Tonight's beer: North Coast Grand Cru
Pale fruits—apples and pears, mostly; almost cider-like—on top of pale bread with grace notes of caramel, toast, and honey. Dim possibilities of baking spices, maybe a touch of banana in the distance. Tim hints of vanilla, wood, earth in the interstices. Never really all that bitter, or all that sweet; kinda tart, then gradually dry.
Medium-bodied, kinda dense, well-carbonated. Softly drying, tending toward refreshing. A little stickiness through the finish, but mostly clean and cleansing. No real alcohol heat on the palate: Just a banked and glowing warmth in the belly.
However long this beer sat around (more than a year, I think) It seems to have been just about perfect: This is one delicious beer, and at 12.9% ABV, this half-liter bottle is about as much as I want to drink tonight, even with a week-long visit to the in-laws in the offing (yes, I'm a lightweight). Virtually no hint of that ethanol payload, crazily drinkable; I'm only barely keeping myself to sips. Intense and complex and beautifully well-integrated. We should buy more, and drink it in a year and a half.
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| North Coast Grand Cru |
Pale fruits—apples and pears, mostly; almost cider-like—on top of pale bread with grace notes of caramel, toast, and honey. Dim possibilities of baking spices, maybe a touch of banana in the distance. Tim hints of vanilla, wood, earth in the interstices. Never really all that bitter, or all that sweet; kinda tart, then gradually dry.
Medium-bodied, kinda dense, well-carbonated. Softly drying, tending toward refreshing. A little stickiness through the finish, but mostly clean and cleansing. No real alcohol heat on the palate: Just a banked and glowing warmth in the belly.
However long this beer sat around (more than a year, I think) It seems to have been just about perfect: This is one delicious beer, and at 12.9% ABV, this half-liter bottle is about as much as I want to drink tonight, even with a week-long visit to the in-laws in the offing (yes, I'm a lightweight). Virtually no hint of that ethanol payload, crazily drinkable; I'm only barely keeping myself to sips. Intense and complex and beautifully well-integrated. We should buy more, and drink it in a year and a half.
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