Samuel Adams (Barrel Room Collection) Thirteenth Hour Stout

Brewed By: Boston Beer Company in Boston, Massachusetts
Purchased: 750ml champagne bottle bought at Jewel in Chicago, IL; 2012
Style/ABV: Belgian Stout, 9.0%

I'm really pumped to try tonight's beer, which is bottle conditioned with champagne yeast, and features a blend of Sam Adam's Kosmic Mother Funk along with a big Stout. Yum. First, a word about Sam Adams:

Samuel Adams was founded in 1984 by Jim Koch, and currently the Boston Beer Company is the largest American-owned beer company in the United States. Sam Adams is also the largest craft brewer in America, with over a million barrels of beer being produced annually. You can check out the Sam Adam's website for more info.

The Thirteenth Hour or the "witching hour" refers to the time of day when supernatural creatures such as demons, ghosts, and witches are supposed to appear, and when they are supposed to be at their most powerful. The bottle states: "The 13th hour is the witching hour and a time when strange brews can occur. With 13 ingredients, we combined the roasted chocolate and coffee notes of a stout with the complex spicy character of a Belgian-style ale aged in oak for a dark, robust, and bewitching brew."

If you roll on over to Sam Adam's Thirteenth Hour page, you can get all the info on this beer. This beer combines the roasted chocolate and coffee flavors of a stout, with the spicy characters of a Belgian ale, and then ages the whole thing in oak.

This is actually a very special beer, and makes use of Sam Adams' Kosmic Mother Funk (KMF). The KMF is an ale aged in oak tuns for a year to give the beer notes of black pepper, oak, vanilla, and acidity. The KMF is a fruity and sour beer, and goes through a second fermentation with the wild yeast, Brettanomyces. The KMF was developed specifically for the Barrel Room Collection Beers, and is blended with the various Barrel Room Collection beers.

Tonight's beer is one of those Barrel Room Collection Beers. Clocking in at an impressive 9.0% ABV, 17 IBUs, and 290 calories per 12oz, tonight's beer is brewed with Belgian-style ale yeast, and then bottle conditioned with champagne yeast. The Thirteenth Hour uses pale, caramel, munich, and specialty malts. It also uses Hallertau Mittelfrueh Noble hops. All of this is on top of the addition of the KMF blending, which adds those oak, spice, and sour/funky qualities to the beer.

Without even pouring this beer, it is evident that this is a complex beast and not your typical Sam Adams affair. This beer comes in a very sexy champagne bottle, which is likely out of necessity as champagne yeast will produce a lot of love (carbonation) in a bottle. Having said that, take caution when opening this beer. Don't aim the cork at your face, and open it in an area where you don't mind spilling some beer. Always prepare for the worst!

Sam Adams' Thirteenth Hour Stout

As you can see in the picture, the bottle comes with a cool little information book thing. The presentation is really well done. No gushing, but I did get quite a bit of smoke as I popped the cork. This beer pours with 3-fingers of thick, foamy, Belgian-esque head. The head is a light tan/khaki/coffee color, and the body of the beer is a dark black color. The head reminds me of cola, the body reminds me of an Imperial Stout. You can hear crackling carbonation, and it is evident this beer is quite effervescent. I mean, duh. Champagne yeast and all that. The head is hanging around, with about a centimeter of thick foam. There is some residual alcohol left on the side of the glass from the beer. 

The aroma on this is really interesting...and complex. I'm pulling out big notes of chocolate, Brett funk, pepper and spice, band-aids, and dark fruits like plums and grapes. This is on the cooler side of things right now, but I'm guessing as this warms up the malts are really going to come out. I do get some hints of wood and oak on the nose, along with a peppery coffee aroma, and (my WTF aroma for this beer) some eggnog? Swirling the beer unleashes a peppery, funky flurry of Brett, band-aid, oak, and coffee. Intriguing stuff, let's take a sip.

Wow. Wow, wow, wow. This beer has a huge body. I was not expecting that at all. There is so much going on with this beer...big Belgian notes pop on your palate, with dark fruits and barnyard funk. You get huge notes of chocolate, with hints of coffee. The whole thing is peppery and effervescent, but it's got a full body. You definitely get sourness cutting through, and it compliments those dark fruit notes. There's a hint of oak throughout, but it's very subtle and balanced. As this warms, I'm getting more chocolate, coffee, and even some roast on the back end. When you start to pull out the dense malts, the oak really starts to pop. That eggnog note has to be the Brett and the oak playing off each other, along with the smooth, malty qualities that the Stout contributes to this beer. As this warms further, I'm getting more fruit, funk, and oak up front, with a complex and spicy middle, and great duration that leads to a finish of roast, chocolate, coffee, and big Stout booziness. 

Incredibly complex, the palate depth is huge, the duration is great, and the mouthfeel is full. And yet, it's still drinkable and supported by champagne-like carbonation. The finish is ultimately dry, but the journey is funky, fruity, roasty and smooth. Up front is a flash of chocolate/roast, dark fruits, and big funk; the middle is funky, spicy, band-aids, Brett; the back end is a huge blast of chocolate, coffee, roast, and Stout. The finish is lingering Stout, and dry. The oak is subtle, but present throughout. I'm really impressed by the duration and body on this beer (and yet, it still drinks like a Belgian Strong Ale: way too easy for 9.0% ABV).

Rating: Above-Average

I'm feeling a Strong Above-Average on this, and maybe better but I'll have to try this again and sleep on it. Bewitching??!?! More like...bitching. Seriously, this is a good beer. And I'm totally biased, because I love Belgian Strong Ales, and I love the Belgian-Stout hybrids. But this pretty much crams everything you want into a single package...well, except for the hops. I guess you could hop this shit and go home. You have an oak-aged Brett beer, and a huge Imperial Stout. This is more fruity and funky when it is cool, but as it warms up the Stout really comes out. This is one of the better beers I've had from Sams, and definitely worth checking out if you dig this type of hybrid beer.