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DEATH BACKLASH BEER COMPANY IMPERIAL STOUT

10/29/2015

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Backlash is a funky little brewery. Founded in July 2011, they contract brew at Paper City Brewery in Holyoke. But, day-to-day, you'll find them at their headquarters in Boston. You gotta love their viewpoint: "We brew beer the way it was intended to be brewed- flavorful, gimmick free, and not produced in ridiculous quantities. We know you're not impressed by spiral necked bottles or labels that change colors when they're so cold you can no longer taste their contents. You have hands (probably). You're familiar with how temperature works (...right?)" How can you not love these guts?

Death is the fourth and final installment in their Apocalypse Series. This Russian Imperial stout pours black as night with a big (count 'em, almost four fingers) rich khaki head. The nose is chocolate, coffee, and roasted barley with a nice hint of bitterness at the end. This is not a small beer, weighing in with a hefty 9.5% ABV, but it goes down pretty easy. A very good example of this style. 

Review originally printed in The Handbook of Porters and Stouts

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ALASKAN BALTIC PORTER ALE 

10/23/2015

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Alaskan Brewing is known for its Smoked Porter, and why not? The beer's won more golds than Michael Phelps, impressing so many judges that they've basically made it the standard by which all other smoked porters are judged. However, there is another porter that flows down like oil on a pipeline from the land of Seward's Folly that's bigger, better, bolder, and Baltic. 

Baltic porter is a traditional style that was developed by the British in the 1800s for export to their buddies in the Russian court. I hear you can see Russia from Juneau, thus Alaskan is the perfect brewery to lead the way with this style. They make theirs with dark cherries, brown sugar, and hand-scraped vanilla beans before extended aging on chips of toasted French oak. 

The Baltic porter is an interesting breed because although it's a porter in name and flavor, meaning they're brewed with a strain of yeast that ferments for longer periods at colder temperatures; this contributes a cleaner, crisper flavor to the brew. 

Pour Alaskan Baltic Porter Ale into a snifter. From afar, the deep burgundy liquid seems to pulse with darkness, yet holding it to the light reveals surprising clarity. Big, cocoa powder-colored bubbles crackle and pop. 

As you take in the aroma, you may picture a large plate precariously balanced on a stick. On the end there are piles of dark chocolate and maraschino cherry syrup; on the other, buttery oak. French vanilla ice cream, cocoa nibs, and high-proof brandy take up whatever space is left at the edges. Alaskan Baltic Porter is that plate. The proportions of the ingredients are perfect, keeping the plate perfectly balanced. It doesn't get better than this. 

In the flavor, sugary dark fruits, unmasked alcohol, and vanilla combine to give the beer an almost bourbon-aged quality. Brown sugar, milk chocolate, and dark sweet cherries are also there, and a smooth smokiness permeates the background. A complain would be that the malts are a little too thin to support the adjuncts and could be kicked up a notch. The body, however, is a silk blanket. Soft carbonation tingles the tongue inside the supples liquid while ethanol heat warms the nostrils and throat. 


Review originally printed in The Handbook of Porters and Stouts 

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TROEGS JAVA HEAD STOUT

10/16/2015

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It's not a common notion that a coffee stout could or should be deliberately hoppy (hoppy, not bitter; there's a different). But this seems to be the idea behind Troeg's Java Head, a coffee stout with a prominent hop character. It has an opaque black to dark-brown body and forms a dark tan frothy head that laces and retains very well. There is a prominent stout atoms of roasted barley and subtle chocolate and coffee notes but also a surprising hop presence of citrus and pine. 

Strong citrusy bitterness is the first thing to hit the plate, making this brew very reminiscent of a classic American IPA. Through the middle there is a smooth, silky, slightly sweet stout taste of roasted barley and a quick kick of coffee flavor. As it finishes, there's a dank resiny character that brings the palate back full circle to the original hoppy character, but this time it's piney instead of citrusy. The aftertaste is surprisingly clean even though this beer has both big-time hops (60 IBU) and coffee in it. 

What was most surprising was that it had been bottled nine months earlier yet the hops had not faded at all. In fact, the coffee and stronger stout qualities may have succumbed a bit to age. There was a layer of goo at the bottom of the bottle, so perhaps this beer is bottle-conditioned; this could partially explain why it kept so well for so long. 

This brew has pretty much the perfect amount of mouthfeel and drinking experience for a beer of this nature. Not thick and viscous and far from water, Troegs Java Head has a medium body and a perfect carbonation level. It's not quite velvety but closer to silky, and it goes down extremely smooth. At 7.5% ABV it's not nearly as heavy as that number would indicate. Most drinkers could put away two 12-ounce bottles or a single 22-ounce bomber by themselves without any trouble
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Review originally printed in the Handbook of Porters and Stouts

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FUNKY BUDDHA MAPLE BACON COFFEE PORTER

10/8/2015

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There's nothing like a breakfast at a dinner, and that's kind of like what you get in a glass of Maple Bacon Coffee Porter. It's a complex beer with a multitude of flavors at play. It pours opaque black, brown with a frothy, khaki head. Aromas of spicy, grade B maple syrup, coffee, and cream flow out of the glass. It is thinner than you might be expecting given the aromas, but it's still rich and creamy, and the mouthfeel is big and filling. Waves of sweet malt, toffee, and roast waft off the glass, and is that a hint of smoke? The maple syrup flavor pleasantly lingers. This is a fantastic, world-class beer. 

Review originally printed in The Handbook of Porters and Stouts​
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ALLAGASH BLACK

10/1/2015

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Compared with the British isles and the Baltic states, there's little history of Belgian takes on stouts and porters. Rather than a peerless take on the style, Belgian-style stouts usually combine the roasted dark chocolate flavors of an English or American stouts with the spicy notes of a Belgian yeast and the sweetness of candi sugar. It's a style that's a great example of how Old World and New World brewing can combine to create something new and exciting. 

It's little surprise that one of the best examples of this hybrid style comes from Portland's Allagash Brewing. The Maine-based brewery helped popularize Belgian-style beers in the United States, and over the last few decades it has steadily expanded its catalog to include more and more styles. Its take on a Belgian-style stout, brewed with barley, wheat, roasted and chocolate malt, and caramelized candi sugar, debuted in 2007. 

The opaque brew's intercontinental aspects play off one another perfectly at 7.5% ABV. Roast malt and caramel combine pleasantly on the nose, backed by subtle spice. The flavor is a complex trip, starting with coffee up front before coming around to a mocha finish. The oats used in the recipe provide a silky smoothness not unlike an oatmeal stout. Allagash occasionally puts out a bourbon barrel-aged version of Black, which adds wonderful oak and vanilla (not to mention whiskey) flavors to an already pleasant  package. 


Review originally printed in The Handbook of Porters and Stouts 

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