Tonight's beer:
Lots of malt character—vanilla and caramel and toast—fighting a rear-guard action against grassy-floral bitterness. Threads of pine, and of citrus and other fruits. Maybe a dish of spice. A rising whiskey-ish tide into and through the aftertaste.
Thick, dense, chery; a bit sticky. Drying as heck, but too massive a beer to manage anything like refreshing. Pretty substantial alcohol warmth. Carbonation is decent, if a bit on the low side.
It's not every day that one sees an Imperial Red Ale that'll age into something like a pretty decent Barleywine, though some beers (Avery's Hog Heaven comes to mind) straddle that particular stylistic barrier. This sat around a while (we've had it since January, and the bottles are labeled, "Vintage 2012") and it's managed the trick, more or less. Intense and complex, nicely integrated and surprisingly well-balanced. A nice beer to sip through.
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| Terrapin Oaked Big Hoppy Monster |
Lots of malt character—vanilla and caramel and toast—fighting a rear-guard action against grassy-floral bitterness. Threads of pine, and of citrus and other fruits. Maybe a dish of spice. A rising whiskey-ish tide into and through the aftertaste.
Thick, dense, chery; a bit sticky. Drying as heck, but too massive a beer to manage anything like refreshing. Pretty substantial alcohol warmth. Carbonation is decent, if a bit on the low side.
It's not every day that one sees an Imperial Red Ale that'll age into something like a pretty decent Barleywine, though some beers (Avery's Hog Heaven comes to mind) straddle that particular stylistic barrier. This sat around a while (we've had it since January, and the bottles are labeled, "Vintage 2012") and it's managed the trick, more or less. Intense and complex, nicely integrated and surprisingly well-balanced. A nice beer to sip through.
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