Astro Lab Brewing - "Fresh As" IPA

Friend and fellow beer aficionado Keenan C. was kind enough to drop off a pint of this beer to me today. Garnered from his most recent trip to Astro Lab Brewing (a whopping four miles north in Silver Spring, MD) this beer is a 7.10% ABV IPA made with Nelson Sauvin, Mosaic, and Citra hops. It's called "Fresh As", and was canned on Tuesday night. Truly "fresh as..."

Pours thickly into a snifter; leaves a thick white foam reminiscent of soap bubbles. Mild aroma but getting some pineapple juice straightaway. Lovely beer - not dank, no stickiness like you get with other tropical-style IPAs like Oskar Blues' "Can-O-Bliss", for example. The beer is super clean, with some hints of tropical juices like pineapple and guava. The bitterness is minor, actually, and hints at a softer hop bill. I like that it's in "the middle" for an IPA - not West Coast, not East Coast, but something in between. A very pleasant, refreshing, and approachable beer, and perfect for someone who may claim they "don't like IPAs."

I WAS planning a trip to Astro Lab a few months ago, but looks like that's off the table now. When we're allowed to come out of our caves, it's going to be my first stop. Big shout out to Emma, Matt, and the rest of the team at Astro Lab!

Stone Brewing Co. - 2013 "Imperial Russian Stout"

Just a quick snapshot today, on a very special day - this is the last of my stock of Stone Brewing Co.'s "Imperial Russian Stout." These stouts, which I've reviewed here before (like my review of this same beer in 2015) are/were around 10.60% ABV. This one was bottled seven years ago today - March 22, 2013. So seven years is long enough! I don't normally review the same beer or wine twice, but I make exceptions for vertical aging projects...I grabbed a bunch of these back in 2013, one of the last years they made it. Let's dip in.

Check out that bricking! Aroma is soft and malty, with that elusive "aged wood" quality.

So, yeah, as expected, this beer really mellowed out. It's lost a lot of the original flavor, and presents now a much softer, oaky, malty flavor. It's kinda neat - soft, leathery, tobacco flavors and barely any cocoa or coffee notes, as evidenced in the fresh original. Soft, silky, and still packs a punch, albeit different from when I bought it. Definitely left "too long" in the cellar, but I still enjoyed it. It's fun not only to see how aging works and to compare, over many years, the different taste profiles. And don't get me wrong - this beer isn't bad, just different.

And may I say, at the risk of sounding crotchety and old, I miss the old days when breweries would make cool stuff in the 22oz bottle formats. Stone, and many others, used to make a lot of fancy stuff in these formats, and was a common sight on this blog. This was one of them and a nice memory.

Founders Brewing Co. - 2018 "Curmudgeon's Better Half" English old ale

Although we're almost to spring, it still can be pretty chilly, so here's something to warm up with! I grabbed this last year, when we only had two cases of these delivered into D'Vines. I'd never heard of it before, but because Founders has such a good reputation when it comes to darker, barrel-aged beers, I bought it on spec for $18.99 for a four-pack of 12oz bottles. Of course I had one (or three) fresh, which is the basis for this review, but I also cellared one for a year and a half so I'll incorporate those notes at the end.

It's called "Curmudgeon's Better Half," and starts out as their base "Curmudgeon", an English old ale which becomes "Better Half" after aging for precisely 254 days in ex-bourbon barrels which had recently held Michigan maple syrup. The final product weighs in at a respectable 12.70% ABV.

Pours slowly, generates a whiskey nose, definitely with notes of dark maple sugar. Lighter in color than expected.

Interesting - this beer is super boozy and thick, and initially, I'm picking up some raisin sweetness, like an amped-up version of Sam Adams "Tetravis". But that soon gives way to a major wave  of maple and sticky, syrupy flavoring that bulldozes everything else. They must have added a ton of molasses because this kind of weight can't come from the cask aging alone. After swallowing, the flavor sits on the tongue for what seems like minutes.

In terms of aging, a year and a half did very little to mute the flavors I noted above. I guess that's to be expected, given the ABV and flavor profile, so it's good to know that aging in the short-term doesn't do much to change to profile of the beer. I'd be curious to see how this would hold up after three years.

First and foremost, this beer is sweet. It's heavy in the tummy, warming, and somewhat sticky on the lips. If you like maple and molasses, and are looking for a great beer for a winter's night in front of the fire, then you can't go wrong with this. In general. $18.99 is a lot for a four-pack of 12oz bottles, but in this case I think it's worth it. Fans of Founders' "Canadian Breakfast Stout" would also enjoy this for sure.