Random Tasting of 9 Beers

The Lineup for last night was:
1. Sprecher Black Bavarian
2. The Bruery Black Orchard
3. Lost Abbey Carnevale
4. Three Floyds Alpha King
5. Firestone Union Jack IPA
6. Stone IPA
7. Founders Kentucky Breakfast Stout
8. Oskar Blues Ten Fidy
9. Southern Tier Jah-Va

Starting off with the lighter beers, the Sprecher Black Bavarian really stood out. This is a style I don't often have and it was very tasty. Lightly roasted with a mix of caramel and chocolate yet still pretty light in body. Black Orchard and Carnevale I've mentioned previously in the blog, but Carnevale tasted even more phenolic than last time, which was really good. That is a great Saison, and just so happened to recently please Jay at Hedonist Beer Jive.

Moving into the hoppy beers, I think my bottles of Alpha King are getting a bit old cause I just don't get much of a hop aroma from them anymore, although they still taste citrusy, but they do have a stale flavor oncoming. Still, friends really liked Alpha King. Union Jack is just amazing, can't really say anything about it that I haven't already said. Stone IPA was ok, I've had it fresher and tastier, but I think it wasn't meant to be kept in a growler for a month.



Onto the stouts, as expected most people were pleased with the concentrated coffee aspect of the Founders Breakfast Stout, one of my favorite stouts of all time. Ten Fidy was a bit thicker and had more of a balance between roastiness and chocolate, but was pretty good. I couldn't imagine drinking more than 6 ounces or so because it's so thick and rich. Speaking of thick, the final beer of the night- Southern Tier Jah-Va ended up being a drain pour. At 12% and focusing on big coffee flavor, this was just undrinkable to me. Not because of the coffee flavor but because of how ridiculously thick it was. There seems to be only a handful of 10+% ABV Stouts that I can actually enjoy (Southern Tier Choklat being one of them), and this wasn't one.