Recently in American Strong Ale Category

One of these days, I'll write a post covering the trials and tribulations of A Deal with the Devil, the ultra-hyped barleywine made by Anchorage. I've managed to finagle my way into a few tastes of that stuff and I'll be damned (pun intended!) if it doesn't live up to the hype. Well, mostly. Not, like, $1000 a bottle supernatural hype, but, like, normal earthly hype. To get a bottle for my lonesome, I'll likely need to make my way to the crossroads and make my own deal with the devil. Fortunately, I have connections: demons, imps, ghouls, politicians, goblins, bureaucrats, zombies, Chinese hopping vampires, and of course, other beer nerds. It will happen someday (assuming we're not still in the middle of a pandemic and in quarantine mode), but in the meantime, this newish offering is readily available and tangentially related (for, uh, certain definitions of "readily available" that include lots of cash).

Endless Ending is a blend of A Deal With the Devil (the aforementioned barrel-aged barleywine) and Darkest Hour (a barrel aged imperial stout) that has been aged for 18 months in Woodford Reserve Double Oaked bourbon barrels, then again in Missouri Oak foudres for an additional 3 Months. Unlike the last blend of beers I covered, this one seems more harmonious. Slap one of those fabulous WolfSkullJack labels on there and dip the cap in copious amounts of white wax, and you've got a very attractive package. Speaking of the art, I found this interview with the artist, and she talks about her general style and this label in particular:

Endless Ending is at the moment the only custom piece that Anchorage has purchased! They specifically wanted Dall sheep to proudly represent Alaska, and it was Gabe Fletcher's idea to have the human skeletons inside the sheep to reflect previous can art, like "Within Us" and "Origin". ... The human skeletons inside of animals theme is a reoccurring image of mine because I like to explore the hostile relationship between man and the natural world within my artwork.

Neat, and the end result looks great. Of course, it's what's inside the bouttle that counts, so let's get to it...

Anchorage Endless Ending - Pours a very dark brown almost black color with a finger of tan head. Smells amazing, roast, caramel, toffee, candied raisins, and that bourbon, oak, and vanilla from the barrels. Taste is extremely sweet, rich and stoutlike upfront, with the barleywine character taking over in the middle and evolving through the finish. Hints of roast and caramel up front turning to toffee and dark fruit notes, caramelized raisins with a solid backdrop of bourbon, oak, and vanilla throughout. Mouthfeel is full bodied, rich, and chewy, perfect moderate carbonation, plenty of boozy heat. Overall, a complex treat. Maybe not quite full-bore ADWTD level (this is sweeter and somehow less balanced), but still amazing in its own right. A- or A

Beer Nerd Details: 15.5% ABV bottled (375 ml, waxed cap). Drank out of a snifter on 10/18/19.

More to come on that Deal With the Devil, but this will certainly tide me over in the meantime.

Alright, no dumb, intentionally misleading references for this beer (unlike some other Fremont offerings I've written up), but it's worth noting that the Abominable Snowman on the label is wearing a coconut bra, which is pretty fabulous.

As per usual, Fremont blends vintages of aged beer, this time 9, 12, and 24-months old bourbon barrel aged B-Bomb, then they added toasted coconut. Coconut can be a tricky ingredient. At its worst, it can make a beer taste/smell like sun tan lotion. But at its best, it can transform the beer into something akin to liquid Samoa cookies (or Liquid Caramel deLights, depending on which Girl Scout bakery region you live in). I'm happy to report that this is the latter:

Fremont Barrel Aged B-Bomb Coconut Edition - Pours a dark brown color with a finger of light tan head. Smells great, tons of toasted coconut, some boozy bourbon, oak, and vanilla aromas, but the coconut is most prominent. Taste is very sweet, tons of toasted coconut, some caramel, and plenty of boozy bourbon, oak, and vanilla. It's kinda like a liquid Samoa cookie. Mouthfeel is rich and full bodied, well carbonated, plenty of booze. Overall, a fantastic variant and nice change of pace, but my dumb-dumb instincts always prefer the base. A-

Beer Nerd Details: 14% ABV bottled (22 ounce bomber). Drank out of a snifter glass on 5/24/19. Vintage 2018.

That basically covers my spin through the Fremont KDS and B-Bomb variants. I didn't post about Coffee KDS or Coffee Cinnamon B-Bomb because of my general ambivalence towards coffee, but I did share both with friends and they were both pretty damn good (especially Coffee Dark Star, which was fantastic) and received well. In general, though, my feeling is that the plain ol' KDS and B-Bomb are the best. I've got one more Fremont beer in the pipeline, and a couple others that I would love to get ahold of, so you haven't seen the last of these folks on these pages. Stay tuned...

Fremont, Washington is in Seattle and basically seems like a hipster wonderland. I mean, you see it described as "bohemian" and "quirky", which basically translates to hipster. Fortunately, breweries seem to thrive in such environments, and Fremont Brewing fits the bill. They opened in 2009 and their barrel-aging program has made enough waves that those of us on the right coast have long craved a taste of their wares.

Enter B-Bomb, a barrel aged version of their imperial winter ale. This year's vintage of B-Bomb is aged in 12-year-old American Oak bourbon barrels and is a blend of beer aged for 9, 12, and 24-months. Despite the "winter" moniker, this isn't really winter warmer territory; no mulling spices as near as I can tell, just a big, strong, dark ale. Aged in barrels for a long time and blended. Basically, right in my wheelhouse. There are some variants involving stuff like coffee, cinnamon, or coconut, but I suspect that I would love the plain old B-Bomb the best, so let's take a gander:

Fremont B-Bomb (Bourbon Barrel Aged Imperial Winter Ale) - The beer formerly known as Bourbon Abominable. Pours a very dark brown color with a half finger of tan head that manages to stick around longer than usual for this sort of thing. Smells fabulous, rich caramel, toffee, bourbon, oak, and vanilla, maybe something fruity lurking in the background. Taste follows the nose, tons of rich caramel and toffee, with a healthy dose of boozy bourbon, oak, and vanilla, a hint of roasted malt, a bit of fruit, finishing boozy. Mouthfeel is full bodied, rich, and chewy, plenty of heat and booze, appropriately moderate carbonation, well proportioned for such a monster. Overall, this is outstanding. A

Beer Nerd Details: 13% ABV bottled (22 ounce bomber, waxed). Drank out of a tulip glass on 1/12/18. Vintage: 2017.

I had a taste of this at a share a while back and it was glorious, so I've been on the lookout for more of their wares. Obviously, I want to try moar. Wink wink, nudge nudge (he sez, as if anyone is reading this).

Every year, Firestone Walker invites their winemaker friends to their brewery in order to blend a bunch of their barrel-aged stock into a Voltron-esque super beer to commemorate the brewery's anniversary. I've gone over the process in wonky detail before, so I won't repeat myself too much here (but you already have -ed. Sorry, it has been amply demonstrated that I am the worst.) Suffice it to say, this is one of my most anticipated releases of any year. The blends are always different, usually occupying a space along the stout and barleywine spectrum, and they're always marvelous.

This year's blend consists of five different components:

• 42% Velvet Merkin (8.5% ABV) Traditional Oatmeal Stout. Aged in Bourbon barrels.
• 18% Parabola (13.1% ABV) Russian Imperial Oatmeal Stout. Aged in Bourbon Barrels.
• 17% Stickee Monkee (12.5% ABV) Central Coast Quad (English Barleywine). Aged in Bourbon barrels.
• 14% Bravo (13.5% ABV) Imperial Brown Ale. Aged in Bourbon Barrels.
• 9% Helldorado (13.5% ABV) Blonde Barley Wine. Aged in Rum Barrels.

Clocking in at 11.9% ABV, it's the lowest ABV anniversary beer I've had from them (and the second lowest ever, only behind XI, which I want to say has a reputation as being the least impressive of the bunch; I've not had it, but that's my anecdotal observation and I'm a moron, so you should take that with a grain of salt.) It's comprised of the exact same components as last year, just in wildly differing proportions (and it appears some of the barrelage has shifted slightly - no brandy or new oak barrels this year, but some rum barrels in the mix). The bulk of this is stout, but it's anchored by Velvet Merkin, the lighter, nimbler BBA stout in their lineup. I'll note that for whatever reason, I found this year's vintage of Velvet Merkin to be lit af, even if it's still no Parabola. That could be because this year is genuinely different, or the small bottle format placebo effect, or simply because I'm the worst. That being said: this blend didn't do a whole lot for me. It's still really damn good and I'll gladly seek out and drink more, and it's better than the pretenders that I've seen of late, but it still doesn't quite hold up to the example set by its predecessors.

Firestone Walker XXI Anniversary Ale - Pours a very dark amber color with a half finger of off white head. Smells nice and boozy, bourbon and rum and oak, with some dark but not quite roasty malt in the background. Taste has a nice, rich caramel start to it, with a hint of roast peeking in towards the middle, followed by lots of booze, bourbon and oak, in the finish. Mouthfeel is full bodied and well carbonated, hotter and less balanced than usual for a FW blend. This is weird, since this is the lowest ABV anniversary ale I've had (though apparently XI was only 11%, but then, I can see what they did there... and it's also notoriously the worst blend). I mean, I'm no stranger to booze and usually have no problems with this sort of heat, but it feels out of whack here. Overall, I wouldn't go so far as to say that the components are clashing here, but it's certainly not the most harmonious blend they've put out in the anniversary series. Still better than most barrel aged stuff out there though, and I'm actually curious as to how this would age - if the flavors bleshed more, maybe that'd help. A high B+

Beer Nerd Details: 11.9% ABV bottled (12 ounce boxed). Drank out of a snifter on 12/27/17. Bottled 10/20/17.

I may need to try this again sometime, but right now, the rankings come in something like this: XV, XX, XIX, XVII, XVIII, XVI, XXI... But then, this is completely from memory and who the hell knows. I mean, I remember XVII being better than an A-, but that's what I rated it at the time? I have some bottles of the stuff, so I'll have to check it out I think. Anywho, would be interesting to see some new components next year. Maybe bring back §ucaba? Please?

Saint Archer was an independent San Diego brewery that opened in 2013, but then sold out to some sort of unholy agglomeration of Miller, Coors, and Molson in 2015 (those three macros have been circling each other for a while and while I think they've finally settled on their final form, I don't think it's worth going into too much detail. Suffice to say that they're the number two brewing concern in the U.S. behind AB InBev.) It was one of the earlier sellouts, and of course the news was greeted with much consternation and gnashed teeth amongst the craft beer cognoscenti.

To my mind, whilst not a huge fan of massive corporations pushing around smaller breweries (which manifests in a variety of sneaky ways not worth enumerating at this point), I'm also not going to completely close myself off to the possibility of a beer from sellouts. For all the bluster and fury of the beer dorks, it's not like people aren't lining up for the likes of Bourbon County Brand Stout (made by notable sellout Goose Island) on Black Friday every year. What's more, that beer is still phenomenal. And, you know, I like phenomenal beer. So will this Tusk & Grain (i.e. their series of oak aged offerings) beer justify shelling out shekels for a stealth-macro?

As the name implies, this is a blend of several barrel-aged components. Primarily a barleywine that spent two years in Woodford Reserve Bourbon barrels, with some two year old imperial stout and a one year old "export" stout blended in for complexity (exact proportions not specified). Apparently the big different between this second blend and the original blend is that the components are much older this time around. Sounds good to me. This approach calls to mind Firestone Walker's Anniversary mega-blends, which frankly sets the bar pretty damned high. I don't think they quite managed to clear that bar, but it's an admirable attempt, and one that I'm glad I tried, macro-ownership issues be damned.

Saint Archer Tusk & Grain Barrel Aged Blend No. 02 - Pours a dark brown color with a cap of light brown head. Smells boozy, bourbon, oak, and vanilla, a little roast, a little caramel. Taste hits similar notes, more roast here than the nose, with a crystal malt note, moderately integrated barrel character, typical bourbon, oak, and vanilla notes. Mouthfeel is medium to full bodied, well carbonated, a little boozy. Overall, it's a nice blend and worth the stretch, but it takes a clear backseat to the Firestone Anniversary blends. A high B+ (possibly an A- if I was feeling generous, but obviously I'm not right now...)

Beer Nerd Details: 12.94% ABV bottled (500 ml waxed cap). Drank out of a snifter on 8/19/17.

Jeeze, I don't review anything for a couple weeks and my return review is a stinkin macro? A thousand pardons, I shall endeavor to do better. That said, this beer made a decent enough impression that I'd be curious to try some of their other offerings. So perhaps not a full thousand pardons. But a few, maybe? Something like that? Eh, let's just drink a beer and leave it at that.

Hard Sauce is a rich mixture of butter, sugar, and booze that is a frequent accompaniment to a large number of holiday sweets, puddings, and pies (as befits its seasonal provenance, other flavorings like vanilla and nutmeg are often added). The term "sauce" doesn't really capture the consistency here though, it's more of a spreadable soft butter than a smooth liquid or glaze. But when paired with warm pudding or pie, it does melt into more of what you'd think. It appears to be English in origin, dating back to King George I (aka The Pudding King), who demanded plum pudding with hard sauce at all Royal Christmas dinners.

Apparently the fine folks at Cigar City prefer their hard sauce paired with warm Pecan Pie, so they brewed this beer with pecans and vanilla, then aged it in bourbon-barrels. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but then, the second half of that quote is "that mediocrity can pay to greatness" so let's not get carried away. So hold on to your hats, Oscar Wilde fans, we're taking a closer look:

Cigar City Hard Sauce - Pours a dark brown color with a thin cap of tan head that quickly disappears. Smells of, yes, pecan pie, nutty, sweet, caramel and toffee, a little bourbon, oak, and vanilla. Taste starts with rich caramel and toffee, some oak and vanilla, moves into that nutty pecan character, finishing on a boozy bourbon note. Mouthfeel is medium bodied and rich, tightly carbonated, some sticky booze. Could probably use a bit more heft here, but it comports itself well enough. Overall, this is really nice and the pecans come through strong... not their best Barrel Aged effort, but a decent change of pace. B+

Beer Nerd Details: 11.9% ABV bottled (750 ml). Drank out of a snifter on 8/11/17. Bottled on: 12/21/16.

Many thanks to fellow BeerNERD Ray for the bottle (it's one of the El Catador Club beers). Cigar City always worth a try, and I tend to enjoy their barrel aged efforts...

Of The Bruery's long line of Mélange experimental blends, the #3 seems to be the best known, most widely consumed, and among the top rated iterations. It has three components: their Anniversary Old Ale (a solera-style barrel-aged beer that holds a special place in my heart), White Oak Sap (a barrel-aged wheatwine that I have not had, but which bears a resemblance to White Oak, which is actually one of my least favorite Bruery beers), and the fabled Black Tuesday (a colossal 18%+ ABV imperial stout aged in bourbon barrels that is glorious). All of these components are above 14% ABV and it's packaged in a large-format bottle because (as I've already established) Patrick Rue is trying to kill us. He doesn't feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And he absolutely will not stop... ever, until we are drunk.

Anyways, exact proportions of the blend are unknown, but I'm going to give it a SWAG because I'm the worst. I suspect the majority of this beer is the Anniversary Ale, with smaller proportions of White Oak Sap and Black Tuesday that mostly cancel each other out, leaving us back at Anniversary Ale territory. Which, like, isn't a bad thing. I absolutely love the Anniversary Ales, and this one does feel like it gives a slight twist to the old familiar. That being said, I was perhaps hoping for a little more of the Black Tuesday influence. Still, with Mélange #3 hitting distribution this year, it's not difficult to obtain (if a bit pricey), so if you like the Bruery's barrel-aged stuff and you can handle MarkIntiharing a 16.3% ABV beer, this is worth checking out:

The Bruery Mélange #3 - Pours a murky dark brown color, maybe a scosh darker than your typical anniversary beer, with half a finger of off white head. Smells wonderful, caramel, toffee, oak, vanilla, toffee, caramel, bourbon, toffee, caramel, hints of something a little darker, not quite roast, but maybe chocolate, lending it a sorta chocolate covered caramel/toffee feel. Taste follows the nose, rich caramel and toffee, bourbon, oak and vanilla, did I mention caramel and toffee, lots of booze in the finish. As it warms, dark fruit emerges in the middle and evens out that finish. Mouthfeel is full bodied, rich, and chewy, plenty of boozy heat. Overall, it feels a lot like a slightly more complex Bruery Anniversary beer; the other components are there, but they seem to balance each other out, leaving you back in Anniversary territory. Not that that is a bad thing, as those anniversary beers are some of my all time favorites. A-

Beer Nerd Details: 16.3% ABV bottled (750 ml). Drank out of a tulip/snifter glass on 4/15/17. Vintage: 2017.

Par for the barrel-aged Bruery course, which is pretty good in my book, and it was a welcome return to beer after my temporary hiatus.

Alright folks, you know the drill: Blah blah blah, blended, barrel-aged, Voltron-esque super beer. Blah blah blah, collaboration with local wineries. Blah blah blah, delicious. We've covered each edition of this beer since XV, so while there's lots to be said about the process here, I've pretty much already wonked out on everything worth wonking out over.

Each installment in this series of Anniversary blends varies considerably. Some veer towards the Barleywine components, like XV and XVII, others hew closer to the dark side, like XVIII and XIX. XVI went for more balance between those two poles (as a result, it might be my least favorite, actually). So what does the XX blend look like?

• 40% Parabola (13% ABV) Russian Imperial Oatmeal Stout. Aged in New Oak and Bourbon Barrels.
• 20% Stickee Monkee (12.3% ABV) English Barley Wine. Aged in Bourbon and Brandy barrels.
• 17.5% Velvet Merkin (8.5% ABV) Traditional Oatmeal Stout. Aged in Bourbon barrels.
• 12.5% Bravo (12.9% ABV) Imperial Brown Ale. Aged in Bourbon Barrels.
• 10% Helldorado (13.5% ABV) Blonde Barley Wine. Aged in Bourbon Barrels.

So this is one of the more stout-like blends out there, with 70% hitting the dark side of the force. In any case, any blend consisting of 40% Parabola has to be pretty good, right? Let's take a closer look:

Firestone Walker XX Anniversary Ale - Pours a very dark brown color with half a finger of light tan head. Smells beautiful, rich caramel, vanilla, oak, boozy bourbon, hints of roast and chocolate. Taste hits those rich caramelized malt notes hard, hints of roast, plenty of bourbon, oak, and vanilla. Mouthfeel is full bodied but nimble, not a beast like most imperial stouts of this ABV, well carbonated, a little pleasant booze in the finish. It feels like the barleywineish components of this blend have lightened the body and hidden the booze a little more than normal for a beer this big, a neat little trick. Overall, yes, it's another winner for the Anniversary blends! A

Beer Nerd Details: 13% ABV bottled (22 ounce bomber). Drank out of a tulip glass on 12/20/16.

There's just no stopping Firestone Walker's barrel program. I look forward to this release every year, and it has never disappointed. Indeed, pretty much any of their barrel-aged, boxed beers are fabulous and I'm always on the lookout. Lately, more of their wild ales have been showing up in the Philly area, like Agrestic and Lil Opal, so here's to hoping for more of that in the future too.