Tonight's beer: Clown Shoes Crunkle Sam
Bright-sparkling bitterness counterpoised against thick chunky bready sweetness. Mostly-lemony citrus, pine; flecks of flowers and grass and musek. Buttery-rich caramel, dark candied fruits (mainly figs and the like), nuts/toffee. Dark spirits—whiskey, rum, brandy—in the background. Massively bittersweet from start to finish.
Thick—imposingly so—and chewy and sticky, mildly carbonated (somewhat sludgy-seeming, maybe because it's so thick). A little boozy warmth, but nothing untoward for 11% ABV. Gently drying, over the course of a slow and syrupy conclusion.
A delicious and thoroughly-American barleywine. The extra half-year in the bottle seems to have blunted some of the Citra hops' sharper points and edges, and there's more than enough malt to keep this from being nothing from lemons and cat pee (which is a tendency Citra hops do have). Intense and complex, cleverly balanced and niftily integrated. Plenty drinkable for such a big beer; imposing enough to be a sipping beer, though. Clown Shoes wins, yet again (to the surprise of absolutely no one, I suspect).
 |
| Clown Shoes Crunkle Sam |
Bright-sparkling bitterness counterpoised against thick chunky bready sweetness. Mostly-lemony citrus, pine; flecks of flowers and grass and musek. Buttery-rich caramel, dark candied fruits (mainly figs and the like), nuts/toffee. Dark spirits—whiskey, rum, brandy—in the background. Massively bittersweet from start to finish.
Thick—imposingly so—and chewy and sticky, mildly carbonated (somewhat sludgy-seeming, maybe because it's so thick). A little boozy warmth, but nothing untoward for 11% ABV. Gently drying, over the course of a slow and syrupy conclusion.
A delicious and thoroughly-American barleywine. The extra half-year in the bottle seems to have blunted some of the Citra hops' sharper points and edges, and there's more than enough malt to keep this from being nothing from lemons and cat pee (which is a tendency Citra hops do have). Intense and complex, cleverly balanced and niftily integrated. Plenty drinkable for such a big beer; imposing enough to be a sipping beer, though. Clown Shoes wins, yet again (to the surprise of absolutely no one, I suspect).
Comments
Post a Comment