Archive for February, 2010
Laphroaig 10-Year Cask Strength
For me, Laphroaig will always represent the most elemental aspects of whisky that first blew my mind several years back when I was just getting to know scotch. It was the first crazily smoky, peaty whisky that I drank, and the first cask strength too. On both accounts, my palate was altered for good, and to this day I’m still not sure if it was for the better!
It’s with good reason that each bottle of Laphroaig carries the seal of the Prince of Wales himself, as this is no ordinary whisky:
By appointment to HRH [His Royal Highness] the Prince of Wales, distiller and supplier of single malt Scotch whisky, D. Johnston & Co., (Laphroaig) Isle of Islay.
I still remember giving my mother a taste of Laphroaig 10, and hearing her horrified remark that it tasted like someone had filled her mouth with charcoal. Definitely not everyone’s cup of tea, or whisky for that matter. Laphroaig is one that you have to adapt to and be ready for, not the other way around. In contrast to many whiskies, Laphroaig is an uncompromising malt. It’s really love it or leave it.
The 10-year cask strength embodies the Laphroaig character more so than any of their other bottlings. Bottled at 55.7%, it captures Laphroaig at the height of its youthful exuberance. It’s tempestuous and fiery, and threatens to knock you around a bit if you’re not ready for it. It’s the deepest night compared to its more mild-mannered 10-year old non-cask-strength sibling.
The whisky pours reddish gold with tight beads. Leaping out of the glass is that characteristic Laphroaig smoke, reminiscent of a smoldering woodfire. The briny smoke dominates the nose, with undercurrents of burnt caramel and seaweed thrown in for good measure. The palate leads off with mouth coating sweetness, followed by waves of peat smoke and char. The flavors then swing back round to caramel, bits of toffee, and sweet bready flavors. The whisky is medium bodied, not as thickly textured as some cask strengths are, with bracing, hot alcohol. To really experience it to the full, it definitely asks to be toned down. In fact, adding water really brings out the smokiness in the palate. The finish has a lingering bit of smoke, burnt sugar, and custard, warming and sweet.
Overall impression: very tasty, and great for sipping while sitting in front of a fire. Hot from the alcohol, but much more pleasant after toned down with water. Definitely for the lover of smoky whiskies, who can stand up to the brutish challenge brought on by the cask-strength bottling.
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People’s Pint Imperial Stout 2009
I have a soft spot in my heart for the People’s Pint, the little brewpub located in Greenfield, Mass. that I first discovered many (many) years ago when I was an undergrad out in the Pioneer Valley. The local beer scene was really just taking shape then, and I loved the People’s Pint’s combination of good food, relaxing atmosphere, and reliably good beer.
I moved out of the area a while back, and my last couple of visits haven’t been as fulfilling as my previous ones, even owing to the vagaries of memory. I still thought the food was good, and the atmosphere nice, but the beer was a bit of a let-down. On each occasion I’ve been there in the last couple of years, the beer was really just ok. Some pints seemed a bit low on carbonation, even for English styles, and others just lacked a real zip of flavor and personality. But hey, I’m happy to give them a pass, since I’ve only been able to go on a couple of occasions in a long time, and have many more happy memories than disappointing ones.
The People’s Pint brews all English-style beers, including a bitter, oatmeal stout, and IPA. They offer a couple of winter seasonals as well. This is the first time that I’ve ever seen their imperial stout in a shop before, and I’ve never had it on draft either, and so it seemed like a great time to give it a go. Like I said, that soft spot in my heart really spoke up and insisted on giving this beer a try.
Information on this beer is tough to track down. It’s brewed to an original gravity of 1.110, finishes at 9.2% and has 100 IBUs. The label looks like it was printed on a laser printer (nothing wrong with that from a small, local brewery) and has the year the beer was made (2009), and the bottle number hand-written on it (#233 – no indication how many bottles in total).
It pours jet black, lightening to a hint of rusty brown at the edges. A thin wispy tan head rose to the top but didn’t last long, leaving just a trace behind. The nose has notes of cocoa, coffee, chocolate covered raisins, and a whiff of smoke. Subtle overall, but pleasant and inviting. The palate has a warming, soft texture with delicate carbonation. Flavors of chewy black licorice, roasted malt, and milk chocolate are most prominent, with just a faint note of bitterness. On the whole, the palate’s not as sweet as the nose, a bit more earthy and restrained. The finish opens up with a surprising amount hop bitterness that takes a bit to fade, giving way to lingering notes of coffee and cocoa.
A good, well put-together imperial stout. Nice combination of flavors, good texture. A bit bitter on the finish, but I liked how it then segued to the coffee and cocoa flavors. I’d love to try this on draft sometime, and it goes without saying that tasting this made me look forward to my next visit to the People’s Pint. It’s been a long time since I was last there, maybe a year and a half, and I hope to be able to go again before too much more time has passed. If you’re nearby be sure to stop, and try the turkey burger with cheddar cheese, always my favorite sandwich there. The desserts are always very good too.
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Founders Brewing Co. Old Curmudgeon
Lately, I’ve been been mulling over the phenomena that Founders Brewing Company’s beers have become. Myself, I only really discovered their wares last year, in the fall of 2008. That was when I first tried their Breakfast Stout, and I never really looked back. Since then I’ve tried most any beer from them that I’ve found, worked hard to get my hands on a 4-pack of the Kentucky Breakfast Stout, and am already looking forward to trying some of their newer beers at the upcoming Extreme Beer Fest.
But what’s really caught my attention has been the overwhelming response to their newest beer, Nemesis, a wheat wine aged in bourbon barrels for 9 months. I first saw this announced a couple of weeks ago, although rumors about it have been bouncing about for a while now. Since the announcement of its imminent release, the hype-driven beer culture has gone into full-swing, and more forum posts, news items, etc. have been posted about this beer than I would have imagined, despite it not even being released yet.
I don’t mean to sound curmudgeonly (an awful joke, I know). I’d love the chance to try Nemesis once it’s been released. Whether I’ll be able to, given the high-demand it’s sure to be in, is anyone’s guess.
But here’s the thing, I’m not sure that I’m really so amped to take part in the running around to try and find some of this beer in a shop. I’m sure the beer will be great, perhaps even mind-blowingly incredible. But I think there are three reasons my hesitance:
- My fridge is full of so many good beers right now, some that we still haven’t gotten to from our trip out West, and I’m finding it hard to get super-excited about chasing down something else new.
- Even when I do go to the shop nowadays, there is such a plethora of exciting beers I haven’t tried, and none involve me running around and calling shops like a nut-case.
- Founders themselves are to blame! Their beers are all so good, and some are outright incredible, and while they may not all be barrel-aged wheat wines, they’re super tasty, and much easier to find.
Focusing on reason #3, we can take this bottle of Old Curmudgeon as perfect evidence. Here is a beer that hasn’t been too hard to find hereabouts, and comes in fair-priced 4-packs, as with most of Founders beers. I picked up a 4-pack of it while looking for American-brewed examples of Old Ales, and was surprised to find out when I got it home that it’s also aged in bourbon barrels. Given my unending appreciation for beers aged in bourbon barrels, this was a real coup.
Old Curmudgeon is one of Founders’ seasonal beers, released in late fall/early winter each year. It’s brewed to a final ABV of 9.8% with 50 IBUs alongside. Interestingly, it’s brewed using molasses, in addition to a pretty big malt bill.
A vigorous pour yields a thin head that quickly dissipates, leaving little trace on top of the beer. The color is amber-orange, hazy and nearly opaque. It’s mesmerizing to watch just how slowly the bubbles rise to the surface, like they have to force their way up through the beer. The nose is rich and heady, with notes of caramel, mesquite honey, bourbon, and deep malty flavors. The flavors on the palate are similar, bringing caramel, viscous, syrupy, bready malt, vanilla, bourbon, and smoky honey, with the addition of a subtle hop flavor and bitterness. Very thick and velvety texture, with just a prickling carbonation. The finish has flavors of bready malt, caramel, and bourbon, with no hop flavor but a lingering hop bitterness. Very long, finish punctuated with flavors of bourbon-soaked raisins.
Wow, this is a rich, decadent, dessert-in-a-glass kind of beer. Very enjoyable, but one glass really did it for me. All in all, the flavors just avoided being cloying, instead really leaving your palate coated with layers of rich, warm, sugars. Definitely give it a try, as long as you’re a big fan of bourbon barrel-aged beers.
*Note: despite my detailed explanation of why I won’t be running around trying to find a 4-pack of Nemesis when it comes out, I wouldn’t even be remotely surprised to find myself doing that. In fact, I most likely am guaranteed to do just that, simply because I wrote this post explaining why I won’t…
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