Brewed By: Pipeworks Brewing Company in Chicago, IL
Purchased: 750ml bottle (Batch #204/205) bought at West Lakeview Liquors in IL; 2013 (bottled 9.??.13)
Style/ABV: Imperial Stout, 11.0%
Reported IBUs: ?
It's NOT Unofficial Pipeworks Thursday™...in fact, it's early Sunday. What am I even doing here? I should be watching football, but I had to take a break to pen some thoughts on this beer. About Pipeworks:
"Humans, humans, humans... Your delicacy suites you like vanilla to a beastly beer. You wear your fragility with nature's grace, like cherries in the fall. Destined to be plucked, squeezed, and made vital in some cosmic concoction. Subit to our dark rich cherry Abduction. Submission is your natural state. It is in fact, what Drew us to you."
This beer pours into a dark, black body, and kicks up two fingers of rich, dense, sustaining brown head. The head is sustaining nicely, with a pinky of thick foam hanging around. When you swirl the beer in the glass, sticky brown head coats the sides, along with some glossy alcohol legs. It's a nice looking beer.
The aroma on this beer is awesome. This beer has a lot more fruit on the nose than the Raspberry Truffle and Orange Truffle did. I'm getting rich and velvety chocolate, cacao, truffle, some roast/coffee, and boozy complexity...and BIG cherry, berries, fruit, and chocolate-dipped cherries. There are big chocolate-dipped cherries on this beer's nose, and it is fantastic.
I'm going at this a little cold right now, but fear not, I will sip on this until it warms. At the moment, I'm getting rich roast and chocolate, and TONS of fruity cherry. There's big cherry, berries, and acidic fruits. I'm also getting some coffee, and some boozy complexity. Let's see how this tastes in a few minutes.
As this warms up, not a whole lot changes...you get a lot more of the big, malt body, and you pick up a little more coffee and roast. At 11.0%, this is a big beer, but it's never cloying or obnoxious. The mouthfeel is full-bodied, and drags nicely, with good carbonation and some acidic berries and cherry fruit to move thing along. Palate depth is outstanding, especially for a Stout with cherries, and this has good complexity. I love fruity Stouts, but they can be hit and miss. This one hits, with rich malts, chocolate, coffee, and roast up front; that rolls into huge cherry, cherry-chocolate, coffee, berries, fruits; the finish is lingering cherry, coffee, and booze.
Rating: Divine Brew (5.0/5.0 Untappd)
I'm feeling a Decent Divine Brew on this. This is better than the Orange Truffle Abduction, and probably works better than the Raspberry Truffle Abduction too. I don't know if this is better than the Coffee Break Abduction, but it's hard to top coffee and the Abduction stout base. This is good stuff...a good beer to sip on, or to pair with some dry chocolate cake, or ice cream. The beer finishes just slightly sticky-sweet, and yeah. For such a young brewery finding their niche, I can only imagine what Pipeworks will be doing in a few years. There are better cherry Stouts out there, but this is a fantastic local option for Chicago. Get on this.
Random Thought: The Lions won, but both the Vikings and Packers lost. Here's to hoping the NFC North goes 2-2 this week.
Reported IBUs: ?
It's NOT Unofficial Pipeworks Thursday™...in fact, it's early Sunday. What am I even doing here? I should be watching football, but I had to take a break to pen some thoughts on this beer. 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. The goal is to release a new beer every week. You can read more about the brewery at their website HERE.
The back of the Cherry Truffle Abduction states:
"Humans, humans, humans... Your delicacy suites you like vanilla to a beastly beer. You wear your fragility with nature's grace, like cherries in the fall. Destined to be plucked, squeezed, and made vital in some cosmic concoction. Subit to our dark rich cherry Abduction. Submission is your natural state. It is in fact, what Drew us to you."
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| Pipeworks Cherry Truffle Abduction |
This beer pours into a dark, black body, and kicks up two fingers of rich, dense, sustaining brown head. The head is sustaining nicely, with a pinky of thick foam hanging around. When you swirl the beer in the glass, sticky brown head coats the sides, along with some glossy alcohol legs. It's a nice looking beer.
The aroma on this beer is awesome. This beer has a lot more fruit on the nose than the Raspberry Truffle and Orange Truffle did. I'm getting rich and velvety chocolate, cacao, truffle, some roast/coffee, and boozy complexity...and BIG cherry, berries, fruit, and chocolate-dipped cherries. There are big chocolate-dipped cherries on this beer's nose, and it is fantastic.
I'm going at this a little cold right now, but fear not, I will sip on this until it warms. At the moment, I'm getting rich roast and chocolate, and TONS of fruity cherry. There's big cherry, berries, and acidic fruits. I'm also getting some coffee, and some boozy complexity. Let's see how this tastes in a few minutes.
As this warms up, not a whole lot changes...you get a lot more of the big, malt body, and you pick up a little more coffee and roast. At 11.0%, this is a big beer, but it's never cloying or obnoxious. The mouthfeel is full-bodied, and drags nicely, with good carbonation and some acidic berries and cherry fruit to move thing along. Palate depth is outstanding, especially for a Stout with cherries, and this has good complexity. I love fruity Stouts, but they can be hit and miss. This one hits, with rich malts, chocolate, coffee, and roast up front; that rolls into huge cherry, cherry-chocolate, coffee, berries, fruits; the finish is lingering cherry, coffee, and booze.
I'm feeling a Decent Divine Brew on this. This is better than the Orange Truffle Abduction, and probably works better than the Raspberry Truffle Abduction too. I don't know if this is better than the Coffee Break Abduction, but it's hard to top coffee and the Abduction stout base. This is good stuff...a good beer to sip on, or to pair with some dry chocolate cake, or ice cream. The beer finishes just slightly sticky-sweet, and yeah. For such a young brewery finding their niche, I can only imagine what Pipeworks will be doing in a few years. There are better cherry Stouts out there, but this is a fantastic local option for Chicago. Get on this.
Random Thought: The Lions won, but both the Vikings and Packers lost. Here's to hoping the NFC North goes 2-2 this week.
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