Brewed By: Southern Tier Brewing Company in Lakewood, New York
Purchased: 22oz bottle bought at Binny's in IL; 2013
Style/ABV: Stout - Spice/Herb/Vegetable, 8.6%
Reported IBUs: ?
Tonight I'm taking a stab at Southern Tier's new Autumn release, their Warlock. This beer is supposed to be the Stout counterpoint to their delicious Pumking, so hopefully things work out. About Southern Tier:
Southern Tier Warlock
Southern Tier Brewing Company is based out of Lakewood, New York. The brewery was founded in 2002 by Phineas DeMink and Allen "Skip" Yahn. Using equipment purchased from the old Saddleback Brewing Co., the company began production with the vision of reviving traditional small batch brewing to the region. By 2003, the brewery was distributing their small batch ales, and by 2005 their sales covered New York and Pennsylvania. Before the brewery had any seasonal beers, it produced a Pilsner, Mild Ale, and IPA. Due to popularity, in 2009 a 20,000 square foot facility was built to allow for the brewing of large-scale beers. Since then, Southern Tier has continued to expand, and continued to invest in better equipment to keep up with the increasing demand for their beer. You can read more about Southern Tier's history on their history page.
The Southern Tier Warlock is part of Southern Tier's Blackwater Series of beers. The bottle states: "Warlock is brewed to enchant your palate on its own & also to counterpoint our Imperial Ale, Pumking. Make your own black magic by carefully pouring this imperial stout into a goblet." Described as having a black body and medium bitterness, this beer is brewed with a 2-row pale malt, caramel malt, black malt, and munich malt base; it uses puréed pumpkin; and magnum and sterling hops. Described as having aromas of pumpkin pie, spice, and roasted malts, the flavor should feature pumpkin pie with a coffee and dark chocolate twist. This beer is obviously a Fall/Autumn seasonal.
The beer pours into a dark black body that has brown/ruby red tones. The tones. The beer also kicks up one or two fingers of light tan/khaki head. Head retention is nice, and there's some lacing and alcohol legs when you swirl the beer in the glass. Shining light through the beer confirms just how light this beer is, as the beer clearly has a ruby red/brown body. You can see some carbonation in this, and the beer looks good and gravy.
This is a twist...the aroma on this beer smells nearly identical to Pumking. I'm pulling out huge pumpkin, pie crust, graham cracker, creamed corn, corn, steamed corn, and some nutmeg and clove spice. There's a hint of roast and malt depth on the nose, but it is very faint and subtle compared to all that pumpkin.
Huzzah. The taste deviates quite a bit from Pumking, with notable flavors of roast and coffee on the back end. You get a blast of malt-drenched pumpkin, pumpkin pie, pie crust, graham cracker, creamed corn, candy corn, and nutmeg/clove up front. The initial blast is drenched with bitter dark malts, roast, coffee, and hop bite. This beer is surprisingly hoppy and bitter, with aggressive hops and coffee flavors popping up. After the initial battle of roast vs. pumpkin, you're left with some chocolate and coffee, and then the beer finishes with deep roast and coffee notes, and lingering pumpkin on the finish.
I don't know if this is better than Pumking, but it certainly adds another layer of complexity. It's a welcomed twist on the ol' October standby. The mouthfeel here is dense and full-bodied, with light carbonation moving things along. Like many of Southern Tier's beers, this one is formidable and sweet. On the other hand, the roast and bitter elements don't have a huge Stout base to work with, and as a result the beer feels less dense than it could. Palate depth is good and complexity is very high. As noted earlier: you get tons of pumpkin and spice up front, juxtaposed with coffee, roast, and bitter hops; the middle rolls into roast, coffee, vanilla/creamer, and chocolate; the back end is lingering roast/coffee and pumpkin spice. At 8.6% I'm not picking up any noticeable booze, and this is pleasantly drinkable for what it is.
Rating: Divine Brew (4.5/5.0 Untappd)
I'm going to go with a Light Divine Brew for this, which is actually a notch below the Southern Tier Pumking! We're in Stout land, baby, so my expectations are ratcheted up a bit. Having said that, the addition of roast/coffee/chocolate adds a nice layer of complexity to this beer. The addition of bitter hops and coffee helps curb some of the sweetness that many people find cloying or obnoxious in Pumking. The addition of dark malts also means this beer will work well on a cold, October night. This beer is decadent like dessert, and lives up to its mysterious hype. You could pair this beer with a chocolate cake, pie, pumpkin desserts, Thanksgiving trimmings, or just drink it by itself for dessert. Bottles were going for 7 or 8 bucks, which is a good deal.
Random Thought: I'm all for Kickstarter and I think it's cool that some breweries have been funded by using Kickstarter...but when do we reach the saturation point for soliciting donations? I'm glad you want to start a nano-brewery in your hometown, but if you aren't distributing your beer nationally I'm less inclined to care. I suppose nano-breweries are similar to restaurants. As someone who knows fuck all about starting a business, I have to wonder how restaurants do it. Do you take out a loan? Go to investors? In the end, I'm charitable and I love beer...but yeah.
Purchased: 22oz bottle bought at Binny's in IL; 2013
Style/ABV: Stout - Spice/Herb/Vegetable, 8.6%
Reported IBUs: ?
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| Southern Tier Warlock |
Southern Tier Brewing Company is based out of Lakewood, New York. The brewery was founded in 2002 by Phineas DeMink and Allen "Skip" Yahn. Using equipment purchased from the old Saddleback Brewing Co., the company began production with the vision of reviving traditional small batch brewing to the region. By 2003, the brewery was distributing their small batch ales, and by 2005 their sales covered New York and Pennsylvania. Before the brewery had any seasonal beers, it produced a Pilsner, Mild Ale, and IPA. Due to popularity, in 2009 a 20,000 square foot facility was built to allow for the brewing of large-scale beers. Since then, Southern Tier has continued to expand, and continued to invest in better equipment to keep up with the increasing demand for their beer. You can read more about Southern Tier's history on their history page.The Southern Tier Warlock is part of Southern Tier's Blackwater Series of beers. The bottle states: "Warlock is brewed to enchant your palate on its own & also to counterpoint our Imperial Ale, Pumking. Make your own black magic by carefully pouring this imperial stout into a goblet." Described as having a black body and medium bitterness, this beer is brewed with a 2-row pale malt, caramel malt, black malt, and munich malt base; it uses puréed pumpkin; and magnum and sterling hops. Described as having aromas of pumpkin pie, spice, and roasted malts, the flavor should feature pumpkin pie with a coffee and dark chocolate twist. This beer is obviously a Fall/Autumn seasonal.
The beer pours into a dark black body that has brown/ruby red tones. The tones. The beer also kicks up one or two fingers of light tan/khaki head. Head retention is nice, and there's some lacing and alcohol legs when you swirl the beer in the glass. Shining light through the beer confirms just how light this beer is, as the beer clearly has a ruby red/brown body. You can see some carbonation in this, and the beer looks good and gravy.
This is a twist...the aroma on this beer smells nearly identical to Pumking. I'm pulling out huge pumpkin, pie crust, graham cracker, creamed corn, corn, steamed corn, and some nutmeg and clove spice. There's a hint of roast and malt depth on the nose, but it is very faint and subtle compared to all that pumpkin.
Huzzah. The taste deviates quite a bit from Pumking, with notable flavors of roast and coffee on the back end. You get a blast of malt-drenched pumpkin, pumpkin pie, pie crust, graham cracker, creamed corn, candy corn, and nutmeg/clove up front. The initial blast is drenched with bitter dark malts, roast, coffee, and hop bite. This beer is surprisingly hoppy and bitter, with aggressive hops and coffee flavors popping up. After the initial battle of roast vs. pumpkin, you're left with some chocolate and coffee, and then the beer finishes with deep roast and coffee notes, and lingering pumpkin on the finish.
I don't know if this is better than Pumking, but it certainly adds another layer of complexity. It's a welcomed twist on the ol' October standby. The mouthfeel here is dense and full-bodied, with light carbonation moving things along. Like many of Southern Tier's beers, this one is formidable and sweet. On the other hand, the roast and bitter elements don't have a huge Stout base to work with, and as a result the beer feels less dense than it could. Palate depth is good and complexity is very high. As noted earlier: you get tons of pumpkin and spice up front, juxtaposed with coffee, roast, and bitter hops; the middle rolls into roast, coffee, vanilla/creamer, and chocolate; the back end is lingering roast/coffee and pumpkin spice. At 8.6% I'm not picking up any noticeable booze, and this is pleasantly drinkable for what it is.
Rating: Divine Brew (4.5/5.0 Untappd)
I'm going to go with a Light Divine Brew for this, which is actually a notch below the Southern Tier Pumking! We're in Stout land, baby, so my expectations are ratcheted up a bit. Having said that, the addition of roast/coffee/chocolate adds a nice layer of complexity to this beer. The addition of bitter hops and coffee helps curb some of the sweetness that many people find cloying or obnoxious in Pumking. The addition of dark malts also means this beer will work well on a cold, October night. This beer is decadent like dessert, and lives up to its mysterious hype. You could pair this beer with a chocolate cake, pie, pumpkin desserts, Thanksgiving trimmings, or just drink it by itself for dessert. Bottles were going for 7 or 8 bucks, which is a good deal.
Random Thought: I'm all for Kickstarter and I think it's cool that some breweries have been funded by using Kickstarter...but when do we reach the saturation point for soliciting donations? I'm glad you want to start a nano-brewery in your hometown, but if you aren't distributing your beer nationally I'm less inclined to care. I suppose nano-breweries are similar to restaurants. As someone who knows fuck all about starting a business, I have to wonder how restaurants do it. Do you take out a loan? Go to investors? In the end, I'm charitable and I love beer...but yeah.
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