The beer geeks are at it again. The theme for this month’s meeting of the try-to-taste-every-beer-in-the-world tasting group was “Darkness.” No, not the much sought after imperial stout from Surly Brewing Company. Rather this was an exploration of the murky and menacing world of dark beer. The assignment for each member was to bring “dark” beers that they had never tried. The idea of “darkness” was left intentionally vague to encourage a bit of freewheeling interpretation and exploration. As a result we sampled a huge variety of inky brews from imperial stouts to fruited porters to smoked bock and strong Belgians, with one particularly “interesting” grape flavored concoction that I will describe later. It was a beautiful evening, so we met in my garden. There is nothing like sitting in the back yard on a nice spring night drinking great beers with good friends.
We had a great selection of beers for this gathering. There were a few clear standouts, but overall the quality was very high. Even the couple of disappointments had more to do with problematic handling than the quality of the beers themselves. I’ll start with those disappointments.
The first beer of the night was a two year old bottle of Sprecher Imperial Stout. I won’t say that this beer was actually disappointing, because it was quite good, if a bit light for the style. Loaded with dark fruit, chocolate roast, and molasses, with a hint of soy from aging, I would gladly 
have quaffed a pint of this. However, when considered in comparison to the many other great beers of the night, it didn’t quite hold up. A bottle of De Struise Black Albert proved to be quite disappointing. I reviewed this beer on the Perfect Pint website and found it to be a thick, chocolate and brown sugar wonder. I did however detect a hint of sour funkiness as it warmed. I think that the funk had overtaken the bottle that we sampled here. Gone was the rich chocolaty splendor. This example had a definite roasted apple cider character with pronounced sourness. It was not at all the beer I had tasted a few months ago.
A real disappointment for me was the Goose Island Cherry Wood Smoked Bock. Brought back from the brewpub in a growler, this beer did not travel well. I downed many a pint of this during my two-month stay in Chicago earlier this year. I know that it is a fantastic beer. Unfortunately, this example tasted a bit like a meaty band-aid with none of the sweet caramel malt and woody fruit smoke that I admired so much at the pub. If you are in Chicago, I recommend it. But maybe don’t try to bring any back to your friends.
Now to the good stuff. Oh, where to begin? There were so many great beers sampled that I can really only touch on the real standouts here. I’ll do my best. I was surprised by Tres Blueberry Stout from Dark Horse Brewing. I reviewed the One and Two of their five-beer stout series and found them to have an unpleasant, over-the-top, acrid roast. These were beers that I nearly could not finish. I brought this beer expecting not to like it. Instead I found a balanced and very fruity stout with a huge blueberry aroma. The blueberry flavor was complemented by a nice coffee roast and hints of spicy cinnamon in the finish. As long as I’m talking about flavored stouts, I have to mention Southern Tier’s Mokah. This bottle was 22 ounces of chocolate and coffee heaven. Smells of fresh brownies and QuickTM come gushing out as soon as the bottle is opened. The gigantic sweet flavors were compared to drinking brownies or “a gallon of chocolate milk.” This is definitely an after-dinner beer, but what an after-dinner beer it is.
For the Belgians the real standout to me was Terrible from Canada’s Unibroue. This 10.5% Belgian Strong Dark ale had delicious fruity marshmallow aromas and luscious flavors of sugar, raisins, bananas and spice, always with this creamy marshmallow character in the background. It was balanced by a slight lactic acidity that kept it from being too rich. I bought myself a bottle the very next day. We were treated to a bottle of 2004 vintage Westvleteren 12. This beer is different every time you taste it. This particular example was super fruity with big cherry aromas and flavors. The fruitiness was balanced by light chocolate notes and a sharp, dry finish. This beer was described variously as having “the sensation of being dry and sweet at the same time” and “like drinking flowers.” It reminded me of chocolate covered cherries. Complex and delicious.
There’s always one in every group and this group is no exception. The frightening beer of the 
evening was a “purple flavored malt liquor” called Dragon Joose. This 9.9% ABV grape monstrosity is produced by United Brands International, the folks responsible for ChiquitaTM bananas. Wikipedia describes it as “berry inspired flavors with caffeine, ginseng and taurine” and “certified colors.” We described it as high-test grape soda. This is a drink designed to mess you up fast.
The beers tasted were Sprecher Imperial Stout, Dark Horse Tres, Stone Imperial Russian Stout, Malheur 12, Westvleteren 12, Saint-Feuillien Brun, Avery Out of Bounds Stout, Tyranena Paradise by the Dashboard Lights Cherry Porter, Flag Porter, Boulevard Smokestack Series Imperial Stout, DeStruise Black Albert, Sam Adams Imperial Stout, Southern Tier Mokah, Goose Island Cherry Wood Smoked Bock, Unibroue Terrible, Bell’s Special Double Cream Stout, Xingu Black Beer, Rogue Double Black, Brewdog Riptide Stout, and Dragon Joose. Those in attendance were Michael Agnew, Wilbur Ince, Jonathan Crist, Gera Exire LaTour, Al Boyce, Paul Dienhart, Joel Stitzel, and Mark Johnson.
As with the other two of these ingredient focused events, we started off tasting an English Bitter to see how our highlighted ingredient plays out in an essentially balanced beer. This month it was Huvila ESB from Finland. A great example of the style, this beer starts with a solid bite of hop bitterness that fades into a luscious caramel and toffee malt. The yeast comes through as a subtle orange marmalade with none of the buttery character that is sometimes a part of this style. Cory paired this beer with a cheddary macaroni and cheese.
yeast character with the rich, bready wheat malt. This one was a crowd favorite. Next up was the Smokestack Series Saison from Boulevard Brewing in Kansas City. Historically a Belgian farmhouse ale intended to keep farmhands hydrated through the hot summer months, Saison is a light, effervescent, and refreshing beer with a unique yeasty profile. The Boulevard saison is true to style with a sharp dry finish and a tasty blend of black pepper spiciness with citrus and stone fruit esters. Paired with an aged gouda this was heaven.
From there we dove headlong into the world of true fermentation funkiness, the sour beers. We waded in cautiously with Rodenbach Classic Flanders Red Ale. Wine like, slightly sour, and redolent of cherries and other fruits, this beer received a mixed response. Some loved it. Some simply choked it down. Others thought it would make an excellent salad dressing. The pairing of this beer with pickled herring was the surprise of the night. The sum of the sours was less intense than either separate. It worked quite well. Next was Oro de Calabaza from Michigan’s Jolly Pumpkin Artisan Ales. This is a Belgian Strong Golden ale that has been aged in barrels harboring wild yeast and funk producing bacteria. Strong barnyard and leather aromas and flavors dominated, but didn’t completely cover up the fruity and spicy belgian yeast character. This was the favorite beer of the night to many in attendance.
lambic beers. Intensely sour, cidery, fruity, leathery, and complex, these beers can be a shocker on first tasting. I was really curious to see how the group would respond to this one. I encouraged them to look beyond the sour to find the complexity hidden beneath. By the end of the five ounce pour, it was beginning to grow on many of the tasters. I was happy to see that no one dumped it out. One even commented, “I don’t hate this. I think it could grow on me.”
for the 
A nice crowd gathered at the Cedar Cultural Center last night for the Zipp’s Spring Beer Tasting event. Part beer festival, part charity fund-raiser for the Cedar, this event brought together distributor, importer, and brewery reps in a showcase of over 100 regional and national beers. $20 bought your entry and included a tasting glass and all the samples you could consume. There was also a silent auction with proceeds going to support the Cedar Cultural Center. The auction included lots of beer swag, like glassware, t-shirts, and hats, along with biking paraphernalia and even a bike. Zipp’s did a similar event last fall that was not nearly as well attended. It was great to see so many people turn out to taste good beer and support a great cause.
disappointing side. By far the best beer I tasted all night was Flashback, an imperial brown ale from 
and too little malt, this was like drinking a lightly sugary, watery glass of orange-grapefruit juice. I like the beers from Lagunitas, but I’ll pass on this one. Another disappointment from an otherwise great brewery was Mom Hefeweizen from 
The real pleasant surprise of the night was 
The theme for the April meeting of my monthly “let’s try to taste every beer in the world” beer tasting group was lager. For many, the thought of “lager beer” conjures up images of the pale yellow American style lagers that have become the accepted standard for beer the world over. While those beers do occupy a disproportionate amount the worldwide shelf space, they represent only a small corner of the entire lager universe. Lager styles go from the super light American “Lite” beer to the richly caramel and high alcohol Doppelbock, with a stop at every color and flavor along the way.
much they cost, or what the quality was. They just had to be fermented with a bottom-feeding yeast. In all, sixteen beers were tasted and commented upon ranging from a 2% ABV German light beer to the 10% ABV Human Blockhead from the 
chocolate and coffee character, but none of the astringent bitterness that often comes with big roasted beers. The only possible flaw was a startlingly quick finish. Whatever you want to call it, I would seek this beer out again. Another favorite and perhaps the most “interesting” beer of the night was the Beersel Lager from 
Last night thirty beer enthusiasts gathered at the 
and drinkability of this beer. Many expressed that unlike most Double IPAs they could imagine themselves having three or four of these in a sitting.
Les Deux Brasseurs – For most this Brettanomyces fermented beer was heaven in a bottle with delightful stone fruit and cherries dancing with a gently horsey funk and light acidic sour. For some, though, the funk was too much.