Recently in Williamsburg AleWerks Category

How do you do, dear reader? I am your most obedient servant and I am right heartily glad to see you. Forsooth, I have a most curious beer to discuss with you. Hailing from the honorable brewery known as Aleworks, situated close to the colonial town of Williamsburg, Virginia, this elixir began its life in a traditional brick wrapped brewhouse with open flame (as opposed to the modern heathens who useth more gentle steam systems), then slumbered for nearly 18 months in French oak barrels formerly used to age red wine. Truly a testament to the fleeting virtue of patience, that most humble of qualities. Hold ye onto thine britches, for these suds pack a sour punch:

AleWerks Lover's Greed - Pours a pale, hazy reddish orange color with a finger of fizzy head that quickly resolves into a cap of head that sticks around for a while. Smells of vinous fruit, sour cherries, and tart vinegar. Taste is surprisingly mellow, definitely lots of tart fruit, cherries and grapes, vinegar tones, a little in the way of oak and vanilla, sour but not overpoweringly so. Mouthfeel is light to medium bodied, well carbonated but smooth, slightly acidic but not a monster. Overall, a nice American wild ale; it's quite approachable and goes down rather easy, comporting itself well in a crowded and competitive style. B+

Beer Nerd Details: 7% ABV bottled (500 ml caged and corked). Drank out of a flute glass on 5/16/15. Vintage: 2014.

Many thanks to Danur for the bottle! Also, I beg your pardon for my horrid attempts at colonial speech. It's funny, AleWerks has even dropped Williamsburg from their name, so I'm guessing they're trying to distance themselves from that connotation. Regardless, I've enjoyed most everything I've had from this small operation, and have been on the lookout for Bitter Valentine for a while now... There's always next year.

I was mightily impressed by Williamsburg's bourbon forward barrel aged porter, and this Coffeehouse Stout, while perhaps not as storied, was a nice change of pace considering that I've been hitting up big, burly Imperial Stouts and Barleywines a little too consistently lately.

As I've mentioned many times before, I'm not a big coffee drinker, but I'm starting to get a taste for the stuff when it's included in beer. In this case, it's a milk stout brewed with coffee, and as Rich commented, it really does kinda lend the impression of coffee with sugar and cream (I mean, it's still clearly a beer, but this mixture of roasty beer, lactose, and coffee really seems to mix together well...) Thanks to Dave for hooking this one up for me... Check it:

Williamsburg AleWerks Coffeehouse Stout - Pours a very dark brown color with half a finger of tan head. Smells of... yes, coffee. A little roast and a little sweetness too. Taste is full of roast, with coffee quickly showing up and doing its thing through to the finish. In fact, I feel like that coffee sorta softens the intensity of the roast, which is actually nice. There's also a character I associate with milk stouts (ah, yes, this actually is a milk stout, so that makes sense). Not a lot of bitterness here, but it's not cloying either - well balanced stuff. Mouthfeel is where this really shines - it's very smooth, velvety, creamy, again with the balance here. Overall, this is a really good coffee stout. Not being a big coffee guy, I can appreciate it, but if you're a coffee fan, you might think of this as being spectacular. Me, I'll give it a B+.

Beer Nerd Details: 5.4% ABV bottled (12 oz.) Drank out of a snifter on 4/27/13.

I'm now keeping an eye out for Café Royale, which is a souped up and barrel aged version of the Coffeehouse Stout, which I think would actually really work well.

I don't really know what constitutes colonial speak, but let's just pretend I'm wearing some 18th century garb and lecturing on the merits of this most excellent barrel aged brew, sent my way by Dave, the Drunken Polack, in our recent trade (many thanks to Dave!) It comes from Williamsburg AleWerks (sometimes referred to as just AleWerks), a brewery I'm not particularly familiar with, but which sounds like it's been doing good work over the past few years. Take this sucker:

Williamsburg AleWerks Bourbon Barrel Porter - Pours a dark brown, almost black color with a finger of light brown head. Smells of toasted, roasted malts along with a sweet bourbon aroma, oak and vanilla too. Taste starts sweet, with rich dark malts, a light roasty character, and that bourbon, oak, and vanilla coming through strong in the finish. Very sweet, but never approaching cloying, which is good. Mouthfeel is full bodied but it's got a nice, crisp carbonation that keeps it manageable. Overall, really well done bourbon barrel treatment here, delicious, complex, and balanced. A-

Beer Nerd Details: 9% ABV bottled (22 oz. bomber). Drank out of a tulip glass on 3/23/13.

Quite a showing for these fellas, I've got another bottle of their stuff in the fridge, their Coffeehouse Stout (also courtesy of my trade with Dave) that sounds promising. I just missed out on the release of Bitter Valentine, which is another brew I'd love to try sometime... There's always next year!