Three Floyds / Surly / Real Ale - Blakkr

Brewed By: 
Three Floyds Brewing Company in Munster, Indiana 
Surly Brewing in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota
Real Ale Brewing Company in Blanco, Texas

Purchased: 22oz bottle bought at Sheridan 'L' Longue in Chicago, IL; 2014

Style/ABV: Imperial Black Ale/IPA, 9.0%
Reported IBUs: 90

Tonight's beer is a collaboration between three breweries. I guess we can give props where props are due. About Three Floyds:

Today we go to Munster, Indiana, where Three Floyds has been brewing beer since 1996. The brewery was founded by brothers Nick and Simon, and their father Mike Floyd - hence, the name, Three Floyds. The first brewery was originally located in Hammond, Indiana. Eventually Three Floyds outgrew their original location, and moved to Munster, Indiana. After moving to Munster, and seeing an increased demand for their beer, Three Floyds began to bottle their beer. Since 2000, the brewery has continued to grow. And in 2005, the brewery opened its first brewpub. The brewery is probably most famous for their Dark Lord Stout. If you haven't heard of it, Google "Dark Lord Day." And then weep at the beer you probably will never be able to drink.

About Surly Brewing: 

The Surly Brewing company is a brewery based out of Brooklyn Center, Minnesota. The brewery was founded in 2005 by long time homebrewer Omar Ansari with the help of Todd Haug (Minneapolis's Rock Bottom Brewery). For more info, check out the brewery's about page. 

About The Real Ale Brewing Company: 

The Real Ale Brewing Company is a brewery based out of Blanco, TX that was founded in 1996 by Philip & Diane Conner and their son, Charles. The family set up shop in a basement of an antiques store in the Blanco town square. They originally brewed three beers: a Full Moon Pale Rye Ale, Rio Blanco Pale Ale, and a Brewhouse Brown Ale. In 1998, the brewery was taken over by homebrewer and UT graduate Brad Farbstein. Construction for an expansion began in 2005, and went live in 2006. For more info, check out the brewery's website. 

The Blakkr is described as a huge, Double Black IPA. Real Ale Brewing describes this as having "subtle dark malt and toffee character," which "quickly yields to the citrus and tropical notes provided by a staggering amount of hops." 

Three Floyds / Surly / Real Ale - Blakkr

This one pours into an opaque black body; it's not quite as inky-thick as an Imperial Stout, but it's not a slouch either. The beer kicks up three fingers of tan/khaki head, and as the head drops off your are left with massive webs of lacing. Head retention is nice too. 

As soon as you crack this one open, you get blasted with intense hop kick. I was getting huge pineapple, guava, tropical fruits, and GIANT, DANK, resinous pine. It's like a stoned tropical fruit party, something that Three Floyds could be the creators of. Along with all the hops are huge layers of dark, rich malts. I'm getting big coffee, toffee, dark fruits, and some underlying roasty/chocolate.

This is fantastically bitter and hoppy, with huge underlying roast complexity. Up front is a wash of citrus, resinous pine, dank, guava, pineapple, and dark tropical fruits. The mids give way to crashes of pine against huge roast, and then the bitterness kicks in, with coffee and roast. The back end really dials up the coffee, with some lingering coffee/dark chocolate, resinous pine, and some toffee. Finishes sticky and dry.

This is full-bodied -- impressive stuff -- really. It kind of drinks like a Stout, despite being an Imperial Black IPA. Palate depth is outstanding, and the complexity is really good as well. At 9.0% or whatever this is, this is pretty drinkable. I'm digging this. Up front are huge hops, pine, guava, tropical fruit; the mids hit coffee, chocolate, roast, toffee, more hops; the back end is bitter with bitter coffee, dark chocolate, and a dry finish. This is a heavy hitter. Impressive.

Rating: Above-Average (4.0/5.0 Untappd)

I'm feeling a Strong Above-Average on this. This is a heavy hitter, that's for sure. It's also a really solid Imperial Black IPA, with a nice balance of intense hops and big malty goodness. There's a lot of guava, tropical fruits, pine, dank hops, and big roasty/coffee/chocolate goodness to be had with this beer. You can pair this beer with big burgers, steaks, strong cheeses, chocolate cakes, or even something spicy...I don't know about wings, but maybe a nice mole sauce. Good stuff, would recommend, especially at around ~$10 a pop.

Random Thought: My only gripe about having four local sports games on during a Friday night is that the night flies by. Damn. 

Pipeworks Close Encounter

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:

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..."

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.

Beer Here Dark Hops

Brewed By: Beer Here in De Proef, Lochristi, Belgium (De Proefbrouwerij)
Purchased: 1 Pint, .9oz (16.9oz) bought at Binny's in IL; 2012 

Style/ABV: Black IPA, 8.5%

Reported IBUs: 80
"Hops were harmed in the production of this beer." 

I wish I spoke Danish or German, because it would make my life a hell of a lot easier. Today, I'm looking at a beer brewed by "the guy," at Beer Here. Beer Here is (or was?) a Danish brewery, based out of Køge, Denmark. The brewery was founded and is run by Christian Andersen Skovdal, the previous brewer at the Ølfabrikken (The Beer Factory) microbrewery. According to THIS ARTICLE, Christian left Ølfabrikken to start Beer Here in 2008. Beer Here contract brews their beer, while Christian masterminds the brews. Hence why I said the brewery may have been based out of Køge.

Tonight's beer, the Dark Hops, is contract brewed at De Proefbrouwerij. You can get the breakdown on the Dark Hops HERE. The Dark Hops is described as a "stout as hoppy as an IPA." This beer is brewed with Maris Otter malt, smoked malt, British specialty malts, and sugar cane. The beer is hopped with Zeus and Czech Saaz hops. Clocking in at 8.5%, this is a big beer. There's a PDF on the beer, which can be found HERE. The PDF outlines slightly different ingredients, stating that this is brewed with Maris Otter malts, malted rye, roasted barley, brown malt; and then hopped with American Columbus hops. Either way, this beer still clocks in at 8.5%, and packs 80 IBUs. This beer is unpasteurized, unfiltered, and bottle-conditioned. You can age this for 3-5 years.

I sometimes laugh at the dumb hop puns that breweries use for their beer names, but I think "Dark Hops" is pretty fucking clever. Especially considering that the Black IPA is still somewhat elusive, and was even more so when Dark Hops first arrived on the market. So props to Beer Here for that one. Let's glass this up and see what we got.

Beer Here Dark Hops

This one pours a swampy brown-purple color, with a super hazy/swampy body. I kicked up 5-fingers of creamy, thick, foamy head. The head is tan, with a bready color. In bright light, the body of this beer is juicy/swampy/murky as fuck. It's like scooping out a cup of muddy swamp water. It's like a purple-brown Bloody Mary. You can see carbonation in the form of tiny, tiny bubbles. The head is quite creamy, and sustaining nicely. It has a cream soda/root beer color. There's lacing, duh. I'm a big fan of these murky, unfiltered beers. It's like an adventure in a glass...crickey.

The aroma on this is dank hemp, resinous hops, roast, hints of coffee, a bready backbone, and TONS of sugar. I'm getting a lot of candi sugar, molasses, and some sugary rye. There's a floral thing going on with the hops as well, with hints of mint, pine, and citrus.

It seems both fitting, and ironic, to serve this in an Arrogant Bastard glass. This is a very palatable and balanced Black IPA, with a creamy and smooth mouthfeel. I'm getting a lot of pine, citrus, and grapefruit on the back end of this. You get some of the resinous and dank hops up front, with hints of hemp and tobacco. The middle rolls into roast, and there's a coffee-roast thing throughout. As the bitterness grows, I pick up some more hop resin, bitter dark chocolate, and the beer really coats the palate well. There's an underlying alcohol complexity going on here, with hints of raisins and figs, and a boozy abyss. At 8.5%, this is a big beer.

This is lighter than I was expecting at 8.5%...less hoppy and resinous than I was expecting (especially for 80 IBUs!)...fairly smooth and drinkable; supported by lots of carbonation..and yet, there is a growing and underlying complexity that drives this beer. There's a lot going on here. First off, palate depth is great. This is medium-full to full-bodied, but retains drinkability (so be careful...8.5% and all). But the complexity is outstanding. Up front is roast, chocolate, coffee...and then you get kissed by hemp, tobacco, resinous/piney hops, a hint of mint; the hops hang out in the middle, with bitter citrus, grapefruit, coffee; the back end is lingering bitter, and then opens back up with roast, chocolate, coffee. The finish is woody and dry as hell. As all of the above is going on, there is an underlying boozy complexity driving this beer, with dashes of figs and raisins and spice. There's also a bit of grain and bread as the backbone.

Rating: Above-Average

Is that what you want?

I gotta go with a Lite Above-Average on this. I was leaning towards Average, but this really won me over with all the stuff going on. I wish the hops were a little more prominent and resinous, but the tradeoff is that this beer features a really nice hops vs. malt balance, has tons of complexity, and makes the alcohol work in its favor. Oh, and this shit is super drinkable. This is a dangerous beer at 8.5%. Food pairings? You know, this is basically an IPA with the added dimensions of roast, chocolate, and coffee. You could pair this with anything, really. This beer is bitter enough to stand up to strong foods and big spices, so I could see this working with spicy chicken and rice, Mexican food, pizza, really hot and spicy wings, ribs, etc. The cost of this was reasonable at around 7 or 8 bucks a bottle.

Random Thought: I actually bought this beer twice. I picked up a bottle of this, and during the trip between my upstairs and downstairs, I dropped the bottle...only to watch it shatter into 20 pieces and spill delicious beer everywhere. The loss of beer is a tragedy, but the real suck-ass is cleaning up spilled beer. I can't imagine spilling thousands of gallons of beer at a brewery (which happens frequently enough). Because that's how you get ants.

Stone 15th Anniversary Escondidian Imperial Black IPA

Brewed By: Stone Brewing Co. in Escondido, California

Purchased: Single, big-ass, bomber (1 Pint, 6oz) from Binny's in Illinois; 2011

Style/ABV: Imperial Black IPA, 10.8% 

Does Stone Brewing need an introduction? Given how much you hear about Stone Brewing from within and even outside the craft beer scene, it is amazing to think these guys have only been around for 15 years. In 15 years Stone has pumped out some seriously over-the-top but awesome beers. Stone is the brainchild of Steve Wagner and Greg Koch, two guys who loved beer. Greg and Steve didn't just love beer, they owned it. In 1996 Stone Brewing Co. came into full fruition.

Stone Brewing Co.

You probably know Stone for their badass Gargoyle logo, or maybe you know them for their divine Arrogant Bastard Ale. One thing is certain; these guys make some really good over-the-top beer. Speaking of, to celebrate their 15th Anniversary, Stone has released a limited one-off beer. This has become an annual tradition for Stone, and this will mark my first experience with a Stone Anniversery beer.

Today's beer, Stone's 15th Anniversary Escondidian Imperial Black IPA, seems to be in line with Stone's extreme beer philosophy. This is an Imperial Black IPA. Black IPAs are an American style of IPA with a little more malt characteristic, a high ABV, and often utilize dry hopping. Stone goes above and beyond with their bottle artwork, painting their designs onto the bottle, and on this beer's bottle are some nice words of wisdom from Greg Koch and Steve Wagner. Now this is an Imperial Black IPA. Imperial anything usually means more alcohol, or more hops, or more everything. This is a bold beer, at 10.8% ABV, and I expect it to lay down a righteous ass kicking. I'm expecting a big hoppy bomb, possibly pushing towards 90+ IBUs, with hints of malt goodness.

Today's beer is brewed using Nelson Sauvin hops, a relatively new hop with a really unique profile. Nelson Sauvin hops are supposed to add a grape-like component to beers. It also can add extreme fruitiness to beers, with some people describing it tasting like passion fruit. This beer also uses Chocolate Malts, so I'm hoping to pull out a chocolate component. This beer uses Citra and Columbus hops, and is dry-hopped with the Nelson hops as well as Pacific Jade (bold, herbal, peppers, citrus). This is a sick line-up of ingredients, and with 10.8% ABV to back up this list of awesomeness... 

Is this an Imperial Stout? Had me fooled.

I admire beer when I pour it, but holy cow this is a ridiculous looking beer. This beer pours with a 3-finger, coffee-brown head. This beer is PITCH BLACK. I swear this is darker than a lot of Imperial Stouts. Even when held up to the light, there is nothing escaping from this beer. It's such an obsidian-colored beer that I cannot even tell you about the carbonation. Despite the 10.8% ABV I am getting decent head retention, and there appears to be some alcohol legs. There was smoke rising from the bottle when I popped it open, and I got hit with a blast of aroma within a second or two of opening this bottle...

...and man oh man is this aroma good. This is incredibly hoppy, and citrusy, and grapes, and then earthy. I am getting giant aromas in the form of sweet grapefruit and maybe orange. There is an overwhelmingly resiny quality to the aroma, and it really compliments the hops. There is a ton of grape and passion fruit, likely from the Nelson hops. There is an earthy component, but my untrained nose isn't really detecting any specific malt notes or any chocolate. At this point in the process the head has really winded down into a nice 1-centimeter coating. Beers with giant ABVs tend to have heads that diminish pretty quickly, for whatever reason, so it's not a big deal. There is also some nice lacing on my glass. 

Holy resin, Batman. This is a resiny beer. I also have isolated the chocolate malt, which is showing up in the body in a major way. This is actually super malty. This is super complex, with big citrus notes, some definite pepper, some woody/tobacco notes, tons of grapes and passion fruit, and an overlaying chocolate quality. In fact, the chocolate and grape cut through the whole palate and drop a ton of interesting flavors. I swear I'm getting a woody/tobacco quality along with the grape and passion-fruit. I think this is pulling around 100 IBUs, and it shows. This is bitter, and if you aren't used to bitter beers this is going to kick your ass. There is definitely some alcohol bite in the back end, and it kind of creeps up from your palate into your nose. But it isn't offensive, and compliments the huge resiny flavor of this beer. 

This is superbly complex, has tons of depth, and is incredibly fulfilling. At 10.8% ABV this isn't exactly something you want to chugging, but it is surprisingly drinkable. The body is resiny and full; this is a full-bodied beer. With waves of hops, malt, and hops and RESIN, you really feel the full weight of this beer. And it's wonderful. 

How do you rate a one-off beer like this? A beer so extreme that it defies most expectations established by day-to-day beers. This is a beer riding the line between Above-Average and Divine Brew, and because it is unique I'll buy into the hype and go ahead and throw done the Divine Brew. Pick this up if you can, while you can.

Rating: Divine Brew

Score: 91%

Even in light: pitch black

On the front end of my palate I get a lot of malt including chocolate, but there is a resiny hop note (the grape, passion-fruit) that rides through the front, middle and back. The middle is big hops, including grapefruit and more grapes. There is also some booze in the middle. The back end is dry as hell, and really gives way to those 100 IBUs. This is a bitter beer, 'nuff said. There is a pepper quality that comes and goes, which really compliments the resiny mouthfeel that dominates this beer. I also get a woody-tobacco quality to the beer, which may just be my weird interpretation of the spicy pepper component.

I suspect this beer is brewed more for the beer geek and the fans of Stone Brewing Co. than for the general public. This isn't remotely noobie friendly - and between the giant ABV, the huge resiny body, the extreme bitterness, and the giant hop kick - this is a beer that is really really good but also really extreme. This beer is kind of like Stone Brewing in a nutshell. 

I love how this beer looks, it is pitch black. I love the coffee-brown head, which hung around longer than I expected. I love that I'm belching up grapefruit. I love the Nelson hop notes in this beer: there are definitely notes of grape and passion fruit. Despite the huge malt presence and the chocolate notes, this beer is largely hop-forward and I do think this leans more towards hops. So I wouldn't call it balanced. 

But this is a one-off, an Anniversary Ale. If you like extreme beers, and if you are a beer geek, you owe it to yourself to try and snag a bottle of this while you can. Because it is muy bueno. If you see this beer, buy it! Pour it into your snifter, and grab some cheese and crackers, and enjoy your night. And thank you to Stone Brewing Co. for making awesome beer for the last 15 years. Respect.