CrashOctopus Blog

Imported from Jamaica, Dragon Stout is one of our favorites. I’d give you a link, but all my googling was in vain – I can’t find them on the web!

Dragon Stout comes in fairly small bottles – less than half a pint. It is smooth and slightly sweet, with the interesting characteristic that retains the same slight sweetness even after eating something sweet (like, say, chocolate). It goes down easy, like lighter beers, but with lots of flavor, like heavier beers. It has a hint of caramel flavor, and is full, rich, and savory.

Ratings:
M: 9.5
N: 9.5

This week’s beer is another big bottle o’ fun. Avery “The Czar” Imperial Stout is a newcomer at the store; not yet popular enough for six-packs, only expensive pint bottles.

It is delicious. Sweetness fills your senses, but there’s a hint of tangy, too. It does have a tiny sour aftertaste, but I’ve yet to find a beer without one. It’s verrry smooth and velvety going down. I don’t know how it got its name, but it’s appropriate – The Czar is a beer fit for royalty. And for me.

Ratings:
N:9.5
M: 9

This week, instead of beer ratings, y’all get a warning and a question. When it happened once, I asked the liquor store (and stumped them). When it happened again, I turn to you for answers.

Twice we’ve bought organic beer that was possessed. Two separate occasions, two different breweries. We’d open the bottle, but as soon as the beer reached our mouths, it turned to complete fizz. All air, no liquid. Same if we poured it in a glass – it turned completely to foam. Let it sit for half an hour, and there’d be half an inch of totally flat beer in a glass that had been brimming full of foam.

Both times, the blight affected the entire six-pack. Both times, we’ve had the beer several times before and it was fine. The first occasion was several months ago, and it was Bison Chocolate Stout. The second time was last weekend, with Butte Creek Organic Porter. It wasn’t as bad as the Bison, but still difficult to drink. Beer is much less enjoyable when you have to concentrate on each sip or end up with fizz up your nose and a shirt covered in beer fluff.

So… if you but these organic beers, beware… and does anyone know what the freakin’ heck is going on? Unless you have ideas, I’m going on the presumption that these beers are possessed.

We had a blast at an outdoor block party yesterday afternoon, alternating between burning in the sun on the blacktop and hiding in the air-conditioned pub. They only had a few Irish beers on tap, and were charging $11 for 32 oz. That’s a lot of beer, but eleven dollars?!? Aaaack.

Anyway, Nathan tried a “Blacksmith,” which is a mixture of the Guinness and Smithwick’s taps. It was pretty good, although it’s hard to drink down 32 oz of dark beer in the 90 degree heat before the beer starts to get warm.

Smithwick’s is a red ale, reminscent of Killian’s. It is brewed by the Guinness company. Adding it to Guinness makes it a little less smooth, although overall it’s still fairly bland. Adding the ale sort of ruined the nice head of the Guinness, which made me sad. Perhaps it was the warm weather, but having a slightly tangier, lighter version of Guinness made us happy.

M: 7

N: 7.5

I can’t say that I’m impressed with draft choices at restaurants around here. However, some have a nice selection of bottled beers. Last weekend, we went to Jim N Nick’s and they had one dark bottle selection (other than Guinness, of course). It was Samuel Smith Tadcaster Oatmeal Stout.

It’s about on par with the other English stouts we’ve tried. Sweet but tangy, its flavors are slightly juxtaposed and pleasantly confuse the taste buds (which, at the time, were inundated with barbecue sauce). It’s a bit spicy and savory. It doesn’t have much fizz, so it’s smooth on the tongue and throat. There is a fairly sharp aftertaste, and overall it faintly reminds me of toast.

M: 7.5

N: 7.5

Black Hawk Stout is a reasonably-priced, average dark beer. Their website claims that their “intent was to create a Stout that did not overpower the palate.” They have succeeded. Maybe I’ve become hard to impress with all this beer tasting, but I need something a little more “overwhelming.”

There isn’t all that much taste to it. It is overpowering in one respect, though – it is very bitter. The aftertaste is even bitterer. There’s not much of a change in flavor throughout. It has little sweetness, is a bit malty, and sort of rough going down.

Ratings:

M: 4

N: 4.5

Happy Earth Day! Today I chose a beer that has a tree in its name. See how earthy I am? I’ve also planted two trees this year. If you haven’t done so already, go plant a tree! My two new trees, “Fil” and “Bert,” are growing and boldly leafing out, making my air cleaner already.

Anyway, Dominion Oak Barrel Stout is this week’s beer. For a stout, it’s quite light. It is bubbly and bright, and not very smooth. Unfortunately, it doesn’t have a lot of taste or body. It’s a bit flighty – more like a finch in the tree than the oak itself (see, more earth metaphors!). Redeemingly, it smells a bit like coffee.

M: 7

N: 6

Happy Easter and all that. I’m still going to be sacreligious and blog about beer, but at least I picked one named after a saint.

We found this beer amongst the very large bottles of beer, and they even gave us a paper bag to put it in. Half of the Beverage Resort’s dark beer selection is available only in huge bottles. We were driven to this area by one of the employees – an old Russian who following us around the store, talking the whole time. He berated Budweiser, extolled the Russian tradition of after-work vodka shots, and recommended beers to us. Sounded trustworthy to me! And the beers he recommended were good… but this one wasn’t one of them. We picked this one ourselves. Next time I’ll listen to the old dude.

The first impression I had of St. Peter’s Cream Stout was cheese. Yes, cheese. It tastes like sharp cheddar. Initially it is very sharp and savory, with no sweetness at all. It is smooth, but the sharpness comes with a bite. It’s really bland – the sharpness overwhelms your mouth, but underneath, there isn’t much taste.

After having semi-spicy chili for dinner, the taste changed a bit. The beer was still sharp, but the bite vanished. I’ve never experienced a beer taste metamorphosis before – must have been the chili powder.

M: 6.5

N: 7

Edit: I had to include this quotation from their website: “Lower carbonation gives the beers a refreshing, less gaseous palate than many bottled ales.”

This week’s beer is Old Rasputin Russian Imperial Stout. It was one of the first stouts we tried, and it’s pretty darn good. It comes from North Coast Brewing in California, which is slightly disappointing, since I was expecting it to be made from a recipe crafted by the crazy dead Russian himself. Even though it isn’t, it’s good enough to have won a bunch of awards.

The taste is full and dark, with a hidden sweetness. It’s bitter around the edges, with a brightness to the taste that stays with you a long time. The bitterness hits you pretty quickly. As Kay mentioned in her comment, this one’s a bit of a teeth-whapper.

M: 8.5

N: 8.5

One of the half dozen beers we bought last week was Lagunitas Imperial Stout. It wasn’t available in 4- or 6-packs, only in those really huge bottles. (Well, maybe just 22 oz… but too much for one person to drink before it gets warm.) Nathan and I each got a nice-sized glass of beer from it.

It’s delicious. The website has an interesting description of it, but it doesn’t describe much about the beer itself. Unless you consider adjectives like “bourgeois,” “belligerent,” and “scary” as appropriately indicative of beer flavor. I’d describe it more as sweet, light, and fruity… for a stout. It has a tiny bitterness that doesn’t linger and a pleasantly weak and short aftertaste. It is a bit bitey, but in a fresh fruity kind of way, not a “whap you in the teeth” kind of way, as kay-bot so delicately commented. It’s not thick, heavy, or syrupy like so many dark beers. All in all, an excellent stout.

M: 9
N: 9