A Whale A Week: Central Waters Fifteen

Last week we covered Olde Hickory's The Event Horizon as a tasty barrel aged Imperial stout.  This week we move back to the Midwest for a special release from Central Waters Brewing Company.

Central Waters is a fixture in the Wisconsin brew scene since the late 1990's, growing steadily and building a strong reputation for good craft beers.  I'll be honest, when they first started distributing in Minnesota a few years ago I was not impressed with their basic beer line-up.  People kept telling me how amazing the beers were, but all the ones I had tried were merely OK.  What I didn't realize until much later was that most of my beer-freak friends were really talking about Central Waters' barrel aged series.  Once I got a taste of their Peruvian Breakfast Stout I was sold on them.  My wife and I were able to get to a Central Waters beer dinner at The Happy Gnome earlier this year and were blown away by the fact that all but one beer they served us was a special release.  Oh and the food was awesome as always!

On to today's brew!  I managed to get a bottle of Fifteen in a large cellar buy-out about 2 years ago.  Brewed for their 15th anniversary in 2013, this beer is a big Imperial stout aged for 26 months in 14 year old bourbon barrels (I believe Heaven Hill).  ABV is about 11%.  Beer Advocate places this at 94, and RateBeer at 99.  I was excited to get to try this beast after loving the 17 we got to try at that beer dinner.

For this whale tasting I had a few friends over.  The bomber bottle was 2013 vintage and served into snifters.  This week's panel was:

1) Me--BJCP judge, beer geek, actual geek, fan of bourbon.

2) David Grilli--Award winning homebrewer, member of the Primary Fermenter's brewclub, also a geek involved in the D&D podcast 20-Sided Death: check it on iTunes HERE.

3) Mike Lebben--A Whale A Week alumni back for more!  Winner of a blue ribbon at MN State fair, part-owner of BeerDust.

Fifteen

Aroma: (In which we smell booze...)

Eric: Mild bourbon and vanilla.  Light roast coffee.  Some sweetness and a burn of alcohol on deep inhalation.  Not a ton going on in the aroma.
David: Boozy, whisky aroma.  Not pungent.  Slightly malty.  A tad bit of smoke or char?
Mike: Booze, hot liquor.

Appearance: (In which we all wish for more head...)

Eric: Dark brown--not as dark as most RIS.  Not opaque, but slightly cloudy.  Very little mid-tan head that fades quickly (whisky will do that to you...)  No legs on glass.
David: No head retention.  Brown in color and opaque.  No lacing.
Mike: No head.

Flavor: (In which we burn out our taste buds on hot hooch.)

Eric: Strong boozy bourbon hits you in the mouth violently.  This eventually fades to a sweet marshmallow and vanilla flavor.  Powerful alcohol warming that is almost as strong as actually sipping a fine bourbon neat.  Burns going down and clears the sinuses.  Not a lot of roast and coffee.  Body seems thinner that expected, possibly from the high alcohol.  Carbonation is actually a bit high, but no head retention.  Some tannins add complexity but also a bit of astringency.  Unbalanced.
David: Thick, woody char, vanilla, bourbon up front.  Alcohol hotness.  Sharp toffee.
Mike: GASP--HOT BOOZE.  Vanilla, dried plum.  Highly carbonated with small bubbles.

Overall: (In which we are all a bit disappointed.)

Eric: Just not a complex beer--one note of hot booze.  This seems almost like a flavored bourbon rather than a bourbon flavored beer.  The elements that make a Russian Imperial stout are overwhelmed (roast, chocolate, coffee.)  Booze.  Booze.  More Booze!  Just too hot.  I think this spent too much time in the barrels.  3
David: Needs more time to age.  Solventy, alcohol warmth and strong bourbon, vanilla flavor--not balanced with the roast malt. 3
Mike: Boozy. 3

Overall Score: 3

So we really didn't love this one.  Too bad, but glad I shared it and wasn't the only one who thought it was not stellar.  I do have a 16 in the cellar for a later A Whale A Week and hopefully it fares better!  David was kind enough to serve us a bottle of his MN State Fair ribbon winning Aberrant Russian Imperial Stout on this visit--It was one of the best things we tried all night!

Next up:  Chocolate Rain!


Photo Details: This week I was a little stumped on what to do that would be fun for the fairly plain-brown-wrapper appearance of the bottle label for 15.  I ended up superimposing a shot of a calm river in Belgium and then inverting the image for a funky and more interesting effect.

Sociable Cider Werks Review

Earlier this spring, my wife Sj and I went to a Happy Gnome beer dinner featuring beers and ciders from local Sociable Cider Werks.  Previously both of us had been a bit underwhelmed by their early ciders and were a bit sceptical.  However, knowing that we have never had a bad dinner at The Gnome, we decided to take the risk and try it out.  While folks were arriving for the dinner, they handed us a glass of the Freewheeler, their flagship dry cider, and we were pleasantly surprised at how tasty and quaffable it was.  During that dinner I got to meet one of the founders, Jim Watkins, who's official job title on their website is Bullshitting (Operations).  Nice!  He was a cool guy, and very excited about what he was doing--a great advocate for their brand.  Coming away from the dinner with a distended belly and a new-found respect for Sociable, we jumped their place up on our list of places to visit.

Which brings us to Art-A-Whirl weekend.  This is the fun Nordeast art-show/artist studio hop that I have managed to miss every year so far.  Finally, the stars aligned and we were able to get down there and wander through a bunch of cool artist studios in old characterful warehouse buildings.  After buying a slew of glass beads for Sj's jewelry making, we made our way to the nearby Sociable Cider Werks taproom.

The taproom is located (like many) in a reconditioned industrial space.  Unapologetically a "working brewery/cidery" the taproom is not fancy.  The inside is a bit dark, but not dingy.  A long shiny polished bar takes up a good space to the left side of the space across from the main entry.  The fermenters and canning line are right behind that, with more stainless brew equipment off to the right of the building.  A few large cable spool tables offer some more seating away from the bar.  The place was bustling but not overly crowded during our visit. My one quibble with the setting is that the ceiling has a strange, slightly arts-and-crafts-from-elementary-school twig and yarn thing going on.  A small patio outside offers additional seating and folks were just taking down a portable stage from earlier live music.

Just weird...

I wanted to order a sampler to try more things, but apparently they only offer them in the first hour they're open.  I understand that samples take longer to pour, but they are the best way for someone like me to get a gestalt of how the whole brewery's line-up tastes in a short period of time.  On the other hand, our helpful bartender was more than willing to let us have a couple of tastes to help make up our minds before ordering.  They do offer small and large glasses, so we still got to try several of the offerings without getting tipsy.  Interestingly they do straight ciders (most fairly dry), beers, and some hybrid beer/cider mixes.  This combination is really what makes Sociable stand out to my mind.  I got to try some unusual takes of traditional beer and cider styles that were truly unique.  My favorite of the group was the Everblack--a fine example of an oatmeal stout that was easy to drink and well crafted.  The Pinch Flat was a cider with saison yeast and had an interesting character somewhere between a beer and a cider.  I think our least favorite was the Burnout Smoked Apple that just had a chemical phenol that was a bit off-putting--I still gave it a 3 of 5 though.  Some of the hybrid styles like the Spoke Wrench (stout/cider) can have the cidery taste that I associate with young or "green" beer which is a flavor flaw when judging a beer.

I'm glad I gave these guys a chance and I think they're trying some cool new things that you can't find anywhere else.  They're also putting out good quality dry cider (in cans now too) to compete with the big producers of overly sweet commercial ciders.