brews!
The Huyghe Brewery, or Brouwerij Huyghe, was founded in 1906 in Belgium. During the First World War, it was one of several breweries that had to give their copper to the war effort, and production halted. The brewery, however, re-started production, and in 1989 created what is now their most famous concoction: Delirium Tremens. This is, however, not the beer I am looking at this week. I have chosen, instead, Delirium Nocturnum, a Belgian Strong Dark Ale. This style is really complex, and the alcohol, while high (8.5% ABV in this one), can either be hidden or right in your face. It differs from Tremens, which is a Tripel, in that Nocturnum is much darker.
I got this beer over Christmas break at D’s Six Pax & Dogz. The elephant used by the Delirium brewery really caught my eye, and I had been wanting to try one of the Delirium line. The style is a Belgian Strong Dark Ale, which leads me to expect full dark flavors and a higher ABV. This one pours very dark with a creamy two finger head, boasting nice retention and lacing down the side of the glass. The smell was pretty simple for me, it starts with dark fruits, and ends with alcohol. The taste is where this one really stands out. It has dark fruits up font with some nice candied sugar, followed by the warming alcohol. Extremely well balanced. Medium bodied with a nice tinge of carbonation. The thought I kept coming back to was that this beer is really drinkable, and tastes great. I really enjoyed this one.
Admittedly, 52 Beers in 52 Weeks is a much less ambitious way of accomplishing the popular 365 Beers in 365 Days (or a more ambitious way to complete 12 Beers in 12 Months, depends on how you looks at it). I am at about one year of drinking “craft” beer, and wanted to write a little more about it. The concept is simple: Once a week I will create a post based on one of the beers I drink. We’ll see where it goes from there. For more information, you can find me on BeerAdvocate and on RateBeer. Hope to see you again soon!
Since it was founded in 1398 the Priory of Corsendonk, which can be found in present day Oud-Turnhout in Belgium, has housed an important brewery, Brouwerij Corsendonk. It is from this brewery that we find today’s beer, the Corsendonk Christmas Ale. While the grounds of the priory were auctioned off in 1784, the beers were re-introduced to the world in 1982 through the Keersmaekers firm, and the tradition of the Abbey has carried on. I have found that monks create the best beers (or at least the beers that my palate constantly begs for), but more will be written on that in further posts. The Christmas Ale is not my first attempt at this brewery as I have had the Abbey Brown Ale before, which was very good. So, this one has a lot to live up to. This beer is specifically brewed in November, and ends in January or February.
I got this beer in a gift pack from the State College Wegmans, which came with 6 11.2oz bottles and a nice Corsendonk Christmas Ale goblet. The style is a Belgian Strong Dark Ale, which leads me to expect full dark flavors and a higher ABV. The beer pours with a nice large, foamy off white head with nice retention and lacing. Brown in color with hints of red. The smell is of a caramel maltiness, with a nice addition of spice. Dark fruits with a malty backbone and a bit of caramel and roastiness on the taste. Just a hint of warming alcohol finishes it off, which isn’t surprising giving the 8.5% ABV. Medium bodied and a dry finish, not much carbonation noted. This is very refreshing. I don’t particularly enjoy winter beers, but this is finally one I can get behind! I’m glad the gift pack came with 6.
So, it has been a while since I last updated the progress on IST THON and I figured that today, being the last day home for break, is my last chance. For some background, here is my original post. Since August, we have been on a whirlwind of hosting fundraisers, going canning, and soliciting donations for our org. If you remember correctly, our goal was $10,000, and if you continue reading, I have some good news. Read the rest of this entry
