Today's beer is another Stone Brewing Co. collaboration - a three-way collaboration in fact between Drew Curtis, Wil Wheaton, and Greg Koch. It's called the "W00tstout," a rather-strong 13.00% ABV imperial stout. It's their third year releasing the W00tstout, and in celebration of that fact, they've barrel-aged some of the beer inside. According to Stone's website, the bottle art was also drawn by comic artist Dave "The Reverend" Johnson, to raise money for the Hero Initiative, a not-for-profit corporation dedicated to financially supporting retired comic book and graphic novel artists. Pretty cool if you ask me.
A little bit about the people involved: Greg Koch is the CEO and co-founder of Stone, and Drew Curtis is the founder of Fark.com, which I had never heard of. It's apparently a news site, much like Reddit. Curtis also ran unaffiliated in the 2015 Kentucky gubernatorial race, unsuccessfully. And, of course, those of you who are Star Trek fans may remember Wil Wheaton as Wesley Crusher, the adolescent son of the Enterprise's Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Beverly Crusher.
I now realize all of you are silently judging me for my nerddom, however I can assure you that Star Trek: The Next Generation was a pretty great series and you all should watch it. Especially the episodes "The Defector," "All Good Things..." (which is the series finale), "Inner Light," and of course my favorite, "Cause and Effect."
Apparently both Drew Curtis and Wil Wheaton are homebrewers, and this beer is the result of their interest. I initially had hoped to interview Wil Wheaton for this blog, but requests for comment went unanswered. That being said, looks like it's time to try this out.
As you can see, it pours a deep brown, with a deep tan head that leaves some lacing in the glass.
Good coloring in the head - some of the darkest foam on a beer I have seen. As expected, the beer is opaque and can't be candled.
Jeez. The first sip was one of deep, creamy chocolate with a LOT of alcohol flavors. In actual fact, I was amazed at how boozy this tasted. "Booziness" is a word that beer aficionados use to describe a beer that has prominent alcohol tastes. Some beers hide it well, others do not. Well, this is one that doesn't hide it, but brings it front and center. There's some chocolate flavors, but the malty alcohol flavors really bulldoze anything else that tries to make an entrance. The beer finishes nicely, kind of like Boulevard's Bourbon Barrel Quad, but with a much darker, roastier flavor packed with alcoholic sweetness. Whew.
In retrospect, I think it's fun to try, but I don't know if I would necessarily buy it again. It was frankly too strong for me. My appreciation of it was blocked in part by the overwhelming strength of the beer; I just don't really like that much power. And it doesn't have a lot to do with the alcohol content, either - I've really enjoyed the Dogfish Head 120 minute IPA, which is stronger than the W00tstout by several points. It was just the powerful flavors and overwhelming booziness made it a little unpalatable.
Legal fine print stuff: Star Trek GIF and Crusher photo property of their respective owners. No copyright infringement intended. All borrowed content used for comic purposes .
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