A Whale A Week: Jester King Nocturn Chrysalis

Now in my second year, A Whale A Week is my challenge to try (with an array of beer loving friends) a rare beer for every week of the year.  Last year I had a great time with this and have continued it for 2016.  Not every beer will be a truly "white whale" beer, but all are hard to find and a treat to try!  I've been kind of bad about keeping up on this the past few months--maybe I should rename this to A Whale Every Other Week...

Jester King Nocturn Chrysalis Blend 2

Jester King Brewery is a wonderful brewery out of Austin, Texas specializing in sour beers.  Their beers eschew classic Belgian styles and really chart their own course, but still have the quality and complexity that good sours should have.  I've reviewed their Atrial Rubicite HERE for a previous Whale A Week.  

Nocturn Chrysalis starts as a sour red ale, and is then barrel aged with a large amount of fresh blackberries.  For this second batch (April 2014) they used Marionberries from Oregon.  ABV is 5.9%, Final Gravity 1.000, pH 3.3. The beer has a score of 93 on Beer Advocate and 99 on Rate Beer. 



Cast of characters: Me (homebrewer for over 25 years, lover and brewer of sour beers); Sarajo (my wife and fan of sours); and fellow Jack Of All Brews member and award winning brewer Josh Welch. 

Nocturn Chrysalis 

Aroma: 

Eric: Mellow blackberry aroma.  Light tartness.  Hint of sweet berry.  Light sulfur notes.  Brett--funky leather as it warms up.

Josh: Strong smells of wet hay, slight solvent, light jammy fruit.  

Appearance:

Eric: Deep red to nearly magenta.  Persistent wispy off-pink froth.  Excellent clarity and ruby sparkles.

Josh: Slight white head.  Good clarity.  Nice purple color from the fruit.  No legs, rolls easily in the glass.

Flavor:

Eric: Ooh!  Up front very dry and tannic--almost leathery.  Middle of taste coats the tongue with dry berry and cherry pit flavors.  Finish lingers with distinct blackberry, funk, and oak tannins.  Spritzy and has a very light mouthfeel.  Dry but not astringent.  Fruit still shows through nicely despite age and dryness.  Not overly acidic.

Josh: Less aggressive than the aroma.  Dry, light acidity, effervescent.  Modest apparent sweetness.

Overall:

Eric: Wow!  I really love this use of blackberry!  Dry but mellow and the fruit is really present.  compared to last week's Beatification which was all acid and little brett, this one is mostly brett and mild acid.  Refreshing, palate cleansing--makes me want to keep drinking it.  4.75

Josh: 4.5

Sarajo: Tart and refreshing.  4.5

Overall Score: 4.67

A Whale A Week: Russian River Beatification 2013

Now in my second year, A Whale A Week is my challenge to try (with an array of beer loving friends) a rare beer for every week of the year.  Last year I had a great time with this and have continued it for 2016.  Not every beer will be a truly "white whale" beer, but all are hard to find and a treat to try!  I've been kind of bad about keeping up on this the past few months--maybe I should rename this to A Whale Every Other Week...

Russian River Beatification 2013

Russian River Brewing has been putting out some amazing beers over the years (Pliny the Elder and Blind Pig IPA's) but have really been one of the first American breweries to put out sour Belgian style beers.  Not content to do everything by the book, the the brewers certainly put their own spin on things.  Not available here in Minnesota, I managed to get my hands on some vintage bottles and figured this would be a good time to break one out!

Beatification is a golden ale that is based loosely on old school Belgian wild fermention like that seen at Cantillon.  The hot wort is left in a wide, open, coolship overnight to cool and become inoculated with wild yeast and bacteria from the brewhouse.  It is then transferred to oak wine barrels and fermented several months.  It comes out about 6% ABV and of variable tartness/funkiness. Beer Advocate gives this a score of 99 and Rate Beer a 100.  

The word beatification is used by the Roman Catholic Church as a papal declaration that a dead person is enjoying the pleasure of heaven and is worthy of religious honor.  This is the first step toward becoming canonized or sainted.  Interesting!

Cast of characters for this tasting: Me (homebrewer for over 25 years, lover and brewer of sour beers); Sarajo (my wife and fan of sours); and fellow Jack Of All Brews member and award winning brewer Josh Welch. 

Beatification

Aroma:

Eric: Bright.  Pineapple is very strong.  Tartness is powerful.  Tangerines or Mandarin oranges.  Light plastic notes as warms.  Wax--honeycomb.  Thai basil.
Josh: Strong phenolic funk aroma.  Fresh leather.  Light solvent.

Appearance:

Eric: Straw in color, very light.  Crystal clear.  Small white head with tiny tight bubbles.  Head fades to edge of glass quickly.
Josh: Very good looking beer.  Crystal clear, pale golden.  No head.

Flavor:

Eric:  Very tart up front.  Fades to a tart middle.  Ends with a tart finish.  So...tart.  Puckering.  Unripe pineapple and green apple skin.  Very mild wheat malt.  Acetic acid is very strong in this beer.  Some mild brett funk, but mostly acetobacter.
Josh: Acidic tangy, lemon, salty.  Slick on the mouth.  Light.  Acidity lingers for some time.

Overall:

Eric: A very zippy and interesting beer but somewhat one dimensional.  All acid all the time!  I want more brett character in the flavor like I get in the aroma.  Not quite refreshing since I feel the need to wash my palate with water after this.  And a Zantac.  I have had another version of this that I gave a 5 to, but this one is a 4.
Josh: 4.25
Sarajo: Acid-O-Licious!  4

Overall Score: 4.08

A Whale A Week: Surly Three

Recently for A Whale A Week I've been going through the Surly Darkness vintages in order to make a dent in my stash, as well as to try them all in close proximity to decide which one is currently the "best".  Earlier this year I did a series on the Surly Anniversary beers starting with Surly Four.  I know, I know, I'm a Surly Fanboy...but hey they're my local brewery putting our sought-after beers that I can actually find!  As of this weekend at All Pints North in Duluth I was lucky enough to get a glass of Surly Three to test out and figured I'd jump back in time in order to work on completing my rare Surly beer series.

A quick recap of what came before:  The Surly Anniversary beers have been quite a mixed bag over the years, but I appreciate the brewers stretching their brewing chops to try new things.  One was a Quad/Doppelbock concoction that I never got to try.  I assume it was good.  Two was a cranberry milk stout that I first tried at a charity benefit--very tasty and tart.  That one made it to a small bottling run, but I've never actually seen one in person.  Three is below!  Four was the first of these that I loved from the get-go and is reviewed HERE.  Five was their first sour and is reviewed HERE.  Syx was a 15% multi-wood aged monster, and is HERE.  Seviin was a Belgian strong ale finished off with brett and was reviewed HERE.  Eight was a strong oat wine aged in High West Rye Whiskey barrels and is reviewed HERE.  I did get to try a preview sample of Nein at All Pints North this year, but will wait to do my official review until I have a full bottle to try!

Surly Three

Surly Three was a braggot--an unusual hybrid style that combines the malted grain of a beer with the honey of a mead.  The style is a very loose one, but the overarching definition requires a balance of the honey and grain characters.  This would rule out many of those summer honey wheat beers that use only a tiny percentage of honey in the recipe.  Commercial braggots are rare these days, though the style has been around since probably the 1300's.  This particular beer has an estimated ABV of around 10% and has very little hopping to it.  The beer was brewed with 50% honey and 50% dark German Munich malt and fermented with a Belgian yeast strain.  They also aged it on toasted white ash--something I've never heard of doing before.

I first tried Three when it was released in early 2009 (Winterfest I believe) and was shocked by how cloyingly sweet and boozy it was.  Frankly I was unimpressed.  The beer was never bottled and quickly faded into obscurity.  Every once in a while it will pop up at special Surly tappings and goes quickly due to it's rarity.  The beer currently has a rating of 88 on BeerAdvocate and 96 at RateBeer but there aren't many ratings from the past year or so.

This past weekend in Duluth there was a special tapping of some rare beers in the basement bar (Rathskeller) of Tycoon's Ale House.  Some cool guys from Indeed that I ran into at Endion Station earlier clued me into this semi-secret event--thanks so much!  Tappings included special beers from Indeed, Steel Toe, Fitgers, Bent Paddle, and of course Surly.  We met up with several friends there and shared around an embarrassment of riches from the local beer scene.  One of these was Surly Three.  My favorite was the Bent Paddle Mocha Double Black.  I'd love to get back to the Rathskeller at some other time since the dark basement bar with exposed brick arches has a huge amount of character.  They also supposedly have at least one of the best mixologists in the state on staff!

I'm not going to lie here: this was not the most controlled or accurate tasting I've done for this series of reviews.  It was dark, loud, and amazing beers were circulating around while I tried to jot down my thoughts.  But I still couldn't pass up the opportunity to fill in this gap in my Surly anniversary beer reviews!

Aroma: 

Sweet honey right up front.  Molasses and caramel notes after that first hit of SWEET.  No hop aroma at all.  Light roasted or toasted notes as it warms.  Plenty of dark fruit like raisin or prune.  This makes me nervous to taste how sweet this might be...

Appearance:

It was dark in there.  Very dark.  So bear with me.  This was a dark beer, but not opaque, with a deep brown to dark amber color (near as I could tell).  Carbonation was quite low and whatever head was present on initial pour was gone promptly.

Flavor:

The flavors in this were complex and layered, changing with each taste.  The predominant character was a nearly overwhelming sweetness, but the type of sweet flavor seemed to change during the tasting. At one point I would get strong marshmallow, at others caramel and vanilla.  Molasses or dark buckwheat honey sweetness was a strong flavor profile in this beer.  Fig, raisin, and prune all twist briefly across the tongue.  There was moderate oxidation in the beer, resulting in a young sherry or barrel aged note that was not present when this was fresh.  Mouthfeel was coating and somewhat thick.  Bitterness was minimal, but enough to keep this from being cloyingly sweet.  No hop flavors.  Carbonation was low, accentuating the sweetness and thick mouthfeel.

Overall: 

This beer is a completely different beast from its humble initial presentation.  Age has increased the complexity and impact greatly.  Where some of the anniversary beers have not aged as well (Seviin) some seem to really come into their own with time (Syx) and this one certainly fits that latter category.  Color me impressed!  I think a bit more bittering hop or more carbonation would make this beer more balanced, but Three is still a very cool beer to get a crack at.

Overall Score:  I give this one a 4.25 out of 5.

So the upshot here is: if you can get a taste of this, jump in line to do so.  Finishing off a half pint of it got a little tough as that sweetness started to get out of hand, so stick to sharing or small pours.  Now I just need to find a Surly Two!

A Whale A Week: Pelican Mother Of All Storms 2014

Last week we showed off the now ancient 2008 vintage of Surly Darkness.  At that same time we used our panel of judges to try a couple other rare beers...to clear the palate you see?  Or something.  OK, we just wanted to drink more and its hard to go down to lesser beers after such a brawny one.  We poured this into Surly Darkness and Steel Toe snifters for tasting.  Here is our cast of characters: Me (Eric)--homebrewer for over 25 years, beer judge, beer geek.  Sj--my wife who inexplicably is a woman of few words when it comes to reviewing beer.  Sean Kampshoff--Winner of National Homebrew Competition medals, beer judge, cool guy.  Jim & Cindy Moldenhauer--a very fun couple of craft beer geeks we got to know at several McCoy's Public House beer dinners.

Pelican Pub & Brewery Mother Of All Storms 2014

Pelican started life in 1996 along the northern Oregon coast in tiny (and I mean tiny) Pacific City, and is the state's only oceanfront brewpub.  They have grown in popularity based on scenic location, and due to the high quality of their beers.  They've won many awards over the years for their beers and have been named best brewpub and small brewery in multiple national contests.  They have done quite a bit of expansion over the past few years, opening a production facility and taproom in nearby Tillamook (yes the place they make the cheese...) and have plans to open another brewpub in Cannon Beach in 2016.  For those Minnesotans reading this, our very own treasured Jason Schoneman of Steel Toe Brewing, used to brew for Pelican!  

My wife, Sj, and I visited the original brewpub sometime around 2005 on a trip up the Oregon coast visiting wineries and breweries.  We had to go a bit beyond our planned course to hit the place, but I had heard such great things from my local cousins that I pushed us to go there.  At the time the brewpub was very comfortable, spacious, and relaxed.  They were building an upscale Inn and some cabins right next door and those are all complete and functional now.  In fact they have a B&B&B now (Bed, Breakfast, Beer)--stay the night, get food at the pub and beer!  Sounds like a great trip to me!  The pub is right on the beach and has a fantastic view of the ocean and Haystack Rock, making this one of the best views from a brewery I've been to.  The rooftop of De Halve Maan Brewery in Bruges may have outdone this...  We enjoyed the food quite a bit--more upscale than many brewpubs but not pretentious.  And the beers were all stellar.  

Which ends our background--on to the beer at hand!  Mother Of All Storms (MOAS for short) is based on their English barleywine Stormwatcher's Winterfest, but aged in Kentucky Bourbon barrels.  Usually released in November, the hearty beer clocks in around 14% ABV and 40 IBU.  My mom still visits our family in Oregon every Christmas and brought me back this hard to find 2014 vintage bottle from her most recent trip.  Thanks mom!  The beer was originally named The Perfect Storm for 2008 and 2009, but due to trademark issues (possibly from a popular movie at the time) the name was changed.  Beer Advocate gives this a 99 and RateBeer gives it a 100.  

Aroma:

Eric: Strong toffee to sugary caramel!  Booze is certainly present, but not burning.  Vanilla and oak tannins are present to some extent as well.  Overall I can tell this is going to be SWEET!

Sean: Rich toffee, caramel, vanilla, marshmallow, coconut.  No hop aroma. 

Cindy: Angel's Share

Jim: Bourbon!

Appearance:  

Deep brown/amber with ruby highlights.  Fine dark tan head that fades quickly.  Excellent clarity.

Flavor:
Eric: Oh my my, oh hell yes, better put on your party dress!  Sweet caramel and toffee explodes over your tongue, leaving a trail of coconut and vanilla in its wake.  Strong bourbon flavors and warming, but so SMOOTH.  Very little bitterness.  Slight pixie stick straight sugar zing on the end.  Mouthfeel is nearly full.  Carbonation on the low side.
Sean: Dark fruit, raisins and toffee.  No hop flavor, low bitterness.  Tannic dryness in the finish.  Mouthfeel medium full body.  Medium low carbonation.
Cindy: Bourbon deliciousness.
Jim: Heaven in a glass.

Overall: 
Eric: Wow!  Well deserved fame.  This is sweet and boozy but so well crafted/balanced that it isn't cloying. I would seek this out any day.  5
Sean: Amazing barleywine! 4.75
Cindy: 4.75
Jim: 5
Sj: "My favorite beer of the night!" 5

Overall score:  4.9

This is what happens when you finish with MOAS...

While this was the last of 4 whale beers we tried (I'm doing these in the order that I get the photo's done, not the order we drank them) it was certainly the best.  Having tasted one-year-old Steel Toe Lunker I can sense a certain kindred to the two beers.  The best part of that?  Sj picked me up 6 Lunkers last recently and I don't have to have my mom mule those back from another state!

A Whale A Week: Surly Five

It is time again for my continuing series titled A Whale A Week!  Last week I shared our tasting of Surly Four.  This week we take another trip to the sour side with Surly Brewing.  Those who are following this series will soon realize that my collection of rare beers are mostly sours, Russian Imperial stouts, or barleywines.  These styles tend to be the most cellar friendly, as well as being more difficult to brew resulting in smaller production runs.

Surly Five

This week we discuss the Quasi-Whale that is Surly Five.  I know I'm going to get some comments (and I welcome them) that the Surly anniversary beers are not rare enough to count as Whales.  If you are in that camp, think about this: each year Surly releases their anniversary beers to much fanfare and excitement from us Minnesotans.  Local liquor stores usually get one to two cases each of these wax-dipped bomber bottles.  They sell out in about a day, with a few exceptions.  One can find the beer on tap occasionally over the next month if you frequent the right places. And then it is gone.  Some of us will race around the Twin Cities buying our one or two allowed bottles per place until we have enough to add to our dragon's hoard.  Others scoff at the marketing and high cost of these beers, labeling us "Surly Fan-Boys".  Think about the limited availability here for those who stalk these beers.  Now think about someone in California or NYC lusting after these rare beers.  I think we tend to undervalue what is available to us...for instance craving Russian River's Pliny the Elder when we can get the equally tasty Surly Abrasive (available now) fairly easily here in Minnesota.

The Surly Anniversary beers have been quite a mixed bag over the years, but I appreciate the Todd Haug stretching his brewing chops to try new things.  One was a Quad/Doppelbock concoction that I never got to try.  I assume it was good.  Two was a cranberry milk stout that I first tried at a charity benefit--very tasty and tart.  That one made it to a small bottling run, but I've never actually seen one in person.  Three was a braggot, made with half honey and half grain.  I didn't like that one fresh, but a year later it was much more balanced and mellow.  I'd love to try this again now!  Four was the first of these that I loved from the get-go.  That one was a thick and creamy Imperial porter/stout with espresso and you can check out last week's review of it HERE.  If any of my friends and readers have a Two they want to share for this series please contact me!

9 out of 10 Chaos wolf soldiers love Surly Five!

Which brings us to Five.  Five was the first Surly sour ale to be bottled.  The beer is a fairly strong 7.5% ABV, dark-colored ale fermented with 100% brettanomyces yeast.  The beer was aged in red wine barrels to add wine and oak character.  Prior to the official release in 2011, I was able to try some of the unblended single barrel offerings of the beer at a Happy Gnome beer dinner and at Winterfest and really liked them.  When I first tried Five from the bottle I was actually a bit underwhelmed, as I was expecting a bit more sourness and funk from the beer.  It was more mellow than the unblended batches I had tried previously.  I had one bottle of Five last year and was impressed by how much the beer had changed since that initial tasting.  The beer currently has a Beer Advocate Rating of 91 out of 100, and a 99 on RateBeer.  Since the release of Five, Surly has now expanded and fine tuned the production methods to make the yearly release of Pentagram.  But this is how it all started!

The bottle cap is dipped in green wax with a very Metal (insert obligatory Dio hand gesture or air guitar here) goat head, pentagram and mash-paddle motif in green and white ink.  The art was from a collaboration between brewer and metal guitarist Todd Haug and local Aesthetic Apparatus.  I poured this into my Surly Darkness snifter glass to get as appropriate as could get.  Too many trips to Belgium with matching glassware has ruined me!

This week I was happy to have fellow Jack Of All Brews members Mike Lebben and Steven Mathistad over to help me out with the tasting.  Since organizing beer tastings is like herding cats (and with three of those I know all about that) we tasted ahead and did our Surly Syx entry for next week as well.  So sue me!  My wife Sj had to work late that day, but we saved her some of each so she could put in her two cents.  And let's be honest, most of these bottles were ones she ventured off in search of when they first released. We spent some time discussing the beer together and here are the highlights!

Aroma:
Eric: Very tart with hint of vinegar sourness.  Earthy notes.  I a get a little roast to this, but not acrid.  There is distinct dark cherry or possible red grape skin.  As it warms I actually pick up a little pineapple.
Mike: Musty.  Also rose-like floral aroma.
Steven: Mustiness, and almost a metallic note.

Appearance: 
Deep mahogany to garnet color.  Excellent clarity with a bit of red sparkle at edge of glass.  Fine tan head that fades quickly from view.

Flavor:
Eric: Strong acetic tartness up front but complex musty barnyard brettanomyces effect noted as well.  Roast malt seems to add some astringency to this beer, especially as it warms up.  Some tannin from the wood accentuates the astringency, but also adds complexity of flavor.  Some ripe plum and mild red wine flavors as I keep going back for more.  Very sour overall.  Body a bit thin.  Carbonation is medium.  Not surprisingly, no hop flavors.
Mike: Like a sour patch kid!  Makes the salivary glands go to town.  Vinegar flavors.
Steven: Sweet at first, but disappears quickly to a sourness.

Overall Impression: 
Eric: This is much more sour than I remember it being originally, but hasn't changed much since last year's try.  I'm thinking this is pretty much at its peak.  Despite being 100% brett fermented, there is distinct acetic acid (vinegar) character to this.  It strikes me more as a dark Flanders Red, somewhat like The Bruery's Tart of Darkness.  As it warms it seems more thin in body.  I like this beer a lot, as it is distinctly different from anything I've tried.  I have two bottles left and plan on cracking one every year until they are gone.  I initially gave it a 5, but after discussing with my cohorts, and letting it warm up, I dropped to a 4.5
Mike: Very sour.  4 (Prior to this year Mike didn't really like sours, but we've been working on him!)
Steven: Strong 4
Sj: "It's Sour!"  4.5


As luck would have it I ran across Surly Pentagram on tap at 3 Squares in Maple Grove while having lunch with my mom a few days after this tasting.  In comparison, the Pentagram had much more red wine character, as well as being less acetic and sour.  The color in Pentagram was much lighter and it lacked the bitter roast character.  They certainly share a lot of similar flavors, but the Pentagram was "easier" to drink and more mellow.  I'm curious to see if aging Pentagram will result in more of the sour character I found in the Five.

Freya gets in on the tasting action by doing her imitation of a face-hugger from Alien...

As usual I'm going to go ahead and post a free link-up below so if any other enterprising beer hoarders/reviewers want to "taste" along you can link to your own website or blog and we can get some different views.  Or feel free to just comment on the blog!

An InLinkz Link-up

Next week AWAW returns with…You guessed it Surly Syx!  Get ready to taste along and put in your two cents!


(Photo credit for the unaltered killer whale goes to Seaworld website.)

A Whale A Week: Goose Island Bourbon County Coffee Stout 2012

It's that time of week again for my new blog entry series: A Whale A Week!  This week, I went completely opposite from the incredibly tart Cantillon Lou Pepe Kriek to the boozy malt-bomb that is Goose Island Bourbon County Coffee Stout.

Some deep background for this epic beer.  I went to medical school in Chicago back in 1996-2000.  That seems like a long, long, long time ago now.  My first real experience with craft beers (other than a couple of shameful Sam Adams and Pyramid fruit beers) was at Goose Island's Clybourn Brewpub.  I used to go down to the brewpub for lunch and a beer sampler, taking my time and getting out of my ghetto basement apartment to study.  Once my future wife moved to Chicago to be with me, we continued to frequent this place.  I remember going to one of the first Barrel Aged Beer Festivals in the backroom (now occupied by Siebel) in the brewpub.  At that time they had something like 8-10 beers available for trial an most were not good.  Things have come a long way since then, but Goose Island was truly one of the very first breweries to experiment with this now very popular style of beer aging.  When GI was bought out by AB-Inbev I was saddened and sure that my favorite beers would soon by watered down and worthless.

Since then I have noticed no significant downturn in quality of my favorite GI beers.  In fact, we have better distribution of these beers in Minnesota now.  They have also come out with several variants on the Bourbon County brand like vanilla, barleywine, and this week's coffee entry.  I have heard rumors that they are rapidly buying up barrels and making them harder to come by for smaller craft breweries though.  This particular beast is a 14.3% ABV Russian Imperial Stout aged in bourbon barrels.  They have partnered with Chicago's Intelligentsia Coffee for this brew, using La Tortuga coffee beans from Honduras.  Looking at their website, the coffee is supposed to have flavors of tangy tangerine acidity with tamarind, orange sherbet and wild honey.

Aroma: Semi-sweet chocolate with a hint of cinnamon is the dominant aroma.  There is some distinct bourbon booze character of alcohol, vanilla and even a little toffee.  The coffee is subtle in the aroma, but present as a deep roastiness.  No hop aroma.  A very pleasing and complex melange of scents in this that vary quite a bit sniff to sniff.

Appearance:  What can I say...Black!  Very dark and opaque black color.  A small tan head that disappears rapidly to almost nothing.

Flavor:  Very sweet up front.  In the middle, before flavor, I note a thick mouthfeel that coats the tongue for a chocolate milk shake effect.  Hefty roast malt and some dark roast coffee flavors arrive once you get used to the mouthfeel.  No hop flavor, but some bitterness present.  Balance to the sweet side, but just shy of cloying.  Bourbon vanilla flavors are very strong, but the big malt balances this well.  Distinct alcohol warming, but not HOT, just boozy.  Despite lack of head, the carbonation is medium and helps clear the sweetness on the palate.  Each sip brings out more flavors, making you want to keep trying this again and again.  I get a spicy cinnamon flavor as it warms, reminding me of Cigar City Hunahpu.

Overall:  The coffee has faded quite a bit from fresher versions I've tried, but the alcohol has mellowed and the flavors have melded into something unique.  I'm a huge coffee fan and miss the freshness of that coffee, but this beer is still amazing.  Having had a regular BCS from the same year recently, I can say that this version is more complex than the original.  I have another of these in the cellar and will drink it soon, since that coffee will continue to fade away.  I give it a solid 5/5.

I first tried this beer at Autumn Brew Review several years back and it promptly jumped the rank to become one of my favorite beers of all time.  Since then, they have continued to make this and it now comes in 12 oz bottles.  I had to trade a friend from the Chicago area for a bottle of this, exchanging this summer at NHC in Michigan.  Sj and I drank that one right away since we had been pining over it for so long and then we were sad that it was gone.  More recently I came into a stash of beers from another local beer hoarder and managed to get a couple more bottles of this precious nectar.  I did not get any of this year's Black Friday release and many tears were shed.

Any thoughts on this beer from the peanut gallery? I know there are a lot of BCS haters and lovers out there!

Next week I think I'm going to start a series of Surly Anniversary beers.  While these may not be quite as rare around here in Minnesota, the older bottles are getting pretty hard to find these days, and age may have changed these quite a bit since they came out.  Maybe these are closer to small beluga whales rather than Moby Dick, but still worth a try!  I'll be starting with the sour Surly Five and working my way through Eight.  Unless someone has a Four they would like to share!

A Whale A Week!

Having accumulated a fairly large collection (hoard) of special beers, I have had time to take stock and realize that I need to actually drink them!  I find it difficult to crack some of these unusual beers for just a regular day, often waiting for an event that is yet to come.  In order to force myself to open up some of these rarities I have set myself a challenge.  I call it A Whale A Week!  My goal will be to open, drink, and blog about at least one crazy rare beer every week for the coming year of 2015.  If I'm traveling, I'll still try to do this, but might have to post two the following week if I'm unable to get Internet access.  I'd love to have some friends "help" me out with tasting some of these and adding their two cents as well.

For my inaugural beer I have chosen Cantillon Lou Pepe Kriek 2009!

Served in my personalized Four Firkins snifter, I opened this for myself and for Sj to celebrate New Year's Day 2015.  For those who don't have experience with this type of beer, lambics are sour beers, and often have fruit added to balance the tartness of the brew.  Cantillon is THE lambic producer that all others bow down to.  They still produce the beers in traditional manner in Brussels, Belgium by pumping the hot freshly boiled wort into a large flat copper vat called a coolship.  The coolship is located in the attic of the brewery, and louvers are opened in the roof to let in random wild yeast and bacteria from the surrounding area as the beer cools overnight.  Having been to Cantillon twice now (seriously the coolest brewery ever...) and seeing the dust of ages and cobwebs all over everything, I'm still boggled by how good the beers are.  The lambic is aged in wooden barrels, with cherries added during the process, making it a Kriek.  Different barrels are usually blended to get the correct level of sourness and balance, often using a mix of young and old beer.  The most commonly found example of the Kriek style around the USA is probably the cloyingly sweet Lindemans, which is back sweetened gratuitously.

The regular Cantillon Kriek is wonderful, but the Lou Pepe is the Grand Cru or special version of the beer.  This is blended for complexity and uses only the rare tart Belgian Schaerbeek cherries in obscene quantities.  The cost and sourcing of the cherries alone makes this beer difficult and expensive to make.  I've had this beer (in several vintages) multiple times and would count it as one of my top 5 favorite beers of all time.  The last time I had this was in Belgium in the basement cellar of the beer bar Moeder Lambic, tasted against several other highly sought after Krieks.  And this one was hands-down the winner for all of us tasting them.

I managed to get my hands on this bottle on our first trip to Belgium and have been hoarding it for a special occasion.

The bottle is capped with a large crown cap, and has a small cork hiding under that, requiring me to dig out my rarely used corkscrew.  The beer pours a deep almost magenta color.  Excellent clarity, due to a very careful pour to leave the lees behind in the bottle.  A large and very pink head raises in the glass with fine, tight bubbles.

The aroma wafting off this beer is challenging and impressive.  Intense brettanomyces barnyard funk redolent of leather and musty hay.  Just smelling this beer makes your salivary glands clench as if you had sucked on a fresh lemon.  After the nose gets used to the funk, tart cherry, almond, and cinnamon arrive.  As this warms one gets a bit of actual lemon aroma.

And the taste!  This beer slaps you across the face with a massive tartness up front.  Cheek clenching sourness at first that fades to a mild tart cherry finish.  Hints of cherry pit and almond, maybe a bit of cinnamon.  The cherry is present, but the sourness and funky, musty flavors and tartness are the stars of this show.  Every sip is a bit different, especially as it warms.  Body is thin, like most lambics.  No alcohol warming.  No hop flavors.  Just cherry and sour!

Overall I really like this beer.  Having had it before, I found this 5 year old vintage quite different from the fresher versions.  The "fresh" ones are much more cherry forward, while this vintage has seen a distinct drop off of the cherry flavor.  Still amazing, but I wanted more of the cherry.  I'd still give this a 5 out of 5 stars, but the fresher version is a 5+!  This is not a beer for the faint of heart or the uninitiated into the world of sours, but sourheads like me will gush a bit for a taste of this.

Sj's take:  "Very sour!"

So there you go, first whale down on the first of the year!  I plan to do this weekly, so here goes.  The biggest question I'll probably get from readers is "what constitutes a Whale?"  I would consider these criteria:

1) A top 100 ranked beer on Beer Advocate or Ratebeer.
2) Something very difficult to get.  This may be due to sheer rarity, or possibly due to distribution difficulty.  Some Minnesota folk may not consider Surly Eight to be a whale because they released a fair amount into our area...but anyone outside of Minnesota will be desperately wanting to try this beer!
3) Any beer you have to camp out or wait in line for!  I'm talking Surly Darkness, Three Floyds Dark Lord, Town Hall Czar Jack, Cigar City Hunahpu, etc.
4) Something Vintage.

(Photo of killer whale from Sea World website, photoshopped by me and my can of Heady Topper.)