Goose Island Night Stalker

I opened another Goose Island beer this weekend that has been knocking around my beer cupboard for a while, this time it was Night Stalker. It's nice big imperial stout at 11.7% that is unmercifully hopped with Mt Hood and Simcoe, producing a nice strong 60 IBU. It also has an identical malt profile to Bourbon County Brand Stout and its variations (2-Row, Munich, Chocolate, Caramel, Roast Barley, Debittered Black). Additionally, instead of aging it in bourbon barrels as the Bourbon County Brand Stout is, this is dry hopped to within an inch of its life, creating a quite different beer.

The bottle I'm drinking was bottled on 6th March 2010, so it has had a good year to mature.

It's thick and viscous, as you would expect from an imperial stout, with a striking deep black colour, and a substantial fluffy tan head. Quite a hoppy smell, maybe some passion fruit, but mainly a rich earthy stout aroma, lots of dark chocolate and coffee, along with a mild nuttiness. The taste is an assault of bitterness with strong espresso coffee, and a potent hoppiness. It finishes with a lingering bitter aftertaste but with a slightly fruity edge, like grapefruit. The alcohol is quite prominent in the taste also. It's a creamy thick full-bodied stout, and feels quite lightly carbonated but it's just about right.

This is definitely an American Imperial Stout, and one for the hop heads. I prefer my stouts with a little less of a homicidal bitterness to them but this is still a great beer and worth getting your hands on. It is interesting just how much more bitter this tastes compared to the Bourbon County Brand Stouts, considering the identical 60 IBU. I guess it's all in the hops.

Stella...Black?

Spotted Stella Black in a local pub on Friday night, and again couldn't stop myself from trying it. It has been knocking around for about a year now, and I wanted it to be good, I wanted it to be a legitimate attempt to make a better, premium beer (unlike Fosters Gold in my previous post), which was a cut above the standard Stella lager that supermarkets and pubs are a wash with.

So, if you don't already know about Stella Black, it's a 4.9% lager brewed exclusively at the Leuven brewery in Belgium and imported to the UK and elsewhere. It's brewed with Saaz hops, orange peel and coriander seeds. Interestingly, A-B InBev stated that it intended to keep it as a more exclusive beer and only distribute to a few hand-selected outlets. And most importantly, even though it is called Stella Black, it is a normal golden lager, and not black, as the name would suggest.

The glasses are sleek and stylish, as is pretty much everything to do with the presentation and advertising of the beer, unfortunately the beer itself does not follow suit. The best way I can describe it is empty, it lacked any sort of substance or body, it felt like there was the potential to be more but the taste was just out of reach. There was some very light citrusy flavours along with a mild spiciness but this never manages to materialise into anything more than a passing hint, while a bread-like maltiness hovered in the background throughout. It's cold, it's drinkable, and in the end it is just another run of the mill commercial lager but you have to appreciate that the intention to do something different was almost there. Would be interesting to see how it stands up to some spicy food though, it may compliment and bring out the flavours in the beer more but I don't think a curry house beer is the image that A-B InBev were shooting for here but then again I don't really think they knew what they wanted.

As I said before, I wanted it to be good, and although it wasn't horrific, it wasn't anything that I would buy again. In just over a year, as far as I can see, it hasn't managed to establish itself in an already overpopulated sector of the beer market, of which the Stella brand have two beers anyway, and no amount of marketing or fancy names is going to change that. The poor choice of target market and misleading name is discussed with much more elegance and depth in one of Pete Brown's old blogs here, and Melissa Cole's blog here.

I know it has been around for a while now but last Friday was the first time I've actually seen it at a pub or anywhere for that matter. Thankfully though, Moor's brilliant Northern Star was on as well as Camden's Inner City Green, so I managed to survive the evening.

I will endeavor to not bitch about crap beer in my next post, I promise.

Fosters Gold: Your New Trusty Wingman

Unfortunately for me, my overactive curiosity didn't allow me to walk past a new beer in my local Sainsbury's this weekend, which resulted in me buying a six pack of Fosters Gold. I knew it was going to be shit, there was no other way it could possibly turn out but I just couldn't stop myself. I paid £5 for six bottle in a sleekly designed and branded little carry pack, which the American market heavily favour but we, in my opinion, don't use enough over here.

The most exciting thing is clearly going to be the multi-squillion pound marketing campaign that the European distributors Heineken are poised to ram down our necks over the next few months, which will feature none other than ex-neighbours pop flop Holly Valance who has rumoured to have been signed up for a series of ads also featuring Brad and Dan, from the recent "good call" Fosters ads that have been in some cases quite funny.

My favourite of all the quotes I found about Gold so far is "It's a pulling partner. It's saying, 'I'm not cheap, and I'm not a lager lout'.", from Richard Buchanan of branding agency The Clearing. So, basically Fosters Gold has been released to make lads look classy and help them pull at BBQ's. Awesome!

Anyway, most importantly, what about the beer itself? Well it's 4.8%, so it's stronger than your regular Fosters, which is 4%. Does this extra kick of alcohol help it taste a bit more like beer than its predecessor? Does it bollocks. The beer is your typical watery fizzy lager, with literally no aroma at all, and a slightly sweet syrupy taste, followed by a weak attempt at bitterness towards the end. All in all there isn't much to it apart from the cool carry case and the fact that it will guarantee you hot action with some classy ladies.

Then I figured to fully appreciate the beer I should taste it alongside regular fosters, so I nipped back to the shop and got myself a lovely four-pack of regular Fosters. First thing I noticed is that the Gold is a little lighter than the original in colour, and the head is lighter too. The aroma from the original fosters is actually stronger than the new Gold, with a noticeable malty presence that you don't get in its "classy" sibling, which is relatively mute when it comes to the smell. The taste in the original is very similar to the gold but just cranked up a notch, leaving me to conclude that Fosters Gold is more watery in the taste than normal Fosters lager, even with the extra alcohol content. Carbonation seems slightly finer in the Gold and head retention is slightly better but I'm not entirely sure whether this is down to the beer or the whole bottle vs can debate. So, I'd probably rate it below the original, and cheaper Fosters. Crikey! (sorry).

The reason behind the release of this beer is apparently to help make good impressions at social occasions, where cans of fosters would be seen as a bit loutish. This is all well and good, and they may have spent millions on creating a "classy" brand, with a slick clear embossed bottle, but ultimately Fosters have still urinated into these elegant bottles and you will have to drink it when you get to your mates BBQ. So, you will basically be paying to see Brad and Dan perving over Holly Valance in what will clearly be a grossly over exposed advert (albeit, probably quite funny), and possibly some witty billboards following the same lines created by some overpaid marketing bellend. What you are definitely not paying for is a better beer.

Probably the most painful thing about this whole Gold crap, is the fact that it will likely end up selling really well and people will drink it in their masses. Marketing is the devil!

Bourbon County Brand Coffee Stout

Tonight I decided I would finally open a beer that I have been holding for a while now, that beer being Goose Island's Bourbon County Brand Coffee Stout. In the past I have had their original Bourbon County Brand Stout and the vanilla version, and loved them both. So, I expected something special from their coffee brewed variation.

The version I am drinking is the 2010 release which is brewed with Intelligentsia Black Cat Espresso, from Intelligentsia Coffee and Tea, which is situated right next door to the brewery in Chicago, and I gather is pretty kick ass in its own right. Interestingly, the 2011 release is brewed with Intelligentsia Los Inmortales Beans, so I'd love to get my hands on one of these to see the difference. Anyway, the beer is a bourbon barrel-aged imperial stout, weighing in a 13% and an IBU of 60. It's brewed with Williamette hops and a whole host of different malts (2-Row, Munich, Chocolate, Caramel, Roast Barley, Debittered Black).

Mine was bottled on 26th March 2010, which means it's about a year and a quarter old, so has had plenty of time to mature, although they do claim it develops for up to five years in the bottle (mine has probably had less than perfect cellaring conditions though).

It pours a thick black, with a good half inch creamy mocha head, however this fades quickly to leave a slight ring. It looks pretty well carbonated and lively, with a constant stream of fine bubbles. The first thing that hit me was the bourbon, the smell is strong boozy bourbon with lots of woody vanilla. I got a bit of that roasted coffee bean smell but it is much more subtle than I was expecting. The first taste was a bitter dark chocolate, with the same heavily booze bourbon that was on the nose. Towards the end the coffee begins to assert itself with a fairly mellow medium bitter taste. There is definitely some vanilla sweetness in there and a slight toffee flavour. It produces a nice warming whisky-like alcohol finish, which I find the best part of all the Bourbon County Brand Stouts.

For a 13% beer it is very drinkable, and hides the alcohol well in the flavours. Will certainly be looking to get my hands on the 2011 release, as well as their Bourbon County Rare, which as the name suggests is incredibly hard to get hold of, and I believe is aged for two years in 23-year old Pappy Van Winkle Bourbon Barrels.

I'm Back!!!

After a prolonged absence, I am back to blogging about beer. Going to be using this website for the time being, while I work on bringing my .com site back to life.

I'm no longer in Cardiff, and after much soul searching, I'm no longer toiling away at a PhD.

Most importantly, I'm now in London, and working at an awesome beer bar! So, in theory I should have plenty to write about. Although I haven't blog in an age, it doesn't mean I have been away from beer. My beer collection has grown to a slightly epic proportion (half of it is in Lincoln at my parents house because my flat isn't big enough, and my girlfriend put her foot down), and I was lucky enough to get over to San Diego last November and almost exploded at the sheer beeriness of the whole trip.

Anyway, on an unbeer related note, this is what has been taking up my free time during my absence and PhD hell: http://www.youtube.com/user/drunkenjitsu

Oh yeah, and I'm back on twitter @The_Beer_Bear

Bye.

Brand New Site!

I have a brand new site for my blog, so this blogspot blog won't but updated again. All my new posts and beer review will be on the new site at http://www.thebeerbear.com, that's http://www.thebeerbear.com, that's right, http://www.thebeerbear.com.

It's a much nicer layout and there is a massive sections for all my beery pictures.

In case you missed it, the new site is http://www.thebeerbear.com

Thanks,
The Beer Bear
http://www.thebeerbear.com

The Lost Abbey Angel's Share 2008

I've been holding this bottle for a few months now and trying to find a good enough reason to open it up, so, I made the decision that New Year's eve was as good a time as any.

The Lost Abbey release both a brandy and a bourbon barrel aged Angel's Share in almost identical bottles, the only difference is a single word hidden in the printed description on the back of the label, unsurprisingly either brandy or bourbon. The one I've got is the brandy barrel aged 2008 release, which, at 12.5% is the biggest alcohol content so far.

They describe Angel's Share as an English-style barley wine and both releases were selected in RateBeers best beers of the United States 2009.

As soon as the bottle was open I was hit by a massive port-like alcohol smell, with a sweet edge. It pours as a thick and oily dark brown with a few big tan bubbles but apart from that it has very little carbonation. The aroma starts quite vinegary, with light grapes, and clean alcohol but as it warms and opens up with vanilla, banana, and a woody scent. The taste is layered with heady alcohol and grapes upfront and sweeter caramel malts with vanilla bean flavours hiding behind.

The last few releases have been criticised quite heavily for the lack of carbonation, which is justified to a degree but I don't think it completely ruins the beer like many people seem to suggest. It's a big complex beer and well worth getting hold of.