Mixing Beers #7

Dogfish Head 120 Minute IPA (2012) "VS" Dogfish Head World Wide Stout (2009)

WHAT'S GOIN' ON: What is it about extreme craft beers that attract and intrigue drinkers from around the globe? A rather valid question I would say so myself. The answer, dear reader, is the booze! Deny it as you may, forlorn objects of destitute bewilderment, but know it to be true as my words speak in an absolute resolution when I say that yes!, sweet succulent and inviting booze warmth is indeed a spectacular and wondrous event to behold. True as it may be that hidden, layered and sometimes even delectable textures  - flavors even - come about within a drink of higher altitude, be not fooled preposterous mortal, for it is booze which is the code of law. The very law and blessedly horrid nature in which dictates the ceremony's presented craftsmanship: Getting shitfaced.

HOW IT WENT DOWN: I pop the yellow warning caps off of both bottles. I slowly bring the just released 2012 bottle of 120 up to my nose. It smells amazing. I grab the 2009 bottle of WWS, and do the same. Is smells scary. I think I'm in lust. Let the games begin, I say to myself, as I type this very sentence.

The mix of these combined monstrosities forms into a super dark cinnamon that's not exactly jet black and features a glowing reddish brown head. The head is minimal and leaves a thin layer of foam around the edges. Grain is evident throughout the newly evolved brew.

I lean in and notice that it smells like a forest full of ripe prunes, plums and berries. Some coffee comes through, but it's way off in the distance, underneath that pool of devilish booze. I close my eyes and smell this for another three minutes, slowly drifting into another plane of consciousness.

I take my first gulp, and realize that this is indeed, some righteous shit. The depth, the flavor... is just, legendary. It's sweet, has a fiery haze of boozy dark fruit notes that hit right away and bounce and explode all over the place, then after the swallow a gentle sweet cut-grass and mocha coffee come flowing through. A minor burning sensation strangles from the inside of the throat in each swallow. This is most indubitably, a syrup of ecstasy. A heavy smokiness from the WWS engulfs the senses, as do incredible candied hop notes from the 120, and it just a masterful blend of liquid death.

And on top of it all, my misanthropic minions, this mixing of two elixirs is incredibly smooth! The mouth feel is silky, velvety, syrupy and yet, it feels as if it becomes whipped cream disintegrating during the swallow. This beautiful potion is indeed... a drink of wonders.

Mixing Beers #6

Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale (2012) "VS" Oskar Blues Ten Fidy (2012)

WHAT'S GOIN' ON?: Sierra Nevada's Celebration Ale was one of the first craft brews that I had ever tried. It may have been the fourth, maybe the fifth. I love it, always have, no doubt always will and every time I look at that artwork and those colors, I get a funny feeling of fond remembrance. And I think of snow. Man, do I love me some snow. You know what goes good with snow? What goes good with winter and the holidaze? Some rich ass Imperial Stouts, that's right. Have a dirty cookie. I drank the first three of my 4$ each 12 oz. cans of Ten FIDY in a row and it was a pretty damn good experience. I saved one for whatever, at the time I didn't know... but when I brought home a 3-Pack of Celebration later in the week, I decided that the first Fresh Hop Ale of the Winter would be a mix brew review. 

HOW IT WENT DOWN!: The beautiful orange-reddish tones from the SN Celebration were slowly flooded and corrupted by the black spreading shadows, eventually turning this beer dark as night. The head is white with drops of tan inside, looking a bit like hot chocolate with melted marshmallows.

The strong hops in this take precedence and are not to be outdone by the roasted characteristics from the 1050. But eventually a hurling malty flow comes forth and sits along with it side by side. I do definitely prefer the scent of the Celebration alone over this combined form, since it's just so beautiful, however this mingling isn't half bad either.

Taste is a very strange one. You get a battle in the mouth starting off with a smooth texture, then crackling hops and after the swallow, a roasted bitterness and some intense toasty burn. If anything, the Fresh Hop Ale really adds a lot to this stout, by bringing forth some tingling hop driven persistence. It's got a very deep taste to the whole thing, very rich and creamy, and soothing yet eventful. Hops dance around through this tingling smoky haze and both beers play off of each other very well.

Mouth feel is syrupy, thick and extremely coating. And even then, it's surprisingly smooth. 

Though spicy and popping up front, the beer mellows just before the swallow and leaves a grassy aftertaste and a fire roasted burnt sensation. This was a pretty neat mixing of beers overall, and did a number on my tastebuds. As much as I liked it, I wonder to myself now if anything will ever top the mix of Pumking and WWS. Is it all downhill from here? That worried thought shall do nothing to deter me from mixing additional beers in the future and posting my results right here, however substandard they may seem compared to that utterly wondrous event.

Mixing Brews #5

Uinta Oak JACKED Imperial Pumpkin (2011) "VS" Woodstock Inn Autumn Ale Brew (2012)

WHAT'S GOIN' ON: Happy Halloween... Motherfuckers! It's that time of year again. Aw yeah. Time to poison small children Oh wayt, I mean fuck hot bitches no, that can wait too, uhh... fuck hot poisoned small children's bitches?! Combining those two things doesn't really come out right. I've been watching too much Epic Beer Time. But wait!, what's this!? I'm posting another beer review! (how exciting) and on Halloween!? Well, pathetic as it is... I'd carve a piece of my heart out tonight, if I had any of it left.

No matter the case though and drunken ramblings aside, tonight I'm doing a little self poisoning of my own by mixing these two incredibly delicious toxins: JACKED, and Oak Aged Imperial Pumpkin Ale that clocks in at 10.31% ABV (Get it?), with quite possibly the best tasting beer you'll ever find under 5% (this one is a 4.4%): Autumn Ale Brew! Looks like I'm in for one hell of a tricked out treat tonight.

HOW IT WENT DOWN: Me poured about a third from each bottle into this pint glass here. Head faded rather quickly, but left some bubbly puddles here and there.

While the colors for both beers are similar, this maintained more of the Jacked attributes with its darkness and gloom. It's a dark and cloudy reddish orange with light carbonation.

The Autumn Ale Brew brings the apple cinnamon pastry to this pumpkin party and now this mix smells exactly like Pumpkin Pie. It's marvelous! The wood and heavy booze from the Jacked is a bit subdued, but this concoction is no doubt ten times sweeter smelling than the two of these awesome beers alone.

The taste is, and there's no other way to describe this, just pure unadulterated bliss. It's instant gratification in liquid form! You get all that cinnamon, candy apples, pumpkin pie, sweet and sour, and a gentle fade out. This mix is probably one of the sweetest and most flavorful brews I've ever had, for such a gentle ride. The booze from that Jacked bottle really hides out here, I can't even get a hint of it. This spiced ale mix is the stuff that this season is made of.

Mouth is light to medium, a little watery, tingling, sticky, and fiery.

Due to the oak aging in the Jacked, mixed with the low ABV of the Autumn Ale Brew, this one does fade a bit fast and leaves a watery and wood toned aftertaste. The cinnamon lingers the most, but it was all great while it lasted.

Mixing Brews #4

Dogfish Head Punkin Ale (2012) "VS" Cape Anne's Fisherman's Pumpkin Stout (2012)

WHAT'S GOIN' ON: DFH Punkin Ale has a lot of hardcore fans, it's a fact. Personally, I think they (Dogfish Head) make a lot of other beers that are far superior to this seasonal. I still enjoy a few bottles whenever it comes around, but it's by no means a holy grail of pumpkin ales. I've tried Fisherman's Imperial Pumpkin Stout last year and it was a pretty cool experience. How their "regular" version of this brew holds up, I do not know... and I probably won't know, since I'm mixing it with the Punkin for my first try. Oh well. Both of these brews clock in at a respectable 7% ABV, and are regulars this time of year for languishing on the singles shelf. So why the hell not?

HOW IT WENT DOWN: I couldn't stop smelling that Punkin once I popped the cap off the bottle. It's wondrous. I stood there with my nose in the bottle for about a minute straight. The Fisherman's Pumpkin Stout smells pretty good too... you definitely get that pumpkin, but there's a half and half with a coffee scent.

These two beers have quite a similar density as the stout just creeped right in and blended with the brown ale. The final result is a pretty deep brown, but while dark in tone, it's still a really clear beer mix. A lot clearer than I thought it would be actually. Head was minimal, though I poured carefully and had a few issues.

Well, that coffee comes through first, dominating the scent. It pretty much drowns out the spices from the other beer, and in itself for a while. There's a pumpkin mash in the background, and the spices have all but been subdued. It smells a little bit like Dr. Pepper now. Weird.

Taste is very smokey. Minimal bite. There's a gentle bitterness, and a toasty, roasted note throughout the whole thing. It's not terribly exciting. The smokiness from the cloves and that roasted coffee are really battling it out here, and neither one is winning. It's a stalemate. And speaking of stale, well, quite frankly this all tastes a bit like day old coffee with a shot of cough syrup in it. It's mildly spicy, but that shit fades instantly!

Mouth is a bit thin, and slightly frothy. It's also flat feeling too, which is weird since both bottles pretty much exploded when I opened them up. Must have let out all the carbonation. Huh.

This one is going to get a great big MEH! from me. I'm not the biggest fan of coffee flavored stouts to begin with, especially the weaker versions, and also brown ales aren't really my thing. So perhaps I'm getting the worst of both worlds here. It just tastes rather bland. Heavy clove, stale coffee, extremely mild cinnamon and a touch of sour pumpkin flesh. Consider this Experiment, failed. At least the DFH Punkin smelled really good.

Mixing Brews #3

Southern Tier Pumking (2012) "VS" Dogfish Head World Wide Stout (2009)

WHAT'S GOIN' ON?: I can hear Foley's manic screams of "He's Hardcore!" blaring through my skull, as I prepare to down a Thirty-Four fluid ounce mix of two of the most intense beers in the world! Southern Tier's Pumking, no doubt the most infamous pumpkin beer ever known to man or beast, is a potent and magical elixir easily capable of capturing the more than willing offered souls of the not-so-innocent. But what happens to the Autumn Solstice when the frost of an early three-year-old winter comes flooding in from forgotten times and blackens all of the gold, yellow and orange leaves!? Dogfish Head's World Wide Stout, an extremely powerful medicine, is here with some dark forces of its own to figure these things out. Best to never forget the past.

HOW IT WENT DOWN: First of all, just smelling the Pumking as I poured half a glass of it was a fucking treat in itself! Man, does this really bring back the good times. And after pouring the World Wide Stout and smelling it, all I could muster up was a thought of "Uh-oh." Remember what happened last time you went to the pub, came home and busted out the WWS Drunketh? Yeh, I said hello to my good friend side of table and his buddy floor.

This black and tan, my very first actually, looks pretty damn incredible. I like the whole concept of it... it's visually interesting, fun to do and hell, a while back I got a few free 'Bass Black and Tan' pouring tools that fit right over a 16 oz glass. Been aching to use it, but I knew what I was saving it for... for This! I poured it like a total black and tan virgin too. All worried n' shit. Ha. It feels exciting to do something for the first time, and it's been a while...

The logistics of Black and Tan elude me of course, as one brew rests atop the other so I'm not exactly getting a real "mix", so what the hell... I think I'll just stir the fucker up! Alright, stirring it turned it a pitch black and gave it a sliver of a dark khaki head. The scent, if magnificent!! Loads of brown sugar, molasses, gingerbread cookies, and some dark fruity booze.

Took the first gulp, and yes, we have a winner. These two beers blend perfectly. There's the usual harsh boozyness from the WWS that's gently calmed by the Pumking, and at the same time that booze from the WWS subdues the spices from Pumking ever so slightly. It's pretty amazing how well these two fit in together. It's really syrupy sweet, and a bit grainy as well. Heavy hitting, but the harshness is brought to an "appropriate" level and overall it's just a pretty damn exciting mix of poisons.

For some reason it starts to smell like maple syrup after a while, especially when it warms and that WWS takes over. Not that I mind though. Pumpkin pie drizzled with maple syrup? I don't do it everyday. All out of WWS now, and I gotta say that I've really been wanting Pumpkin all year long! I'm really pleased that I chose these two to get things going for the Autumn months or whatever. I wanted to make it speshull for my popping my b and t cherry, and I think I did it. Shit was off the fucking hook.

Mixing Brews #2

Russian River Pliny The Elder "VS" Knee Deep Hoptologist (July 7'th 2012)

WHAT'S GOIN' ON: I'm sure a lot of crazy shit went down during San Fransisco Beer Week (February 10th through the 19th) - a smorgasbord of events all up and down the Bay Area for beer lovers and pretentious beer nerds alike - but you know, I didn't really hear too much about it. Sure, I'm out of the loop! I wasn't even there at the time, but I wish I was. And hell, who's to say that people can even remember what happened that week with all the booze that was consumed? Not many would be my guess. Aside from a few small circles probably... oh, and of course, if your establishment was throwing a tasting competition where gold medals are handed out and placed around bottle necks! That shit is as serious as a rape scene with Dakota Fanning.

A lot of people were buzzed on the night of February 11'th In Hayward, California at The Bistro (Home of Extreme Beer and Live Music), but it wasn't until a little later, when the word spread of their 12'th Annual DIPA Festival Gold Medal Winner, that a larger buzz would rage, (and not only) online! Beating out 42 other Double IPAs, including Pliny The Elder (Silver) and Ruination (Bronze), was the newcomer to the group: Hoptologist. I got back down to California at the end of June after a moving to the dead end of the new earth, long after these festivities had ended, and the madness was just the starting to heavily build at this point. Being from the area all my life, but just a kid and too young and into love and other drugs, I had never actually tried Pliny. So after getting caught up in "the scene", I naturally wanted some.

By this time, the clerks at Total Wine and More seemed to be pretty fed up and/or apathetic with all the Pliny whores (That was the vibe I got, and I wasn't trying to be one - I just wanted a single bottle if possible), so they were quick to pimp out Hoptologist to the fullest. Knee Deep just released a 'Gold Medal Winning' poster (displayed very apparently) to go along with it, and they were very supportive of it. I of course got my hands on a few bottles of Pliny, and after I drank my bottle of Hoptologist, I went right back to BevMo! and bought another one to bring home with me. When I got back home and once again had access to the web, I read up on both of these brews a little more just for my own personal enjoyment and more so, to see what people had to say about Hoptologist. I've already heard enough about Pliny to know that people are all over it, just like my sperm on a photoshopped nude of Saoirse Ronan.

But I digress! When I started reading reviews of Hoptologist, what I noticed was that people were just going on 'certain sites' rating it and talking mad shit! Unwarranted shit, mind you. They weren't even really reviews either, and most of the people who wrote them seemed as if they didn't even drink the f'n beer. "I can't believe this beat Pliny, I give it a 1" or "Pliny 4 Lyfe! hoptolgish suxxsz..", and so on. It was some childish bullshit and I must of course scoff at it. I understand fanboy-ism, and I understand favoritism, and I understand territorial pissing... but I've never really been one to understand stupidity and general annoyance. Can I deal with it? That's a different discussion. People like to separate things so much. "This one's better than that one." "That one's better than this one." And so on. Well... fuck everybody who does that, because I AM MIXING THIS SHIT TOGETHER! Just for the hell of it. Not to piss anyone off either (much like Dr. Blood, I could care less about the abhorring, diseased, simple-minded and stinky people of Wal-Mart, which are quite frankly, below me - and I quote). I was going to drink them both the same night anyways, so I figured, why the beer knot?! 

HOW IT WENT DOWN: Both of these similar looking brews formed a clear, pumpkin shade of orange and it had a long lasting bubbly huge head atop of it.

While both of these beers smell incredible on their own, and (as expected) together as well, it's also pretty awesome when they're mixed. Smells a bit like Torpedo actually. Hey, I could have bought a whole shitload of Torpedo for a fraction of the price of this and it would have been all good. Pay no attention to the man behind the pint glass! Hoptologist has a bit more of a creamy candy-like smell, while Pliny has more of a prickly and piney. They mix together quite well. 

I guess similar's attract too. This combo starts off with a fluffy cloud inside the mouth that rapidly expands and explodes. There's extremely peppery caramel, a haze of strong booze and leafy, piney hops burst all over. It's bitter, bittersweet and a bit stinging. There's not much more to it than that aside from the subtle fruitiness. Just two righteous DIPA's mingling together. Nothing to see here!

Lot of foam on the mouth first off. It settles down eventually... like two beers at war, eventually making peace. Perhaps mankind, and idiots aspiring to become some kind of man, should take note. So how did I feel overall about the whole thing? Well, it felt good in spirit. Would I have been just as happy to walk down the block and grab a Southern Tier Gemini and mix it with a Sierra Nevada Torpedo? The answer is yes. But then again, the Hops fell off before these beers were even bottled right? ...so well, fuck it.

Mixing Brews #1

Harpoon Leviathan Barleywine Style Ale "VS" Stone OAKED Arrogant Bastard Ale (2011/12)

WHAT'S GOIN' ON: Harpoon's Leviathan Barleywine Style Ale ($2.95) is an "English Barleywine" with a 10% ABV, hailing from Boston, Massachusetts... This vague as all hell interpretation of an English style ale features "a distinct malt backbone balanced by a unique blend of hops." She's keeping the mystery with her for a more interesting encounter perhaps. But what's this? Enter the self-proclaimed "Aggressive Bitch-Slappin" (not an exact quote) brew that throws "sex appeal" out the window and goes straight for the jugular! That time of the month other jugular, that is. Har har. Stone's OAKED Arrogant Bastard Ale ($3.55) is an "American Strong Ale" coming out of Escondido, California with an ABV of 7.2%, and features a true... Rapist's wit.

HOW IT WENT DOWN: These two beers formed to create a copper toned brew that is grainy as all fuck! During the pours its yellowish eggshell khaki colored head was growing all over the place. As I hold this big ass mug up to the light and above for a toast, I know that the shit has indeed, just got real.

The scent of this combination is utterly sweet and toasty... like fruity syrup dripping on heated wood, sizzling and wet. An abundance of barley malt come through first, and while the malt dominates for the most part, the hops appear to be crackling in the distance, like embers in a bonfire.

Though the taste goes through several small phases, it is bittersweet all around from beginning to end. But a very sweet bittersweet nonetheless. No sour or foul notes to be had. The two beers play off of each other, and seemingly duel it out on the taste buds at first. Try as it may, the candy like sweetness from the Leviathan becomes engulfed and injected upon by the grassy hops and oak chips from the Arrogant Bastard. It all blends together quite well however and in the end doesn't seem that these two brews are very far apart. As it warms more of the hops get their chance to shine through, and eventually leave this concoction with a medicinal taste almost like cough syrup.

The mouth feel is light, thin and frothy. It's a little bit sticky feeling, and coats evenly.

This merging of brews taste quite pleasant, if a bit underwhelming. Oak aging sometimes compromises a brews natural integrity, for better or worse, but it's always an entirely different monster. From what I've noticed in my limited experience with oak aged beers, it that the original formulas become a lot more mellowed out and subdued. Subdued... yet flavorful, interesting, and unique. This mix is far from a striking blow, but is still some quality stuff. I'd take it over NyQuil any day... wait a minute ...that gives me an idea.