Brewed By: Pipeworks Brewing in Chicago, IL
Purchased: 22oz bottle (Batch #57) bought at West Lakeview Liquors in Chicago, IL; 2013
Style/ABV: Stout/Black IPA/Cascadian Dark Ale, 8.5%
Reported IBUs: ?
How bout dem apples. Just like I predicted last night, today's commute was a clusterfuck, with streams turned into rivers, streets turned into streams, and underpasses turned into mini lakes. Like a champ and/or idiot, I made the trek to work...only to get sent home per company policy. Hooray! On the bright side, today was a half day. Oh, and it's unofficial official Pipeworks Thursday...about Pipeworks:
Reported IBUs: ?
How bout dem apples. Just like I predicted last night, today's commute was a clusterfuck, with streams turned into rivers, streets turned into streams, and underpasses turned into mini lakes. Like a champ and/or idiot, I made the trek to work...only to get sent home per company policy. Hooray! On the bright side, today was a half day. Oh, and it's unofficial official Pipeworks Thursday...about Pipeworks:
Pipeworks has humble roots. The brewery was founded in Chicago in 2011 by Beejay Oslon and Gerrit Lewis. The duo were both homebrewers that met while while working at West Lakeview Liquors. In 2011, they began to raise money for their brewery using the online Internet site, Kickstarter. Olson and Lewis were both educated at De Struise Brewery in Oostvleteren, Belgium. With that knowledge, and the money from their kickstarter, Olson and Lewis created a unique brewery that is smaller in size, and intended to brew smaller batches of beer. The company's motto is "small batches, big beers." And indeed, since the brewery has been around, they've been releasing a lot of one-offs and small batch releases. At one point - and maybe still - the goal was the release a new beer every week. You can read more about the brewery at their website HERE.
The back of the Close Encounter (Hoppy Double Stout) bottle states:
"Close Encounter is a bold venture into depths unknown. The best of both worlds co-exist between a rich roasted malt character and an aggressive hop presence that will probe your taste buds like nothing you have experienced before. Don't fear the unknown, embrace it! You never know who or what you may encounter..."
Clocking in at 8.5%...this is a big beer. So let's glass it up.
This one pours a dark black color in low light, and kicks up two finger's worth of super dark brown/coffee head. The head is bready and thick, and is sustaining nicely. When you swirl the beer around in the glass, the head coats the beer with thick brown lacing and residuals. This one pretty much looks the same in bright light, only you can pick up some dark brown/ruby tones in the body. The head on this is killer.
Wow, the aroma on this beer is incredible. I'm getting big pine, resin, woody hops, orange, tobacco, chocolate, and coffee. The chocolate and coffee profiles in this are both intense and huge. There is a pine-wood-chocolate connection on the nose driving this beer.
In the taste: tons of bitter, pissed off, woody citrus, and lots and lots of roast. You can feel this beer aggressively coating your tongue like it coats the side of your glass, despite the fact that this is more like medium-full thanks to the dryness, this is still super chewy and roasty. I'm picking up intensely roasted malts, dirt, coffee, tobacco, and lots of piney/citrus hop kick, especially as this dries out and lingers on the palate. There's a rich chocolate component at work as well, with some super bitter dark chocolate showing up.
As I suggested, this is medium-full in terms of mouthfeel, thanks to the dry finish. It does bounce between a tad watery and a tad dense, but this is mostly just chewy, roasty, and resinous. Some powdery dark chocolate/cacao is abound. Palate depth is great, particularly with the way this just coats your tongue. Complexity is probably average for the style...and I think they could have maybe dialed up the bitterness here. Up front is roast, cacao, coffee; this rolls into more roast, hops, cacao; the back end hits the piney/citrus hops, and fades to a woody dryness.
Rating: Above-Average (4/5 Untappd)
This is a Decent Above-Average for the style. I do like Cascadian Dark beers....such a fun style, and a nice mesh of the Stout richness, roast, and chocolate, with the huge hop character I enjoy. This is a good beer, and would pair well with a burger, dry chocolate cake, and any dish that benefits from chocolate, roast, and hops. Really nice stuff, especially at around 10 dollars a bomber.
Random Thought: I don't mind the rain, but now we are back into the 40s and 50s. Maybe if I stop drinking Stouts winter will go away.
"Close Encounter is a bold venture into depths unknown. The best of both worlds co-exist between a rich roasted malt character and an aggressive hop presence that will probe your taste buds like nothing you have experienced before. Don't fear the unknown, embrace it! You never know who or what you may encounter..."
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| Pipeworks Close Encounter |
Clocking in at 8.5%...this is a big beer. So let's glass it up.
This one pours a dark black color in low light, and kicks up two finger's worth of super dark brown/coffee head. The head is bready and thick, and is sustaining nicely. When you swirl the beer around in the glass, the head coats the beer with thick brown lacing and residuals. This one pretty much looks the same in bright light, only you can pick up some dark brown/ruby tones in the body. The head on this is killer.
Wow, the aroma on this beer is incredible. I'm getting big pine, resin, woody hops, orange, tobacco, chocolate, and coffee. The chocolate and coffee profiles in this are both intense and huge. There is a pine-wood-chocolate connection on the nose driving this beer.
In the taste: tons of bitter, pissed off, woody citrus, and lots and lots of roast. You can feel this beer aggressively coating your tongue like it coats the side of your glass, despite the fact that this is more like medium-full thanks to the dryness, this is still super chewy and roasty. I'm picking up intensely roasted malts, dirt, coffee, tobacco, and lots of piney/citrus hop kick, especially as this dries out and lingers on the palate. There's a rich chocolate component at work as well, with some super bitter dark chocolate showing up.
As I suggested, this is medium-full in terms of mouthfeel, thanks to the dry finish. It does bounce between a tad watery and a tad dense, but this is mostly just chewy, roasty, and resinous. Some powdery dark chocolate/cacao is abound. Palate depth is great, particularly with the way this just coats your tongue. Complexity is probably average for the style...and I think they could have maybe dialed up the bitterness here. Up front is roast, cacao, coffee; this rolls into more roast, hops, cacao; the back end hits the piney/citrus hops, and fades to a woody dryness.
Rating: Above-Average (4/5 Untappd)
This is a Decent Above-Average for the style. I do like Cascadian Dark beers....such a fun style, and a nice mesh of the Stout richness, roast, and chocolate, with the huge hop character I enjoy. This is a good beer, and would pair well with a burger, dry chocolate cake, and any dish that benefits from chocolate, roast, and hops. Really nice stuff, especially at around 10 dollars a bomber.
Random Thought: I don't mind the rain, but now we are back into the 40s and 50s. Maybe if I stop drinking Stouts winter will go away.
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