Beer O'Clock: Tasting Overload

This weekend, I went to a beer tasting with a small group of beer lovers. There were seven of us in total, and each of us brought a few bottles of beer that was either new to us or that is hard to come by in the Ottawa area. We had more than 15 different beers to sample.

So many, in fact, that we didn't have a chance to go through them all.

So many, that I lost track.

So many, that I forgot some of the last few glasses.

Some of you might think that this was just one big piss up, but I assure you that we didn't each drink one bottle of all that was on offer. We shared bottles, from growlers down to your standard 341-ml bottles. We had no more than four to six ounces per tasting. And sometimes, a sip was all it took.

So while we sampled a lot of beer, I probably consumed no more than three or four pints. Tops. And I had a designated driver.

Years ago, when my wife and I hosted or attended wine tastings, we typically had no more than six wines to try, and that was a good thing. You could concentrate on a variety that was easy to keep track of. Some wines would be memorable; others would be decent; once and a while, you'd encounter a wine you'd want to forget. But with six bottles, you remembered them all.

I made a lot of mistakes at Saturday's tasting, but first and foremost my biggest blunder was not writing anything down. Not taking names, details, and tasting notes. I had planned on writing down my findings, but once we sat down and dug into our first beer of the evening (a seasonal blueberry wheat ale), I decided that instead of "working" I would just enjoy the evening. Just socialize. Just experience the moment.

The company was great, but I still wish I had at least photographed the bottles so that I could refer back to them.

But because a lot of these beers are not available in many areas, including my own, I was thinking that it would be pointless to give you details.

So take this post as a cautionary tale: if you're going to do a tasting, keep track of what you have.

Here are some of the beers that I did find fascinating:

• Blueberry Wheat Ale, Ashton Brewing: this was a nice light-flavoured beer to refresh our palates and warm us up.
• White Horse Ale, Mill Street: I first tried this unfiltered ale from a cask at the National Capital Craft Beer Week festival. It has a great balance of creamy spice and hops. It's one of my standard pints at the brewery's Ottawa pub. Drinking it from a growler felt special.
• Milk Stout, The Duck-Rabbit: pass the chocolate-chip cookies! This was an amazingly creamy stout with a slight sweetness that reminded me of chocolate milk. It was my favourite dark beer of the evening. From North Carolina.
• Nightmare on Mill Street Pumpkin Ale, Mill Street: this was a beautifully flavourful pumpkin ale that had a great balance of spice and real pumpkin. I'll be reviewing this beer properly in an upcoming review of pumpkin ales, so I almost skipped the tasting of it this weekend. I'm glad I didn't.
• Venskab, Beau's: this is a creamy-smooth Belgian Tripel-style ale. Aged on ice-wine-soaked oak chips and then aged again in Canadian white wine barrels, there is a nice fruit and yeast flavour. Beautiful.
• 90-Minute IPA, Dogfish Head: I first had this massive IPA in a restaurant in Charleston, South Carolina a couple of months ago. Afterwards, I made it my mission to find more. I picked up a couple of 4-packs in Washington, DC. Love it.
• Ten Fidy, Oskar Blues: my wife summed up this stout with three words: "It's a committment." This beer was so dark that no light passes through it. Heavy licorice and molasses flavour and a whopping 10.5 percent ABV made this the heavyweight of all stouts.

We tried other wheat ales, other IPAs, and other stouts (I had a pumpkin spruce stout that was simply overkill). And while I didn't take notes, didn't take names, I learned a lot. My tasting skills were put to the test and I feel I held my own. I was in good company with people who knew their beer and liked to share.

I overloaded my tastebuds. I learned that we have to limit the number of beers we try in a tasting. Towards the end of the evening, I was tasting previous beers in the ones I was putting to my lips. I had too much.

But I also learned this: I want to do another beer tasting again soon.

Inspired, and Under the Gun

I was introduced to a wonderful stout last week. I wanted to share it with you, but then I decided not to.

I had a title for that beer review: Velvet Hammer. It was a term that came to mind while I was drinking it. It was an imperial stout with a high alcohol content—some 10.5 percent—but was creamy smooth, and so Velvet Hammer seemed appropriate.

It was delicious. It was wonderful. And I thank Jon from Thursday Pints West for sharing it with me.

Like I said, I wanted to write a review on this beer, but decided against doing it. The reason: it's not available in Ontario. Sure, folks who live in the United States or other countries may have access to it. Not Ontarians. Pity.

The beer was Ten Fidy by Colorado brewery Oskar Blues. If you can get it, do so. It's great stuff.

But I was in the mood to write a beer review, to try a new brew. Because I found Ten Fidy such a lovely imperial stout, I was inspired to have more, and so I went to the LCBO with that style in mind. Here's what I found.

Russian Gun Imperial Stout
Grand River Brewing Company
Cambridge, Ontario
LCBO: $4.60, 500 mL; 8% alc/vol

One of the first things I noticed when I picked up the bottle was that on the side of the label, a date stamp indicated when the beer had been bottled. On this particular bottle, the date was January 10, 2012.

This stuff was fresh.

Pouring the stout into my glass, I noticed a distinct red hue. Yet, holding the glass to the light, no colour escaped the darkness inside. The head was a creamy beige and held together for quite a few minutes after the pour. It looked great in the glass.

On the nose, I caught a creamy coffee tone with tobacco, and I anticipated a wonderful taste. However, the nose and the palate seemed to differ greatly.

In the mouth, I tasted strong, bitter hops, but nothing else. The bitterness seemed to lack any other flavours. On the finish, the bitterness transformed to strong notes of alcohol.

That was it.

I continued to consume this imperial stout over the course of about two hours, wondering if the change in temperature and exposure to air would open this beer up. If it did, I didn't notice it. What I did notice was that the aroma that I first caught after pouring the beer faded over time, until there were no flavours beyond the herbal scent of the hops.

If you've read my other reviews, you know I love bitter beer. I love hops. But I prefer the hops to be carried by other flavours: chocolate, coffee, spices, tobacco. Russian Gun seemed to fall short. And after the wonderful, intense flavours of Ten Fidy, I finished Russian Gun feeling somewhat disappointed.

If you enjoy powerful flavours of hops and a distinct alcohol finish, you might enjoy this imperial stout. If you're looking for more, look elsewhere.