Archetype Brewing Co. - "The Sage" Belgian strong ale

Friend and colleague Miguel was in Asheville, North Carolina a while back and kindly procured me this brew for sampling. A product of Archetype Brewing Co., this is a respectable 11.67% ABV Belgian dark strong ale. Check out that awesome bottle art!

Archetype is only a few years old and joins the already-burgeoning Asheville craft beer scene. When Miguel mentioned he was going, I specifically asked for him to grab me something from a small brewery that wasn't well known to me. It's fun to find hidden gems! According to their website, Archetype's main focus is Belgian beer, and head brewer Steven Anan developed his own strain of Belgian Saccharomyces yeast in his home kitchen. Archetype now uses that as their “house strain” of yeast. Very cool; these guys obviously know what they're doing. On to the beer!

Pours a light root beer color; nose is apple cider-esque and sour. Not super spicy or yeasty, but there's a definite Belgian touch to it. There's not much head.

Deep spices and brown sugar accompany the first sip of this beer; as it develops on the tongue, dark berries, mulling spices, and unsalted butter come to the forefront. Very full flavors here, lots of creaminess and low sweetness. Moderate alcohol flavors but remarkably light for the ABV. I'm getting more of that familiar Belgian spice as the beer finishes. Very tasty.

Quite nice and deceivingly light - it feels like I'm drinking a Belgian dubbel at 7.50%, not a strong ale at 11.67%. In terms of flavor, the dark berries and butter notes coupled with the creamy texture form a taste not unlike treacle, minus the sugar. I've found a lot of Belgian beers overload the Belgian spice and yeast, making the beer syrupy - this one is refreshingly light and drinkable. I really enjoy it! As it turns out, I'm not the only one - in 2018, this beer won the North Carolina Craft Brewers Guild's Brewers Cup trophy - beating out 74 craft breweries, with 624 entries. With this victory under their belts, I hope to see more great stuff from Archetype in the future!

The Bruery - "Chocolate Salty BBLs" stout

I got this monster from The Bruery's secret Society stock, thanks to my guys Sean, Sean, Ethen and the rest at The Bruery / Terreux bottle shop in Northeast Washington's Union Market. I've been holding on to this for a bit, waiting for the right time to enjoy - and the time has come.

Here we have "Chocolate Salty BBLs", an imperial stout aged in bourbon barrels, featuring vanilla beans, cacao nibs, and salt. Sounds like a lot of beers, frankly, but this one has a key difference: it's 18.67% ABV! Perhaps one of the strongest beers I have ever tried.

Notice the disclaimer: "Contains Alcohol." No kidding.

The Bruery has a reputation for making off-the-wall beers, specifically with "dessert" flavors like white chocolate, caramel, peanut butter, and jams of all sorts. They don't make anything half-assed, either, so I didn't mind spending $30 on this 750mL for a special occasion.

And what occasion is that?  I'm at the monthly beer-and-booze meetup called "Hopluck", hosted by former D'Vines colleague Nate and his partner Rachel. Aside from the hosts, reviewing today are part of our extended crew - Adam, Jake, Taylor, and Abbey. I'm not fighting this dire beast alone: we're going to do a group review!

OK, we had to pour out small servings since we had so many people tasting. Oddly, it's way lighter in color than I was expecting. Something like this should be jet black, but no, this is reddish-brown. It's even able to be candled.

Aroma is kinda mild, presents a bit of caramel but nothing major.

Oh, wow, OK. It's actually MUCH lighter than any of us were expecting, and Adam exclaimed "WOW!" after his first sip; and both Jake and Nate reacted similarly. There's a silky, full flavor of salted caramel, which hits right up front as the beer hits your tongue  - but it's a bit like cooked caramel, like the top layer of creme brulee...crusty, a touch of roastiness. Rachel feels it lacks the burnt tang of caramelized sugar, which makes sense since we're talking about flavor notes, not actual ingredients in beer. But we all agree that it shares the same profile. We swished and let it warm up; the caramel flavors take on a sweeter tone and we're detecting some oak (finally the barrels coming through!) and some vanilla, kinda like the overly-sweet vanilla sugar topping at Starbucks. I'm searching for the right word to describe the texture. Opposite of puckery? It's savory, in a way, but isn't necessarily oily. I was searching for the opposite of "puckery", and Taylor came up with "unctuous." Works for me!

I'm glad I tried this - I appreciate how well the brewers hid the alcohol, and we felt the flavors weren't overly sweet (sometimes a concern with The Bruery's dessert beers.) So not cheap for sure, but it's one of those cool special occasion beers that's best enjoyed with friends! We went into this review expecting a palate-wrecking bourbon bomb but came out surprisingly unscathed. The bourbon adds some sweetness there, for sure, but the alcohol is as hidden as it can be for being, in Taylor's words, "basically as strong as a mixed drink."

If you want this, or one of their other secret offerings, visit their bottle shop near Union Market and ask about their Society club membership. It's a subscription service that gives you access to all these limited-edition beers not normally available to the public, and worth checking out if you're a beer hound.

Alewerks Brewing Co. - "Kalypso's Island" Belgian blonde ale

I actually wasn't intending to write about this - I was simply looking for a post-shift beer to relax with, not to review, so bought this single 12oz bottle at D'Vines for $5. Made by Alewerks Brewing Co., it's called "Kalypso's Island" and is a Belgian-style blonde ale made with coconut, pineapple, and nutmeg. Beyond that, I admit that I didn't look too closely into it- I like Belgian ales, I like pineapple and coconut (in fact, one of my most favorite beers on earth is made with coconut and pineapple: Upland Brewing's "Latitude Adjustment") so I figured, what better beer to drink on a swampy, humid evening in Washington?

This beer is pleasingly soft with a definite note of Belgian yeast; there is a dose of coconut meat flavor and a slight tang of watery pineapple nectar - like the juice that's left in the can of canned pineapple chunks. No real showing of hops, and not as full of flavor as the "Latitude Adjustment", but that's okay - it's fine as an easy drinking ale! Very lush finish and aftertaste is of pineapples.

As I was savoring the flavor, I casually turned the bottle over to learn more about it when something caught my eye that made me double-take.

It's 9.30% ABV.

Wait, what?

Even now I don't see how this is possible. Nothing about this beer indicates it's 9.3 points, nothing at all. It's light, refreshing, and has the body of a 4.50% ABV lager, not a beer pushing 10.00%. So if yo're looking for a refreshing, tasty beer that really hides the alcohol, look no further than this heavyweight-in-disguise.

Duckhorn Wine Company - 2014 "Decoy" red blend [Sonoma County, CA]

I've been posting a lot of beer lately, so here's something of the grape variety - it's a red blend from Duckhorn Wine Company out of Sonoma County, California. I've had this in the cellar for a few years now, so time to enjoy. Remember - some wines last a long time, but most wines available at the store are meant to be enjoyed within a year or two of being purchased.

When a wine is labelled "red blend" or "red wine", we typically don't know the grape blend. Sometimes they say, and sometimes they don't. This one doesn't say, but online research reveals that it it is comprised of the following:

• 52% Merlot
• 22% Cabernet Sauvignon
• 10% Petit Syrah
• 8% Cabernet Franc
• 8% Petit Verdot

So a mix-master. Duckhorn is particularly known for making good Merlots, and I haven't reviewed too much of that grape over the years, so looking forward to this.

Generates a nice aroma, very even and lively. Bright red in the glass, no bricking.

Interesting - the wine is definitely on the darker end of things, with some full black cherry and grape skin flavors. A bit oily, it coats the mouth and presents lingering flavors of oak and a bit of tannic bite, with a slight metallic tinge developing on the aftertaste. I'm not detecting any smoke or salt or leather flavors. As it opens and the wine aerates it softens up, with more cherry juice flavors coming through. Finish is long and aftertaste is of cherry skins, a touch of wood, and a bit of copper. 

I paired with some Trader Joe's butternut squash pasta, bathed in Kerrygold and topped with cracked black pepper and black truffle salt. The wine is available at most wine retailers (I got mine at Harris Teeter for $14.99) but I've definitely seen it at Giant and elsewhere. Definitely on the fuller end, but would be a fine choice for pasta or pizza.