Brewed By: Pipeworks Brewing in Chicago, IL
Purchased: 22oz bottle (Batch #201) bought at Binny's in IL; 2013 (bottled 9.5.13)
Style/ABV: Smoked Beer/Imperial Porter, 10.5%
Reported IBUs: ?
Welcome to Unofficial Pipeworks Thursday™. It's cold out tonight, and the perfect evening to enjoy a big, bold, robust, smoked beer. About Pipeworks:
"Bold, rich, and smokey. This is how the Big Smokey P Rolls. A deep malt base combining both Cherrywood and Beachwood smoked malts, this imperial smoked porter is Big. Get up on this Big Smokey P and enjoy the ride."
This beer pours into a black body with ruby red tones, and kicks up a pinky's worth of lightly tanned head. The head retention consists of a tan ring along the edge of the glass, and a hazy cauldron effect on top. Swirling the beer coats your glass with dense, dark lacing, and leaves some residual alcohol legs/tears behind. Bright light confirms much of the same: a dark beer with brown/ruby tones.
This has a rich, velvety aroma, with lots of beachwood/cherrywood, caramel/molasses/brown sugar sweetness, hints of creamer or lactose, and tons of suggestive chocolates and meaty notes. There's a hint of butterscotch/diacetyl that comes and goes, but with the amount of UMPHH this beer has, I doubt it will be an issue.
You do get a lot of beachwood, cherrywood, and smoked malts (with some hints of meat and campfire and the usual trimmings), all wrapped up in a delightful, full-bodied, malty package. I'm pulling out earthy notes, hints of coffee, chocolate, even some hints of sweeter sugars and fruits, and lots of molasses and caramel. But the smoked malts are pervasive throughout.
This is full-bodied, dense, and big...it's also somewhat sugary, and leaves some residual sugars and stickiness on your lips. Nevertheless, for 10.5% this is drinkable. Palate depth is good...complexity is okay....and the beer promises what it advertises, which is nice smoked malt throughout. You get beachwood/cherrywood/smoked malt and cacao with some earthy notes hinting at coffee and roast up front; that rolls into chocolate, hints of fruit, some bitterness (hops???), and more smoked malts; the back end is lingering smoked malts with sugar/caramel/molasses sweetness. The finish is sticky sweet, and a touch smokey.
Rating: Above-Average (3.5/5.0 Untappd)
I'm going to go with a very Light Above-Average here. I almost feel like the gravity boost here isn't as big of an improvement over Pipeworks' regular Smoked Porter as it could be...maybe if you take the bigger ABV and throw in some more cocoa or something, I don't know. It's a solid B/B+ beer, and the promised smoked malts are consistent throughout. This would be a great beer to pair with barbecue, grilled meats, a burger with bacon, ice cream, or dry chocolate cake. This is another solid brew from Pipeworks, and more proof that they have Stouts and IPAs down.
Random Thought: I had a cavity drilled and filled today. I rarely get cavities, and believe that tonight was number two or three. Getting the Novocaine shot is fucking weird, but it's kind of a cool sensation. The worst part is having the needle in your mouth for that extended period of time. I should probably harden the fuck up, so I'm gonna peace out.
Reported IBUs: ?
Welcome to Unofficial Pipeworks Thursday™. It's cold out tonight, and the perfect evening to enjoy a big, bold, robust, smoked 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.
Tonight's beer is an "Imperial Porter" that will likely feature Imperial Stout-like boldness. I guess we're splitting hairs here, but what can you do. The bottle reads:
"Bold, rich, and smokey. This is how the Big Smokey P Rolls. A deep malt base combining both Cherrywood and Beachwood smoked malts, this imperial smoked porter is Big. Get up on this Big Smokey P and enjoy the ride."
 |
| Pipeworks Big Smokey P |
This beer pours into a black body with ruby red tones, and kicks up a pinky's worth of lightly tanned head. The head retention consists of a tan ring along the edge of the glass, and a hazy cauldron effect on top. Swirling the beer coats your glass with dense, dark lacing, and leaves some residual alcohol legs/tears behind. Bright light confirms much of the same: a dark beer with brown/ruby tones.
This has a rich, velvety aroma, with lots of beachwood/cherrywood, caramel/molasses/brown sugar sweetness, hints of creamer or lactose, and tons of suggestive chocolates and meaty notes. There's a hint of butterscotch/diacetyl that comes and goes, but with the amount of UMPHH this beer has, I doubt it will be an issue.
You do get a lot of beachwood, cherrywood, and smoked malts (with some hints of meat and campfire and the usual trimmings), all wrapped up in a delightful, full-bodied, malty package. I'm pulling out earthy notes, hints of coffee, chocolate, even some hints of sweeter sugars and fruits, and lots of molasses and caramel. But the smoked malts are pervasive throughout.
This is full-bodied, dense, and big...it's also somewhat sugary, and leaves some residual sugars and stickiness on your lips. Nevertheless, for 10.5% this is drinkable. Palate depth is good...complexity is okay....and the beer promises what it advertises, which is nice smoked malt throughout. You get beachwood/cherrywood/smoked malt and cacao with some earthy notes hinting at coffee and roast up front; that rolls into chocolate, hints of fruit, some bitterness (hops???), and more smoked malts; the back end is lingering smoked malts with sugar/caramel/molasses sweetness. The finish is sticky sweet, and a touch smokey.
I'm going to go with a very Light Above-Average here. I almost feel like the gravity boost here isn't as big of an improvement over Pipeworks' regular Smoked Porter as it could be...maybe if you take the bigger ABV and throw in some more cocoa or something, I don't know. It's a solid B/B+ beer, and the promised smoked malts are consistent throughout. This would be a great beer to pair with barbecue, grilled meats, a burger with bacon, ice cream, or dry chocolate cake. This is another solid brew from Pipeworks, and more proof that they have Stouts and IPAs down.
Random Thought: I had a cavity drilled and filled today. I rarely get cavities, and believe that tonight was number two or three. Getting the Novocaine shot is fucking weird, but it's kind of a cool sensation. The worst part is having the needle in your mouth for that extended period of time. I should probably harden the fuck up, so I'm gonna peace out.
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