CS Booze Club.

[Victory Sabre]

Ok, back to the Snow Slush

Taste: it's got a nice deep, rich flavor. Hints of chocolate are in the beer. This is a good beer to warm you up on a cold winter night. It's a good 6 out of 10.

I should take the other bottles of it out of the fridge.

[Victory Sabre]

Stone Arch Grand Cru 2015

A Bourbon Barrel aged beer.

There is no head, and, like the 2013, it has a nice amber color to it.

Taste: oh, hell, tis is good! It has a nice smooth flavor going down. It isn't as complex as the 2013, but in time it would be. Damn, this a top notch beer. If you're in Appleton Wisconsin, drink this beer. Get a growler of it, if it's still available on tap, and take it home to enjoy. As with the 2013, it gets an 8 out of 10.

I will be sad when the growler is empty.

[Jester]

Had an entire review of a beer wiped out by my iPad. Gonna have to reconstruct it from memory. Damn iPad.

From Robinsons Brewery in England, it's Iron Maiden Trooper beer (4.7% ABV). Yes, it's done in honor of the band. And yes, the label is as ridiculous (which is to say as awesome) as the band's album covers, with their mascot, Eddie (a corpse or skeleton, depending on your view) dressed as a charging British soldier. But what about the beer?

Reddish orange in color, with a subtle, sweet, somewhat pleasant nose. The taste is decent, but ultimately forgettable. Just a hair above average. 5.5. It good when the label is better than the beer, friends.

I should take the other bottles of it out of the fridge.

Not necessarily. Just because the brewery says it should be drank at room temp doesn't mean you have to do it. I would try one at room temp, as you have, and one chilled, and see what you think of each. Or you could take one out of the fridge, open it, try half chilled, and let the other half warm up. Either way, experiment with it. And don't always take what a brewery tells you as gospel.

[Victory Sabre]

I did leave one of the Snow Slush beers in the fridge, and will try it cold to see which way I like better.

So, I'm watching some political BS, so I need a beer to tolerate it

Central Waters Brewing Bourbon Barrel Stout 2014.

And the BS is getting deeper, so I'd better get into it fast.

It's pouring like motor oil, so a good sign, and it's pitch black, pitch black as my heart is becoming. It has a little bit of head, that is sticking around. I get a nice nose with it. I get hints of the barrel.

Taste: Oh, wow! This is awesome! This is beyond awesome. You get the barrel aging in the flavor. So delicious. Damn! I think this might even beat the Stone Arch beers, and that's a very high standard. 8.5 out of 10.

Now back to the BS, and beer to tolerate it.

[Jester]

To paraphrase Richard Dreyfus, you're gonna need a bigger beer.

[Victory Sabre]

B-Craft Black Double IPA from Arcadia Brewing 8.5% ABV

Nice black color with an extremely thick head. I get hints of hops in the nose, and froth on my nose from smelling it.

Taste : when you get through the foam, you get a nice bite from the hops. It is in the forefront of the taste. In all honesty, it really is all you get. I really don't get much more than that, I'm afraid. I was hoping for more from this.

4.5 out of 10.

[Victory Sabre]

Alaskan Imperial Red -8.5 % ABV

nice dark amber color to it, with some head. I get a little bit of a nose, but not much.

Taste : bland. Sreiously, bland. The only redeeming quality is there is a bit of hops in the aftertaste. A downright boring beer. I would not recommend it unless you get it cheap. 3 out of 10, but only because it didn't taste bad.

[KiaKat]

Working out a new cocktail, but it's still missing something.

It's a variation on a Sazarac. Rye base, shaken with genapy (Alpine herbal liqueur) and an anise-orange simpe syrup. Chill glass, wash with Besk (a wormwood liqueur made by Letherbee in Chicago), strain rye mixture and garnish with crushed sorrel. I've tried it with dry-shaken egg whites, reducing the syrup, using a dry vermouth instead of the genapy... It's just too sweet. It needs a balancing factor, something to mimic the bite of the real thing. The flavours are all correct, it's just the structural balance.

Acid: check
Tannin: check
Alcohol: not present enough
Sugar: too present
Citrus: just right
Spice: just right
Bitter: just right
Green: just right

Argh!

[Jester]

Some ideas to try:

Change the rye and/or increase the proportion of rye.

Add bitters, either regular bitters or perhaps orange bitters.

Add an orange twist.

[KiaKat]

I thought about the bitters. My only concern is that the Besk is already extremely bitter and fills that role. Maybe if I use Peychauds instead of Bitter Truth, that won't be a problem.

Good thought on the rye. I'm using High West right now, if I swap for Rittenhouse, that might work.

The twist would have to be alongside the sorrel. I love the flavour of the lemony-green brightness.

Will try and report back!

[Victory Sabre]

Summit Frost Line Rye

Dark amber colored with a frothy head. there is a somewhat sweet head to it.

taste: this is an interesting beer. I don't have much experience with rye beers so this is new to me. It is hard to describe. I do get some hops in the beer. I like it and will give it a 6 out of 10.

[Victory Sabre]

Central Waters Satin Solitude Imperial Stout

Black as gravekeeper's heart. Miniminal head on it. There is a slight mose to it.

Taste: interesting. It's flavor is unique. Strange also. Hard to pin down. You can tell that it is a strong beer while drinling it. I'm not sure I like it. Yeah, it really doesn't sit well with me. I will have to give it a 3 out of 10

[Jester]

I thought about the bitters. My only concern is that the Besk is already extremely bitter and fills that role. Maybe if I use Peychauds instead of Bitter Truth, that won't be a problem.

Good thought on the rye. I'm using High West right now, if I swap for Rittenhouse, that might work.

The average bitters are not actually bitter, per se. I'm not familiar with Bitter Truth, but generally bitters are considered the "salt" of cocktails, something used to wake the flavor up. This is generally true of Peychaud's, but you may have more experience with bitters than I.

As for the rye, not really familiar with ryes, either, but oftentimes in a cocktail, changing the main spirit from one brand or style to another can make all the difference. I know it is true with rum, and I've seen it with tequila and whiskey as well, and I suppose it probably is also true with vodka and gin (I only drink vodka in a Bloody Mary, and I loathe gin), so it makes sense that the same would hold true with rye. It's not always even about quality...sometimes just the different flavor makes a huge difference. I love Woodford Reserve, for example, but as great as it is, if I'm making a Lynchburg Lemonade, I'm gonna want Jack Daniels over Woodford or anyhing else every single time.

[Jester]

Cigar City Warmer Winter Winter Warmer. No, that is not a typo or autocorrect, that is the actual name of the beer. Out of Tampa's brilliant Cigar City Brewing, this is their winter warmer style beer "brewed for the 2014-2015 Florida winter." With the northeast getting pounded by some actual winter, this seemed to be a semi-appropriate beer to enjoy this evening. And it comes in a big bomber bottle (22 oz), and at 10.0% ABV, it will certainly make for a healthy nightcap.

Color is a dark caramel brown with a hint of red, and a thick, fluffy off-white head. Nose is slightly malty, with a hint of some kind of spices. Taste is a bit sweet, in the way of Belgian style beers, with a hint of maltiness and some suggestions of winter spices. It's okay, I guess, and definitely distinctive in its taste, but nothing I can get overly excited about.

I have a love-hate relationship with winter beers, as some I love, and some I hate. One of the worst I ever had was, oddly enough, by Cigar City, a previous winter disaster they called Sugar Plum. One of the few beers I've ever poured down the sink halfway through. This CCWWWW is better than the CCSP, but that is not a very high bar, to be perfectly honest. To be fair, the CCWWWW is not awful, and not even really bad, just not particularly that good, or that much to my liking. I'll finish it, unlike the dreaded Sugar Plum, but I can only score it a 5.5, and I may be being too generous with that. End result: drinkable, but not worth the $15 I dropped on it.

[sms001]

Just a quickie.

B-i-L was up from Chicago last night and we dropped in to a local that features a lot of area micros on tap. He asked for a Makers shot and (just off the top of his head, and to not spend time mulling things over) a Budweiser. SUPER perky bartender didn't miss a beat "Sorry, we don't have any swillys, but a <didn't catch the name> blonde would probably go well with that shot." He said fine, and she set him up and plopped an extra shot glass down and matched his Makers.

Loved the attitude, loved the knowledgeable suggestion, but REALLY loved the understated but slightly snarky term "swillys" as a generic for lcd macros. Going in my lexicon.