Get your Oats with some Impressive Imperials

First of the Makos home games brought a clear crisp night and the resulting emphatic win by the team, electrified the crowd with exited anticipation for perhaps a serious shield challenge.  Well, I was excited and had me scurrying back home faster than a Makos back line to check the fridge for some thirst quenching warming oatmeal stouts to ease the chill of the night and toast a great win.

Oatmeal stouts are exactly as labelled, having rolled oats added to the fermentation for their higher fat content to give qualities of sweetness and rich mouth feel, and used to be viewed as a healthful and restorative drink, so make sure your Doctor reads this!

First up was Liberty Brewing ‘Darkest Days’ named because of the ever increasing difficulty for craft brewers to get regular supplies of hops, not because Richie and Dan are injured.  Swirl the glass to encourage a creamy head, take a gulp and experience a thin bodied yet silky texture as the oat fats lubricate the mouth. Perfectly balanced mild strength with pleasant hop and cocoa malt flavours.  This is an easy to drink stout and is in stark contrast to the next oatmeal stout,

The ‘Epicurean Coffee and Fig Imperial Oatmeal Stout’ from Epic.

Distinct aroma of fresh figs, taste is of dark chocolate with a ‘long black’ background and a dry woody lingering aftertaste exactly like a freshly picked fig.  Strangely, this dry aftertaste keeps you going back for more. This brew is an unusual departure from Epic’s normal in your face hoppy brews as the Epic Epicurean is more an about face in your face fig brew, not just their play on words!

‘8 Wired Mighty Imperial Ale’ hasn’t any oatmeal, but I’m sure is just as healthy?

A full bodied brew with a port barrel aged woodiness to it that smacks of bitterness, hoppy pines then a pleasant afterglow of malty diversity with just a touch of smokiness.  An 11% blockbuster that’ll warm you to your toes!

Maybe Richie and Dan should be trying oatmeal for their restoration?

Denis  Cooper - Zythologist

 

No rogue Rogues for this rogue

 

Had no tastings to do for da boss for a while and then at the last minute he plonks 9 beers on me to try, all in one evening and a test match night as well.  I’ll quickly review the beers so then I can relax and watch some Prime time rugby.  Man, hard making a living these days!

The beers are all from an American brewery going by the name of Rogue which was one of the earliest craft breweries to establish themselves way back in 1988 starting from a bunch of home brewing mates.  The head brewer, John “more hops” Maier, has a caricature of himself on many of the different beer bottle labels and sports a distinct beard that is not at all dissimilar to our own illustrious Grocer’s beard.

Okey dokey, that’s enough about rogues and more about the Rogues.

 ‘Brutal I.P.A.’   Don’t drink this one out of the bottle as you won’t get the stupendous aroma of hoppy tangerines that intensifies the flavour taste experience from this malty award winning brew. The hops are there alright, (man, love those American hops) but maybe not as much as the name might suggest.  A Very well balanced full bodied IPA.

‘Dad’s Little Helper Black IPA’.  I’m a big fan of black IPAs and this doesn’t disappoint.  Long story short behind the strange name of this brew boils down to the naming of Father’s Day.  Big aroma of hops, dark full body with big white head, and an intense hop flavour with lingering bitter butterscotch that keeps on going.  So with Father’s day coming up shortly, this brew might be the bomb! (hint, hint, my good Mrs).

‘Yellow Snow IPA’.  Made for the Salt Lake City winter Olympics in 2000 this brew has a hazy clarity, medium body and a citrusy aroma, and man, there is hops all the way through it. Bitter till the end and then some.  Just the way I like it!

‘Chatoe Rogue Oregasmic Ale’.  The Rogue guys made this with their own home grown hops and barley which you would think should make this brew cheaper, but isn’t!  None the less, a fruity aroma with a good amount of hoppy flavour, malty background and good body.  Excellent ale and maybe the pick of the night?

‘Juniper Pale Ale’, I’ve no idea what juniper berries taste like but this brew has a uniqueness about it that is very drinkable.  Big on effervescence and a good hop flavour coming through with those unusual juniper berries.  After the whole bottle I still could not come up with a taste description that would do this brew justice so I’ll leave it up to you: suffice to say that it was world beer champion in 2010 and 2011.  (I wonder if the world beer championships have the same rankings as the world baseball champs i.e., only American competitors?)

Chipotle Ale.  A chipotle is a smoked chilli pepper from Mexico and definitely makes this fellow a spicy little number.  A beautiful clear reddish colour with malt and hop aromas and quickly dissipating head.  The peppers almost give a medicinal taste to the brew and may be off-putting if you’re not used to spicy brews; the resultant heat gives a looong aftertaste.  This brew could be the go as the sun settles on the BBQ and the air starts to get cooler?

‘Hazelnut Brown Nectar’.  This brew is just like drinking pecan pie from a bottle.  A real nutty caramelly aroma with this brew and has strong tastes of chocolate hazelnuts that are very pleasant and quite sweet.  Definitely a dessert beer with such a richness that you only need one.

The ‘Voodoo Doughnut’ a bacon maple ale.  Sounds mental and tastes mental.  This brew is so far off the planet that it’s tipped off the edge of the universe.  With a pink spray painted bottle and wacky flavour combo’s you’re better to leave the shop with this bottle in a brown paper bag.  Personally, to save the embarrassment of carrying a pink bottle, I would have painted this Rogue red.  Easily identifiable smoky bacon flavour with a sweet maple finish.  This could be a breakfast drink but with 6.5% Abv you’d need a pool and deckchair to cope with the rest of the day.

‘Morimoto Black Obi Soba Ale’.  Big frothy head and dark clarity.  Some complexity here, with a variety of malts and hops used in the making resulting in a crisp hop note with lingering chocolate vanilla nut malt flavours.  A lower 5.3%Abv it could be a good second half beer.

Apart from the crazy pink one, all these Rogues live up to the brewmeister’s middle name having a big hop character which I’m a fan of, so for this rogue there are no rogue Rogues and everyone a gem. Now I can get on with that other R word, rugby!

Denis “no relation to Quaid” Cooper

Oxymorons

So, not much blogging after a hard week of late night finishes and no time for perusing the lollyshop taste temptations. After a particularly stressful shift I needed a cheer beer, so I’m soon off to the lollyshop to pick me out a treat. Not sure what I’m in the mood for so I’ll cover all bets with a black I.P.A.  Black Indian pale ale I hear you say. How can you have a black pale, isn’t that an oxymoron?  A black IPA is named from its roasted malts which are similar to a stout or porter beers yet still has enough hop flavour to retain the hoppy character of an IPA.

The chosen one was Funk’n’Stein from Funk Estate at a not to be sneezed at 7% Abv.  On its label shows a frizzy haired light brown grey coloured girl that was remarkably similar to the colour of the small quickly dissipating head produced when this brew was poured.  The liquid colour was definitely not a normal amber IPA colour but instead an intense dark red more akin to a stout. The aroma however was not of malt which you would expect from such a colour, but of a definite hop and maybe hints of mandarin?

I tried this baby just before tea, which normally I’d quickly polish off before eating, however the late night work shifts meant the good woman had tea ready and I was ready to devour it. With the first sip the initial taste was of smoky malt wood chips with only a slight after taste of hops lingering on the palate. Quickly tucking into a steak tea, I then took a few more swigs of the Funkenstein and wow, no more smoky notes but a much more richer malt flavour when first touching the tongue and then a stronger hop flavour coming through as you swallow and breathing out through the nose.

Homemade banana bread for dessert and I still had some of the brew left. After a slice I had another swig.  Wow again! This time still the rich malt, only now the hop flavour has reached a whole new level with a wonderful bitterness of mandarins coming through.

The black IPA from Funkenstein is like a taste hologram that’s different from any angle and these oxymorons will change their character depending on what you’re chewing on and in doing so, you will have forgotten all that stressed you out in the first place!

Stop the Press, this here is a bargain!

With one of my frequent visits to the lollylanddreamworld whilst trying to decide which craft brew to buy to wet the whistle, I spied upon perhaps what I thought an incorrect price note on a particular brand of beer.  Now here’s the thing, the price for this imported lager beer from Belgium in a 500ml can was only 2 dollars! But wait there’s more, the abV of this bargain is a whopping 9%! I’m thinking either it is a bargain or this brew has got a funny taste. Two bucks, worth a try!

Get home, open the can, into a glass, nice white foamy head, clear straw colour, nothing wrong so far. Into the mouth, hey not bad, in fact, it’s good! Wow, this is very drinkable much like a commercial lager only this has the mouth feel giving away its high alcohol content.

For two bucks, this is the bomb.  For you late night clubbers fill yer boots with this before you go instead of that synthetic smokey stuff. For you Chiefs supports, drink this whilst watching the semi and you still won’t be disappointed.

I’ll give this beer a nine out of ten cause I put value in my ratings.

New Zealand Brewed Imperial Stouts.

 

With winter starting to give a decisive kick in the down under, a comforting stout seems the obvious choice. Imperial stouts were brewed originally in England as porter beers but were brewed extra strong so that the beer could be transported without deteriorating on its journey to the imperial court and Empress of Russia, so hence the name. And here I’m thinking that Russian imperial stouts were named that way because the beer was brewed by imperial Russians, what a mistaka to makea. So if anybody can brew an imperial stout without having to be a Russian, how well do the New Zealand craft brewers go at it?

Here’s my tasting of two Imperial stouts from two different NZ craft breweries.

The ‘Nokabollokov Imperial Stout’ from ‘The Twisted Hop’ abv 8%

The blurb on the label indicates that the Nokabollokov is styled as a Russian stout and these stouts were brewed by English breweries and made extra strong to keep from freezing when being transported. So this is should stop me from freezing by drinking one of these on a cold winter nights right?

I always have a sense of excitement when trying a new beer, like a Pom awaiting a royal birth, and after quickly whipping this stout out of the fridge and opening the bottle to get into the experience I then read that it should be served ideally at 10 – 12degrees, hmmm, I’ll wait a bit for it to warm up then have a taste.

60 seconds later I’m sipping on what looks like a coffee crema headed beer that smells of raspberry and dark chocolate. Initial taste and it has a smoky almost burnt flavour but after some moments swirling the brew around in the glass warming it with my hands, the flavour takes on whole new dimensions. The flavour mellows and tastes way smoother with a rich malty bite and dark chocolate overtones and now no hints of any overcooked malt.

Who needs a cold beer? Drinking an almost room temperature stout is my comfort food this time of year and the Kokabollobov is definitely something worth chewing on and gets a 7.5/10!

‘Bumaye’ Imperial Stout by 8 Wired Brewing Co.

These guys are great brewers and specialise in seeing how far they can take it, with flavour being the main objective and I know they make a superb IPA so their imperial stout with a humongous 16% abv would be rude not to try. Yes you read right, 16% abv, I had to get out a magnifying glass just to confirm that I was reading the label right. In other words, 4.2 standard drinks in a 330ml bottle, phew, a new personal best for alcohol content in a beer!

Extreme alcohol never seems to raise a head but instead when poured you can see a beautiful red halo around the edge of the glass that surrounds a deep dark colour. Smelling somewhat of a coffee porty aroma it tastes of a rich maltnificence with strong ruby port overtones. You can lick your tongue around your mouth after a sip and wipe off a chocolate sensation. After the swallow there is a huge taste explosion and with so much malt coming through and is somehow not sweet but counterbalanced with a truckload of hops for a resounding smack of bitterness. This baby has got some boot and is at the extreme end of the dark beer continuum and should be applied very carefully, ideally just before bedtime. 9/10

 

Taste Off,The extremes.

The Epic ‘Mosaic’ versus the Wells and Young’s Brewing Company’s ‘Courage Imperial Russian Stout’

Winter being the perfect time for a comfort stout, I had a particularly good stout stored in the fridge just in case of emergencies and it happened to be the ‘Courage Imperial Russian Stout’ from Young’s Brewing Company. However, on my weekly long run all I could think about to get me through the arduous cold run was consuming a big dose of hops at the end of it all. I think it may have been the similar smell of pine needles that some varieties of hops have, and the forest that I was running through, that drove this craving.  Either that or I’m just a plain old hopaholic?

Previously I’ve enjoyed big doses of hops from Epic’s ‘Mosaic’ so this was the obvious choice for me to settle those cravings. I’m quickly down to my local lolly shop (Fresh Choice Nelson) for the purchase then back home but somehow in the meantime the stomach becomes a bit unsettled from the after effects of the run and I ended up storing the Mosaic next to the Stout and that’s how this formulated the taste off.

I always start a multi taste going from light to heavy, colour that is, for no other reason than it’s easier to see a darker colour when the alcohol starts to take effect, so the Mosaic was the first to be sampled. This brew is chocka full of fruity citrusy hops and with not much else. With a slightly thin mouth feel and no discernible malt or even sweetness it leaves a dry but satisfying taste. This brew just crackles and hops on the palate and is as sparkly as its label.  It would be enjoyed by serious hopaholics and so should be placed at the start of the craft brewers hop malt continuum.

On the other hand, the exact opposite of the Mosaic would be the Imperial Russian Stout, this brew has history originally being brewed for Catherine the Great of Russia (whoever she is?) way back in 1795. It’s an intense dark brew with a quickly dissolving espresso crema head. Flavoured with malt for miles, a somewhat sweetish marmitey, coffee, fruity, creamy thick complexity and a slight hoppy finish. One of the richest and smoothest stouts I’ve ever had the pleasure and should be placed towards the malt end of the hop malt continuum.

So, two beers each at the extreme ends of the beer taste continuum and when both are consumed back to back result in unequalled burp flavours. What a combination!  This would be my perfect beer if someone could brew one beer that tastes like this???

'Mr Mistoffelees' and 'Lando Kardashian' both from Moon Dog Breweries

Two new beers to try and a game of rugby to watch probably don’t go together as neither experiences would get the full enjoyable attention they both deserve so as it turned out a wet miserable dark day the next day turned out to be the perfect occasion for new taste sensations.

 

First up was the ‘Mr Mistoffelees’ from the Moon Dog brewery which was crafted as a single keg only release for the 2012 Great Australian Beer Spectapular. (True, that’s how they spell it. Like I’ve said before, these guy’s are quite mad.) now I have no idea what Mr Mistoffelees is but the name must mean something so a quick Google search informs me that he is a character in a poetry book called ‘Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats’ which means nothing to me but this book is what Andrew Lloyd Webber’s popular musical Cats is adapted from. Once again a factoid from beer drinking. What this actually has to do with beer is still a mystery so the best clue about what to expect from this beer is actually right there on the label  ‘passion fruit and mango wild ale’.

 

Fruity beers wouldn’t be my first choice however, this 6.2% abv aged in Hungarian oak barrels for 6 months with mangoes and passionfruit,  and with four yeast varieties to chew on four kinds of malt does sound intriguing!

 

Crack open the bottle to a reassuring psssst releases many bubbles which stir up plentiful supply of floaty bits from the bottom of the bottle. Pouring into a glass however formulates zero head and a cloudy light amber clarity with a very strong aroma of passionfruit. Hmmm, dunno about this, it might be an alco pop that’s suitable for a teenagers party?

 

Quick swig and quite the opposite from what I was expecting. This has a sour, almost tartness to it with a loud passionfruit flavour. It does have a bold body with discreet earthy biscuity flavours in the background maybe as a result of the oak barrel and those different malts. With enough back breathing through the nose you can even detect a slight hop flavour.

 

This stuff grows on you the more you drink it and I can see myself partaking this brew  in a swim up bar on a hot tropical island as a pre beer beer. It may also appeal to those ladies (or men) out there who enjoy a dry cider or ginger beer and would like to have another alternative of a hop variety.

 

Points out of 10, I’ll give this a 6 because even though it’s not really my definition of a beer, it does have a complexity about it that makes you want to drink more.

 

Having just drunk The Mr Mistoffelees I was having some hop withdrawal symptoms and the next beer to try offered an exciting prospect. Called ‘Lando Kardashian’ once again from Moon Dog,  and labelled as a triple IPA.

 

Now I’m sorry if you think like I once did that tripel was a misspelt word for three times as much, in this case IPAs in one bottle, then you are sadly mistaken. If this was right then the Lando should be hovering around the 15% abv instead of its lowly 11.5!  The word tripel is a term used way back when, to describe a strong pale ale. The strength of the tripel was denoted by a series of crosses on a cask, X for the weakest and XXX for the strongest beer. This factoid fits it all together for you now doesn’t it?

 

Now the name of Lando Kardashian has me a bit confused, but the guys at Moon Dog will probably be pleased to hear this. I assumed it was a cosmetic Doctor from the popular Kardashian show on TV judging by the latex gloves prominently pictured on the label but a Google search only revealed some freak with a twitter account, hmmm, so could actually be some friend of the Moon Dogs, so once again the name has nothing to do with the beer?

 

So that’s why you have me.

 

This baby has the biggest head I’ve uncounted from the Moon Dogs and yet still only a slight head. However it does have a clear clarity with a dark amber colour. Swirling the brew around the glass and you can see good body and does release a pleasant but not strong  hop aroma but more of a pronounced malt and beer barrels aroma. First taste and ‘my oh my’, this is beer! The taste has taken me back to when I first discovered beer all those years ago when I nicked one of the old man’s 4%er commercial bottles (at which there were only the two big Breweries at the time) and drank it in the garage. I remember thinking to myself, wow, so this is beer, now I can see why it causes so much trouble. Well after drinking a Lando those same feelings have returned, only on a whole new level. A much more stronger hoppy bitterness and sweet malt flavours with subtle whisky notes. This is a powerful beer and yet not so strong that you couldn’t drink another, or at least I think I could have. Let the teenagers have that other stuff, this is a real grown-ups beer.

 

Points out of 10, I’m giving this a 9 simply cause it brought back some great memories for me.