Off Color Dino S'Mores

Breewed By: Off Color Brewing in Chicago, IL

Purchased: 12oz bottle from a 4-pack bought at Bottles & Cans in Chicago, IL; 2014

Style/ABV: American Stout, 10.5% 

Reported IBUs: 40

Tonight's beer is a certified shelf turd. I literally walked into the store, and found this turd sitting on shelves. AMA. About Off Color Brewing:

Off Color Brewing is a brewery founded in 2008 according to their Facebook, or 2014 according to their website, or 2013 if you follow their release party and the logical timeline. It really doesn't matter, I suppose. What you need to know is that this brewery is the brainchild of former Goose Island barrel guru, John Laffler, and former Two Brothers brewer, Dave Bleitner. The duo are both graduates of Siebel, and share a passion for brewing exotic, off-color beer. For more info, check out the brewery's ABOUT page.

The Dino S'Mores is another S'mores inspired imperial stout, which is a trend that I can get behind. I'm quite partial to Pipeworks' S'More Money, S'More Problems. The Dino S'Mores is brewed with Pale, Vienna, Wheat, Cara II, Extra Special, Flaked Oats, Dark Chocolate, Black, and Roasted Barley malts. This features only Nugget hops (a little Goozie Island inspiration?), and a bunch of adjuncts. The extra ingredients include: marshmallow, vanilla beans, molasses, graham flour, and cocoa nibs. My goodness, this sounds amazing. 

Off Color Dino S'Mores

If you need me to describe the appearance, you probably won't be able to track down this beer. Just sayin'. Black, opaque, brown head. OH NOES. There's legit lacing and alcohol legs tugging and glossing on my glass, and this smacks of chocolate bukkake. 

The aroma is surprisingly roasty and smokey. It actually -- and I know this is going to be some sacrilegious shit to say -- it actually kind of smells like the same roasted malts used in Rogue's Voodoo Doughnut series. As I dig into the aroma some more, I'm getting some of that graham cracker, chocolate, and vanilla. This does not scream S'Mores to me on the aroma, and to be honest, I think the Pipeworks' S'More Money, S'More Problems had a more S'more-forward aroma. 

This gets a lot better as it warms up, but try as I might I cannot find the direct S'Mores flavor. I'm getting a lot of nice roast (which is still reminiscent of the roast found in Rogue's Voodoo series), big vanilla bean, big cocoa, and lots of hints of campfire, complex roast, hints of roasted coffee, and some nice graham notes. It's GOOD. I really like this beer. The sweetness isn't ratcheted high enough to match that of a proper S'More, but in some respects I like that. This really grounds itself in that earthy roasted note...it's a note that when done well tastes really good, and again reminds me of coffee and complex dirt. 

At 10.5%, I'm not tasting any alcohol here. This is not overly sweet at all. That's both a good thing and bad thing. When I think of S'Mores, I think of layers upon layers of sugar. Even if you add that burnt marshmallow flavor to the mix, the S'More dessert is all about the sugar. The complex roasted notes in here are reminiscent of a campfire, dirt, and coffee...and I like it. But S'Mores? I don't think so. Still, this is fairly complex, and the palate depth is great. This is medium-bodied, and starts off with roast, dirt coffee; the mids roll into cocoa, vanilla, sugars, graham; the back end finishes with roast, dirt, ash, coffee, and lingering vanilla sugars. 

Rating: Above-Average (4.0/5.0 Untappd)

I'm feeling a Light Above-Average on this. I'm surprised to say that I prefer the S'More Money, S'More Problem if you are looking for that S'More flavor. In terms of a complex, roasty Imperial Stout...you could do much worse than this beer right here. I think this is very tasty, but the sugar needs to be ratcheted up to hit that dessert note. But some people (like myself) prefer less sugar....so for that crowd, this is going to be a certified hit.

Random Thought: I'm curious to see if future batches of this will taste different, and I'm happy to see this just sitting on shelves. 

Pipeworks S'More Money, S'More Problems

Brewed By: Pipeworks Brewing in Chicago, IL  

Purchased: 22oz bottle (Batch #294-295) bought at West Lakeview Liquors in Chicago, IL; 2014 (bottled ??.??.2014)

Style/ABV: Imperial Stout/American Double, 10.0%
Reported IBUs: ?

It's an Unofficial Pipeworks Thursday™, so you know the drill. I'm going to type up a crappy review for a Pipeworks beer, and complain about the weather. Seriously though, this weather is ridiculous.

This is just....fuck.

The only silver lining is that it is peak Stout/Strong Ale/Barleywine season. There are no other silver linings. 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 unqiue in that it was brewed with one of Pipeworks' Friends With Benefits (aka donor) members, Keith Lonergan. This beer is brewed with "copious amounts of chocolate malt, roasted barley, golden naked oats and crushed graham crackers." Cocao nibs, vanilla bean, and "marshmallow flavor" are added after primary. The back of the bottle states::

"This is about to get campy... Boys and girls scoutin' for an ale that's s'more than a feelin' for the next jamboree or just looking to mallow out with something tasty, this is s'more like it. Crafted in collaboration with Kickstarter supporter Keith Lonergan, this chocolatey stout is brewed with graham crackers, and has an in-tents marshmallow flavor. Get s'more for you and all your friends, because s'more the merrier. Only you can prevent forest fires, by drinking s'more."

Oh my the puns. This beer pours very much like every other opaque, inky black Imperial Stout. That is to say: thick and viscous with a black body, and producing a finger's worth of brown head. There is some tight lacing, alcohol legs, and glossy brown beer sticking to the side of the glass. In bright light the beer catches some ruby/brown tones on the very edges, but yeah.

Pipeworks S'More Money, S'More Problems

Unlike every other Stout...the aroma here is awesome and unique. This beer really does smell like S'mores, with huge cocoa and cacao nibs, chocolate, marshmallow, burnt marshmallow and sugar, and bready graham crackers and Golden Grahams. Wowza, what an aroma. I just want to park my nose in this beer. When you start to deconstruct things, you get the vanilla bean, roast, coffee/espresso/earthy, and hazelnut. The coffee/hazelnut is pretty big. What is impressive is that the graham note really comes across on the aroma. It's a really specific food/flavor, so I doubt I'd place it blind, but I don't know.

Mmmmmm...this is fantastic. Credit to Pipeworks and Keith Lonergan for nailing this. This tastes like a S'more. I'm getting tons of chocolate, marshmallow, dense graham cracker, and lingering chocolate/cacao and marshmallow on the back. The beer is thick and hearty, like a Milk Stout, and there's some serious vanilla bean dancing around in here. Along with all of the S'mores and graham cracker is some really nice hazelnut, earthy coffee, and roast. The beer has a surprising amount of bitterness.

This beer is rich and thick and sticky, and it hides the booze well. I'm not picking up any of the 10%. The mouthfeel is full-bodied, and the palate duration is long. Complexity is pretty good. It's a sweet and sticky beer, but there is some earthy stuff and bitterness in the mix. Up front is a huge blast of cocoa and vanilla bean; that rolls into the S'more with earthy roast, coffee, campfire, marshmallow, chocolate and cocoa, and graham cracker; the back end is lingering chocolate and roasted marshmallow, with some hazelnut/coffee and a sticky finish. Really solid stuff here....

Rating: Above-Average (4.0/5.0 Untappd)

I'm feeling a Strong Above-Average  on this...this beer sets out to taste like S'mores, and it pretty much nails it. It's not a particularly complex or refined beer, but it's a really good Stout. And the S'mores come through big time. It's also cold as fuck outside, so the notion of drinking liquid S'mores is very appealing to me right now. Food pairings: S'mores. The Stout base here is pretty legit and earthy/coffee/roasty so you could also pair this with dry chocolate cake, ice cream, or just drink the beer for dessert itself since it's probably tipping the 615+ calorie mark (per 22oz). I hope Pipeworks puts this one on their rotation.

Random Thought: What I find particularly fascinating about this beer is that it has a long list of ingredients...it reminds me of Rogue. I could see a Voodoo Doughnut S'mores beer...and it would probably fall somewhere between "average" and "suck." You can make beers with unique ingredients taste good. It probably helps that Pipeworks has the Stout base down, but yeah. Buy this beer.