Tonight's beer: Three Taverns Theophan the Recluse
Starts with caramel and dark dried fruits (cherries, plums, dates, figs) followed closely by a ton of roasty and toasty flavors that build and accumulate: chocolate and coffee, dark bread and toast and toffee. Peat and smoke and ash around the edges, earthy-grassy peaty bitterness emerges toward the finish as the beer dries out. Baking spices—cloves and allspice, mainly—in the background throughout.
Pretty light-bodied for a big stout—it's a lot closer to medium-bodied than seems to be the norm for the style. Nicely carbonated, drying, pretty close to refreshing. Some stickiness and a little chewiness at the finish. Maybe a soft boozy glow, remarkably subdued for 9% ABV.
I don't knot that I believe this beer, as a Russian Imperial Stout: The Belgian yeast Three Taverns used (it says so on the label) is right out-front, and it gives this beer an almost-quadrupel-ish vibe. The closest parallel I can think of is Boulevard's Dark Truth (which IMO is a better beer). Still, this is a very nice beer, and a very drinkable one; there is a *ton* of intensity and there are enough threads of flavor here to weave the fricking Bayeux Tapestry. It's balanced and integrated and (comparisons aside) pretty much its own thing. While Three Taverns may have missed the target stylewise, they have as usual brewed a delicious beer.
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| Three Taverns Theophan the Recluse |
Starts with caramel and dark dried fruits (cherries, plums, dates, figs) followed closely by a ton of roasty and toasty flavors that build and accumulate: chocolate and coffee, dark bread and toast and toffee. Peat and smoke and ash around the edges, earthy-grassy peaty bitterness emerges toward the finish as the beer dries out. Baking spices—cloves and allspice, mainly—in the background throughout.
Pretty light-bodied for a big stout—it's a lot closer to medium-bodied than seems to be the norm for the style. Nicely carbonated, drying, pretty close to refreshing. Some stickiness and a little chewiness at the finish. Maybe a soft boozy glow, remarkably subdued for 9% ABV.
I don't knot that I believe this beer, as a Russian Imperial Stout: The Belgian yeast Three Taverns used (it says so on the label) is right out-front, and it gives this beer an almost-quadrupel-ish vibe. The closest parallel I can think of is Boulevard's Dark Truth (which IMO is a better beer). Still, this is a very nice beer, and a very drinkable one; there is a *ton* of intensity and there are enough threads of flavor here to weave the fricking Bayeux Tapestry. It's balanced and integrated and (comparisons aside) pretty much its own thing. While Three Taverns may have missed the target stylewise, they have as usual brewed a delicious beer.
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