Adelbert's Brewery - "Black Rhino" black ale

Today's beer came all the way from the Lone Star State, thoughtfully purchased for me by colleague (and blog reader) Avi on his recent trip to Texas. I haven't had too many Texas beers; I've of course had Shiner, and had a heretofore-forgotten local lager last year when I had a layover in Houston. So needless to say I am excited about trying another example, especially one from Austin, known to be a nexus of the Texas craft beer scene.

It's a 5.6% ABV black ale from Austin-based Adelbert's Brewery. There's a twist here - it's actually Belgian-inspired black ale. It's also aged - it says on the bottle that it was bottled on May 15, 2014. And with bottle conditioning, there's sure to be some fun surprises waiting inside.

The cork was really wedged in there, and even with a gentle shake, it still wasn't coming out. I tried gently twisting, and the cork broke, which is a new experience for me. The bulbous part snapped right off, so I had to use a corkscrew to pull the other part out.

The beer pours lighter than I expected - I expected black, it was more like a root-beer brown. The foam is a khaki color, and when candled, it's a nice red color.

It's interesting. It starts out pretty light, with some milk chocolaty notes that are both pleasant and expected. It tastes more like a black lager right away, but gives way to a much more recognizable Belgian taste as it develops. The finish is earthy, soft, and malty, with an aftertaste of coffee. There's also an undertone of Belgian spice, which comes into play as the beer warms up.

I'm a fan, and taste aside, it's good because it's light. At 5.6% ABV, it's strong enough to hold my interest but light enough not to overpower. There are no alcohol tastes or anything and the levity is enough to do away with the sickly-sweet roasted notes that dark beers sometimes have. This approach isn't conventional, but not unheard of. Particularly, I enjoy these kinds of "genre-bending" creations - taking two good styles of beer and seamlessly meshing them isn't easy, but when it's done right, it's great. I'd be curious to try this on draft, and to try other Adelbert's offerings.

Beer Flash: Lagunitas Brewing Co.'s "Cappuccino Stout"

Happy Cher-snow-byl! Here at Sip and Puff I'm making the most of being snowed in. Enter an old favorite - Lagunitas' "Cappuccino Stout." Of course, I stuck it in a snowdrift to keep it cold. Gotta make use of Nature's refrigerator!

I've reviewed it before, so I won't go too much into the nuts and bolts, but essentially it's a 9.2% ABV stout made with coffee beans. It's nice and smooth, with good roasted-bean tastes up front and a milky-smooth body, with ground coffee tastes on the finish. Naturally, I had to chill the glass as well - snowbanks also do the trick quite well. It's still coming down out there, so I may do another snowbeer later.

Wine Flash: 2012 Paul Mas' Cote Mas "Rouge Intense" (France)

Here's another quick post to spotlight a nice French red blend I had with dinner a while back. It's a 2012 Paul Mas Cote Mas red blend by the label name "Rouge Intense." It's made in the Languedoc AOC, and is made from a mashup of many grapes:

• 45% grenache noir
• 25% Carignan
• 15% Cinsault
• 10% Merlot
• 5% Syrah

It's an interesting blend, for sure - let's see how it turns out. It's dark red in the glass, with some fruity aromas. The taste is delicate, a bit watery, but remarkably flavors develop nicely on the tongue and show signs of blackberry and dark grape skin flavor. That could be thanks to the generous helping of grenache noir in the bottle. In the end, jammy and bright and a really tasty bottle. We paired it with homemade herbed rack of lamb, creamy potatoes, green beans, and some butternut squash in bourbon sauce.

Maui Brewing Co. - "Dopple Shot Doublebock" doppelbock

Today's beer immediately caught my attention at Whole Foods here in DC. It's Maui Brewing Co.'s "Dopple Shot Doublebock," a dopplebock-style ale made with coffee. And while you may recall me saying that I try to avoid coffee beers (after having had so many of them) I couldn't pass this one up.

A "bock" is a German term for a kind of strong lager, of which there are several kinds, including a maibock (or "May bock"), helles bock, eisbock (an ice beer) and dopplebock. Dopplebock is simply German for "double bock" and, like today's example, are darker and stronger than your typical bock bieren. This one is an 8.2% example, made with Yellow Caturra coffee grown in Ka'anapali, Maui, Hawaii. It's Maui Brewing Co.'s limited release (brewed once, I have read.)

Cracked a can open and poured into a pint glass. Immediately it projected a strong aroma of ground coffee beans, and not much else. Really cool, like sticking your face in a freshly-ground bag of coffee. A+ in the aroma department, as far as I'm concerned.

The color is a hazy orange, which is also really cool. Also cool - the flavor. It's spot-on for coffee, holding a strong initial burst, but gives way to a much more balanced finished, with discernible hops and malts making appearances. I like how it's "carefully coffee" - it's not overpowering, and the coffee elements are very particularly presented. Some coffee beers smash you over the head with it, or claim it's coffee but end up having little coffee flavor whatsoever. This beer reminds me of the Fort George's Java The Hop, although maltier. And both JTH and the Dopple Shot have that unexpectedly-light coloring and unexpectedly-light flavor, coupled with delicious coffee notes, that make it a pleasure to drink.

My only concern with Maui's offerings is the cost, and this is somewhat understandable due to the distance such a beer must travel. I'm told that raw ingredients can get costly on the islands, so perhaps this contributes to the cost. Much of what Maui sells is a few bucks above average, and I've even seen their Lemongrass Saison (which I had the misfortune of not trying) for $17.99 a six-pack. So aside from that, everything I've had from Maui has been very good and the Dopple Shot is no exception.

Boulevard Brewing Co. - "Tart Cherry Stout 2015" imperial stout

Just in time for the cold and dark winter nights, here's another Smokestack offering from Boulevard: this time an 11.00% ABV imperial stout made with cherries. I don't think I have had the Imperial Stout format before, I think with all the other Smokestack choices out there, I neglected to pick up the most basic-seeming offering. But with the addition of tart cherries, I figured I should give it a spin and see what it's all about.

Huge pop from the cork, which was fun. It's got a strong aroma of dark chocolate, and when poured, generates foam like crazy. Dunno why, but it's rather dramatic. And before you say "it's because you're pouring in the middle of the glass, dummy," that's actually not it. I only pour in the middle for the last inch or so of the glass, to get the photo. It generated tons of foam even as I slowly poured on the side of the tilted glass, as per usual.

Black in the glass as you can see. As usual for super-dark beers, it doesn't candle at all. I also like that the head of the beer is very dark tan, approaching brown. Cool.

I let it sit for a bit (usually with darker beers, I let them warm up on the table for a few minutes) and then took a taste.

Jee-zus.

So, but first and foremost, CHERRIES. An amount of cherries far beyond anything I anticipated. Particularly, the cherry flavors are sweet - kind of like those Cella chocolate-covered cherries; sweet with notes of dark chocolate; however there is sort of undercurrent of dark chocolate and chicory, especially on the finish. The aftertaste is one of pulpy cherries and chocolate. But throughout the beer, you cannot escape the influence of that little red fruit.

Another note, about the texture. It's heavy, excessively dark and sweet, similar in mouthfeel to the W00tstout - super thick, syrupy, and powerful. I think that fact compounded the overpowering cherry flavors and made this a beer that was frankly tough to power through. I'm glad to have tried it, and for stout fans it is certainly a beer to try, but it's not my particular favorite.

Beer Flash: Sam Smith's "2015-2015 Winter Warmer"

I cracked open this beer recently and wanted to spotlight it. It's UK brewery Sam Smith's annual "Winter Warmer" ale, just a special holiday-themed beer. Last year I tried an aged Winter Warmer, with surprising results. But that was aged, so I wanted to try it fresh. 

I think this is a different recipe from previous batches - it poured much darker (check the link above) with lots of little bubbles. I was pleased - it was crisp and strong, like an Oktoberfest, with a little apple tang at the end. There's notes of cinnamon, cloves, and malt in there making it a pleasant afternoon pint. I liked that it was lighter than your typical end-of-year stouts, which usually end up being dark and thick.