Sierra Nevada's Beer Camp 2014: Maillard's Odyssey Imperial Dark Ale (brewed with Bell's Brewery in Kalamazoo, Michigan)

Brewed By: Sierra Nevada Brewing Company in Chico, California 
Purchased: Single 12oz bottle from the 2014 Beer Camp bought at Jewel-Osco in Chicago, IL; 2014 (PKG 05/21/14)
Style/ABV: "Imperial Dark Ale", 8.5%

Reported IBUs: 40

What is Beer Camp? It is Sierra Nevada's celebration of craft beer and the numerous breweries across America that make that craft beer. For 2014, Sierra Nevada collaborated with 12 different breweries to make 12 different beers. They also have a Beer Camp Across America Beer Festival, which will stop at seven different cities and feature many different breweries and beers.

About Sierra Nevada:

Sierra Nevada are one of the big players in craft brewing, and one of the first craft breweries to arrive on the craft beer scene. If you check out their history page, you will see that founder Ken Grossman began his quest to build a brewery in 1976. In 1980, Ken Grossman and co-founder Paul Camusi brewed their first batch of Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. According to Wikipedia, Sierra Nevada's Pale Ale is the second best selling craft beer behind Boston Lager. Sierra Nevada is the sixth largest brewing company in the United States as well, cranking out over 750,000 barrels in 2010. For more info, check out their website.

The Maillard's Odyssey Imperial Dark Ale is a collaboration with Bell's Brewery, Inc., or that one brewery with that drunk guy from that beer documentary. There's no Oberon here. My bottle reads: "Rich, dark, and roasty. That was our shared vision, and Maillard's Odyssey is exactly that, taking its name in part from the fond Maillard reaction - the "browning" of sugars and amino acids - that creates the wonderful caramelized toffee-like and roasted flavors so abundant in this beer."

Maillard's Odyssey Imperial Dark Ale

It's so weird that Chrome doesn't know how to spell "amino." Auto-correct suggestions include "amigo." NEWAY, this one pours with a dark, cola-black body, kicking up two fingers of mocha/tan, root beer float head. Head retention is excellent, with good lacing. The body has brown tones on the edges when held to bright light, but this is opaque like most Stouts.

The aroma here features deep roast, coffee, chocolate, cocoa, and big dark sugars/molasses. That's a pretty generic description, so let me offer that this also has huge woody-coffee-cream notes, with coffee creamer, ash, and milk sugars/lactose. I haven't looked up how Ratebeer and BA are styling this, but my guess is they are calling this a Stout. And frankly, this kind of smells like a Milk Stout kind of Stout. An Imperial Milk Stout. Like 18th Street's Hunter. There's some hops lurking way in the back, with faint citrus/pine elements strictly in play to balance things out. Is this a Black IPA? No. Duh. It's not an American Porter either. 

The taste...wow. It's intense, and it tastes like an Imperial Milk Stout. I'm reminded again of the 18th Street Hunter, or Bell's Special Double Cream Stout. ...just massive notes of coffee, cocoa, coffee creamer, lactose sugars, dark chocolate, roast, woody notes, and big citrus/pine hops clocking in on the back end to clean things up.

This is full-bodied and dense, but hides the 8.5% well. Sticky sugars coat your lips. This has awesome palate depth and moderate complexity. I'd call this an Imperial Milk Stout, but that's just me. Up front: lactose, coffee, cocoa, creamer; the mids hit roast, deep sugars, woody coffee-creamer nuttiness and toast; the back end trails with sweetness, sugars, creamer, hints of a hop back bone. Wowza.

Rating: Above-Average (4.0/5.0 Untappd)

I'm feeling a Strong Above-Average on this beer. This is massive and bold. If this was barrel-aged it would be a banger. It's a touch not-complex, and to be fair the style has been done by brewers like 18th Street, Pipeworks, and probably others I'm not thinking of at the moment. Still, this would be a hell of a beer to pair with a cigar, some dry chocolate desserts, or even a greasy and cheesy burger.

Random Thought: This was one of the clear standouts from the Beer Camp 2014.

Pipeworks The Jones Dog (Tales From The Oak / Barrel Aged Imperial Jones Dog / aged in Buffalo Trace Barrels)

Brewed By: Pipeworks Brewing in Chicago, IL  

Purchased: 12oz bottle (Batch #75) bought at West Lakeview Liquors in Chicago, IL; 2013 (bottled ??.??.2012)

Style/ABV: Imperial Stout/Milk Stout, 11.0%
Reported IBUs: ?

Tonight isn't a Thursday, but it has been a while since we've had an Unofficial Pipeworks Thursday™....so let's just pretend tonight is Thursday. And we can also pretend that the Bears don't suck, or that their horrible defense and safety-who-will-not-be-named didn't blow a freebie game against the Green Bay Packers. And that I don't have any feelings about that. And that tonight's beer is going to be amazing. Now that's optimism! 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 was bottled a long, long time ago. The early batch of Jones Dog that I reviewed was batch #65 and came out around 2012, by my estimation. I think that tonight's beer is that same beer, aged in Buffalo Trace Barrels. This beer is part of Pipework's "Tales From The Oak" series, and the back of the bottle states:

"Our Jones Dog Milk Stout, brewed with cacao nibs and vanilla bean, aged in Buffalo Trace Barrels."

Pipeworks The Jones Dog (Barrel Aged #75)

This one punches in at 11.0% and features some nice art work. The Buffalo Trace barrels were sourced from West Lakeview Liquors. This one pours into a dark brown body that looks deceptively darker/blacker than it really is. It is opaque, even in bright light, but you catch some serious brown tones. This one also pours with a finger of rapidly-dissolving, short lived brown head. the head was nice and brown, but has been the victim of dat whiskey burn. There is some nice lacing on this, along with some residuals along the glass, and carbonation is present in the body.

I'm getting two big things on the aroma...big, strong, bourbon-forward aromas and woody oak tannin and some vanilla. I'm also getting some big cocoa aromas, and some dark fruits ala complex boozy plums and figs, and some molasses.

Huh...werd. I like this, although I'm going to say right up front this isn't the most dense barrel-aged Stout nor the most complex. But this is well blended and very easy-going. Up front I'm getting a wash of cocoa, molasses, and dark fruits...that rolls into awesome barrel-aged character, with sweet bourbon, vanilla, oak, woody tannin, some tobacco/leather, and molasses with dark fruits. Once that starts to fade, I'm getting hit with lingering bourbon/vanilla/oak, some coconut, and a little roast and coffee and lingering Milk Stout goodness. I'm happy to see the base beer creepin' towards the back, and the barrel character stands out in the front. This is perfectly carbonated, so if anyone tells you this is under-carbonated they are wrong (or there is bottle variation).

This is sticky and sweet, and way too fucking drinkable for 11.0% ABV. It's a medium to full-bodied beer, but I'm leaning towards medium-bodied. The barrel character isn't too boozy or overwhelming, so it keeps things drinkable. Despite the slightly less dense body, this one still has fantastic palate duration and good palate depth. The complexity is somewhere in the mdidle for a barrel-aged beer. After a wash of cocoa, molasses, and dark fruits up front; you get big barrel character with oak, vanilla, some hints of coconut, oak/wood tannin, bourbon, booze; the back end trails off with lingering sweet bourbon, and some hints of the stout base. The finish is sweet, with sugar, vanilla, and bourbon trailing off on the finish. Overall...I honestly really like this.

Rating: Above-Average (4.0/5.0 Untappd)

I'm feeling a Strong Above-Average here. I really, really like this...and I don't want to be contrarian just for the sake of being contrarian. But I've been reading reviews for this beer complaining that it's too thin or that the barrel character is too strong? Are people serious about that? Like, I'm curious how many of these people have had a wide range of barrel-aged Stouts, because this beer seems about par the course if not better than par the course. Anyway, I digress. As usual, I say, "fuck the haters." This is fantastic stuff, and I'm glad to see Pipeworks finally rolling these out. Also, I'm glad to see that Pipeworks is sticking these beers in 12oz bottles! Now I can crack one of these open without feeling guilty for drinking a whole 22oz bomber or 750ml bottle. Uh...food pairings here...rich, dry, chocolate cake, vanilla ice cream, and a cigar. 

Random Thought: Seriously though, as a Bears fan, my heart is so broken right now. I look forward to next year...and props to Jay for playing a great game. 

Pipeworks Chai Dog

Brewed By: Pipeworks Brewing in Chicago, IL  

Purchased: 22oz bottle (Batch #108) bought at West Lakeview Liquors in Chicago, IL; 2013  (bottled 8/14/2013)

Style/ABV: Milk Stout/Sweet Stout, 10.0% 
Reported IBUs: ?

Welcome to another Unofficial Pipeworks Thursday™. If you aren't privy to the happenings, the happenings are that on Thursdays I drink Pipeworks beers. Tonight's beer is courtesy of my lovely girlfriend who went out and snagged me a bottle of this beer. Last night I dusted off the Jones Dog, but tonight is all about the Chai, baby. 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 Chai Dog bottle reads (this is verbatim/copypasta):

"Chai Dog is our Eastern answer to the coffee-centric caffeine concoctions popular here in the West. This silky smooth milk stout is brewed with cacao nibs, green cardamon, vanilla bean, star anise, black peppercorn and cinnamon. This delicious blend of spices creates a balance and complexity will transport you from your local watering hole to an authentic, old tea house in the heart of Mumbai."

Of course, we all know what vanilla, cacao, anise, peppercorns, and cinnamon taste like. Cardamon is an aromatic spice used in Indian cooking, and Chai is a blend of tea and spices. I actually enjoy chai tea quite a bit, so hopefully this beer will kick ass and take names.

Pipeworks Chai Dog

Like the Jones Dog, this beer pours into a black, dark body. I kicked up a finger of bready, dense, brown head...but the head was reluctant to form, and it faded quickly. You can thank all the spices for that, but as far as I can tell this beer doesn't have any carbonation issues. In bright light, you can not only see how dark and Imperial Stout-like this beer looks, but you can see streams of tiny bubbles rising upwards. There's a brown ring of carbonation around the edges, and swirling the beer kicks up some head, leaves some sticky lacing, and reveals some glossy alcohol legs.

The aroma on this beer is powerfully spicy, like a rapey-spicy pumpkin beer. I'm getting massive cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and allspice. This beer smells like two or three other beers I've had: the Sam Adams Merry Mischief Gingerbread Stout, the Stone 12.12.12 Vertical Epic Ale, and the Southern Tier 2XMAS. This beer isn't quite the Christmas/Pumpkin beer I'm describing it to be. I'm also getting a lot of that green cardamon on the nose, which is super pungent and not-quite-curry and not-quite-ginger. If you sit there and smell the beer for a while, you also get some earthy ash/dirt/coffee. I can only guess how this will taste.

Whew...this -- thankfully -- doesn't taste like a Christmas beer. It doesn't really taste like a Milk Stout either. There's a lot going on here...but the large Stout base and the slight booze presence really helps temper the spice. Up front you get rich, dense, spicy chocolate/cacao. I'm getting a lot of cinnamon, some pepper, and a nutmeg/ginger/cardamon thing. This beer is chewy and dense, so the cacao/chocolate/vanilla thing really sludges along. The spices are earthy, and have a straight up Indian-cuisine vibe. The beer is aggressively sweet, and there's some layers of fruit/caramel/sugars in the mix. There's also some hints of earthy ash/roast/coffee, but it's very subtle.

All this beer really needs is the addition of Jalapenos, and bam! It's a fiesta. This beer is fucking weird, man. I don't mean to go all Pie Style up in this shindig, but yeah. I guess this beer does remind me of Chai Tea, so mission accomplished. This beer has a full-bodied mouthfeel, supported by good carbonation and tingly spice. At 10.0%, you do get some booze. The drinkability is probably going to be low for a lot of people courtesy of the spice, booze, and sticky sweet kisses this beer gives you. Palate depth is good, and I guess this is pretty complex...or intriguing? You get dense

You never go full Pie Style.

cacao/chocolate and spice up front; that rolls into more spice, some caramel/sugar/fruit, vanilla, flat out chai tea, and more cacao; the back end is lingering pepper and spice, some booze, earth/coffee/ash, and a sticky-sweet finish.

Rating: Above-Average (3.5/5.0 Untappd)

I like this beer and I like what is going on here, so I'm going to toss this a Light Above-Average. This beer has a strange appeal...I'd almost throw it into the "foodie" category. This is definitely a beer to pair with foods, and those foods are Mexican cuisine (a mole sauce? mmm) or Indian food. As a standalone beer, this is interesting to try and would be worth splitting with a friend or two. I might even seek something like this out in the late Fall or early Winter months. It kind of feels like a Christmas beer, but it really isn't. Having said all that, this is another excellent Stout from Pipeworks. Their Stout program continues to impress...can't wait to see how their barrel-aged stuff tastes. 

Random Thought: A final, final note about this beer...I know earlier in the review I stated that the huge Stout base and big ABV helps temper the spice. Well, the huge spice in this beer helps temper the sweetness. It all kind of gels in harmony. 

Pipeworks Jones Dog

Brewed By: Pipeworks Brewing in Chicago, IL  

Purchased: 22oz bottle (Batch #65) bought at Fischman Liquors and Tavern in Chicago, IL; 2013  (bottled sometime in 2012?)

Style/ABV: Milk Stout/Sweet Stout, 8.5% 
Reported IBUs: ?

I've been trying to catch up on all the Pipeworks beers I can get my hands on, for no reason other than they are around and I've already had a lot of their stuff. Tonight's beer is especially relevant, because I snagged a bottle of Pipework's Chai Dog...which is this beer + chai. It reasons that I should at least try to try the base beer first, so here we are. 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 Jones Dog bottle reads:

"Jones Dog pays homage to our very own brew dog Jonas. Our chocolate lab has been with us since the birth of Pipeworks and so we honor him with this chocolate milk stout. Brewed with cacao nibs and lactose milk sugar, we hope you'll find this brew as smooth and chocolatey as the Jones Dog himself."

Pipeworks Jones Dog: a happy beer

First off, the bottle art on this beer is awesome. It may be my favorite Pipeworks' label. The beer pours into an oily, black body, and kicks up an inch of thick, bready, dark brown head. The beer looks the part of a Stout but actually looks very nice. In bright light you catch some brown tones on the edges. There's a nice hazy coating of head that is hanging around, and this beer coats your glass like a chocolate cumshot. There are alcohol legs that follow behind the sticky brown lacing that coats the glass....very impressive stuff.

Age and time hasn't done this beer wrong. That said, at 8.5% and with the addition of cacao, this beer certainly pushes the Milk Stout envelope into American Stout territory. I'm not even mad. I'm getting a huge blast of chocolate, cocoa, and cacao on the aroma. You also get a shitload of coffee. There's some espresso, coffee grounds, and fresh coffee dust. I'm also getting some earthy/ashy dirt, some coffee creamer/cream/lactose, some burnt sugars and roast, and hints of molasses and sweetness.

The taste goes in a slightly different direction than the nose, with tingly carbonation moving things along, and hints of emerging fruits like grapes and cherry. I'm curious if the grape/cherry in this is a consequence of age, but it's not a bad thing. In addition to the hints of fruit, I'm getting huge cocoa, chocolate...and Tootsie Rolls. This beer kind of tastes like liquefied Tootsie Rolls, with hints of ash/earth and coffee/espresso. The overall taste veers towards sweet, but somehow it never reaches cloying or sickly levels. It's like magic or something.

Actually, Tootsie Rolls are like the perfect candy...you can eat a whole bag of them without feeling bad. They're sweet and sugary (and artificial) without the saccharine assault. The Jones Dog is medium-bodied, and supported by nice carbonation. It's a solid mouthfeel. Palate depth is good, but the complexity is pretty much Tootsie Rolls, earth/ash/coffee, and some hints of fruit. I will commend this beer for being very drinkable. The 8.5% is nowhere to be seen, at all. It's actually kind of frightening  Additionally, this beer never punishes you with sickly lactose sugar..which is good. I'm getting dark fruits, cherries, and Tootsie rolls up front; that rolls into a wash of fruity sweetness, cacao, and more Tootsie Rolls; that fades into ash/earth/coffee, espresso, hints of roast, a hint of lactose, and a nice sticky finish that's a touch dry.

Rating: Above-Average (4.0/5.0 Untappd)

This is surprisingly enjoyable for a Milk Stout, so I'm gonna toss it a Decent Above-Average. You definitely get the advertised cacao in this, and the build of this Stout reminds me more of the Pipeworks Abduction series than it does a stereotypical Milk Stout. But again, that's not a bad thing. This beer is cheap, it's available...and it doesn't accost you with lactose, which I can tip my tip to. I'm about to pair this beer with a burger. The earthy/chocolate thing will go well with ice cream, raunchy cheeses and carbohydrates (french fries), or desserts....

Random Thought: I'm thinking about knocking out the Chai Dog tomorrow night, but we'll see. The other downside to Milk Stouts is that they can wreak havoc on your plumbing. Something something joke about Pipeworks. 

Revolution Very Mad Cow

Brewed By: Revolution Brewing Company (Revolution Beer LLC) in Chicago, IL  

Purchased: 22oz bottle bought at West Lakeview Liquors in Chicago, IL; 2012 

Style/ABV: Milk Stout, 9.7%

Reported IBUs: 30

I'm finally getting around to cracking open Revolution's barrel-aged Mad Cow. The regular Mad Cow is stellar stuff, so I have pretty high hopes.

Revolution Brewing is a brewery and brewpub based in Chicago. Revolution's roots are tied to founder Josh Deth, a homebrewer who began working at Golden Prairie Brewing. A few years later, while working at Goose Island, Josh dreamt up the idea for Revolution Brewing. In 2003, Josh and his wife opened Handlebar, while Josh worked as an Executive Director of Logan Square Chamber of Commerce. While working for the Chamber of Commerce, Josh found an old building on Milwaukee Avenue, and the wheels began to spin to open up a brewery. After three years of raising funds, Revolution Brewing opened its doors on February 2010. In July of 2011, Revolution added a 2nd floor Brewers' Lounge. And in 2012, the company opened a new production brewery and tap room. The brewpub is located in Logan Squre on 2323 N. Milwaukee Ave; the brewery is located on Kedzie Avenue at 3340 N. Kedzie Ave. For more information on Revolution, check out their history page here!  

If you roll over to the Very Mad Cow page, you can get some info on this beer. This is a bourbon barrel-aged Milk Stout, aged in Woodford Reserve bourbon barrels. Clocking in at 9.7% ABV, and 30 IBUs, this is going to be a roasty and sweet beer. The back of the box for this beer states: "We start by brewing Mad Cow, a big and bold milk stout that uses over a thousand pounds of Wisconsin-roasted barley per batch. The infusion of unfermentable milk sugar (lactose) imparts a residual sweetness to balance the roasted malt. After aging six months in bourbon whiskey barrels, Very Mad Cow emerges from the wood with a stampede of vanilla and caramel flavors pulled from the charred oak barrel staves. Drink it with dessert or as dessert."

Revolution Very Mad Cow

This is going to shock people, but this beer looks like a Stout. In lower light, the body is dark black, but has some hints of brown on the edges when held to a bright light. In lower light, I kicked up a finger of tan/khaki head. The head is surprisingly persistent, with a nitro/Guinness-like centimeter sticking around that won't die. It's also leaving nice lacing. 

I'm getting a lot of bourbon, vanilla, and...subtle fruitiness/sweetness on the nose. Maybe I'm pulling out molasses/caramel. There's a lot of wood as well. The roast is subdued, if not completely absent. 

Milk Stouts are already on the verge of over-the-top sweet, and this beer just bludgeons you with big vanilla, bourbon, whiskey smack, oak, wood, and then caramel/sugar/molasses. There's some fruity sweetness dancing around here, with hints of plums/raisins/molasses, and you get some booze on the back end. There's maybe a hint of roast (or light earth/coffee), but it seems to have been traded in for bourbon. 

I forgot this was 9.7%, so it must be doing something right. The alcohol is hidden well, but you do get that whiskey flavor. This is very oily, with light carbonation. And yet...I would call this medium-full in terms of its mouthfeel. This is definitely a sipping beer, and probably a dessert beer, and something you want to work on over an hour or two...or share with some friends. Complexity is just okay, and the palate depth is also good but not amazing. You get sweet caramel/dark fruits up front; that rolls into bourbon, vanilla, wood, oak; the back end trails off with more fruits, and then light earth/coffee. The finish is lingering whiskey.

Rating: Above-Average (4.0/5.0 Untappd)

I'm feeling a Decent Above-Average on this. I hesitate to say this improves the base beer because the base beer is so good. If anything, this adds a new dimension to the base beer that some people will enjoy, and others might not be as fond of. Either way, this beer is balanced and has some finesse. It's also interesting, in that you don't find many bourbon barrel-aged Milk Stouts. I would skip the food pairings and sip on this. This is a hefty beer, and will serve you well over the course of an afternoon. 

Random Thought: I don't care if the Hawks win it all or not, game one was some good hockey. Triple overtime? Yes please. Game two is going to be INTENSE. 

18th Street Hunter

Brewed By: 18th Street Brewery (in Chicago, IL at Spiteful Brewing)

Purchased: 22oz bottle bought at West Lakeview Liquors in Chicago, IL; 2013

Style/ABV: Milk Stout, 8.0%
Reported IBUs: ?

Tonight I'm looking at a beer from the Chicago-land area. This beer was brewed by the folks at the 18th Street Brewery. At this point...we are getting pretty local. The 18th Street Brewery is a tentative brewery that is going to be based in Gary, Indiana. Why you would want to open a brewery in that dump is beyond me. The good news is, putting a brewery in Gary is like painting racing stripes on your crappy ricer. Yuppies love racing stripes. Their Kickstarter was a success...and they are already brewing their own beer, so I expect to see them rolling any day now. 

Tonight's beer is a hefty Milk Stout pushing that 8.0% ABV. The bottle reads:

"Here is a father’s toast to his son. Brewed with cocoa nibs and lactose, Hunter boasts a creamy texture and rich chocolate flavor. Vanilla, roast, and caramel sweetness are met with a bright hop bitterness. Complex enough to pair with dinner or dessert. Suave enough to skip the meal altogether. A chip off the old block, alright."

18th Street Hunter

The bottle art for this beer is pretty badass. Like Three Floyds-esque. The appearance is squid-ink black, with a pinky's worth of dark brown head. The head is sustaining nicely. There was initially a little carbonation visible on the edges, but the body is mostly opaque and obsidian-looking. The head is absolutely filthy, coating the glass in thick brown residue, leaving some alcohol legs behind.

This beer has a big aroma, with roasty malts, espresso/coffee, earthy dirt, and surprisingly some big hoppy kick with some floral pine/orange. There's also some big chocolate and cacao, and some big waves of lactose on the nose.

I didn't think I'd top the Espresso Yeti's mouthfeel in such a short period of time, but this beer is oily, thick, and fills up your mouth like a milkshake. The palate duration is outstanding too. Up front is I'm getting a blast of sweet caramel, burnt molasses, and citrus/acidic/berry hops; this rolls into huge espresso, roast, lactose, cacao, chocolate, and vanilla; there's a big oily coating that lingers on your lips and tongue, as you pick up more roast, cacao, and lactose. On another sip, I was blasted with cacao, vanilla, lactose, and then roast up front. 

There's curvy, thick, and fluffy. This beer is fluffy. This is a "Milk Stout" like Precious is big-boned. This has a full-bodied mouthfeel, with an oily coating, and a thick, sticky, dry finish. The palate depth is outstanding. This coats your mouth, lips, tongue, and supplies a blast of hops and roast that would make Oskar Blues blush. Complexity is not bad either. Because this is so dense and heavy, drinkability is called into question. The 8.0% is hidden, but this one isn't particularly sessionable. It's a sipper...or grab a friend. Up front: huge cacao, roast, lactose, caramel/molasses, piney hops/citrus/berries; this rolls into more coffee/espresso, earthy roast, lactose; the back end is lingering vanilla and lactose with sticky/oily/dry happenings.

Rating: Above-Average (4.0/5 Untappd)

I'm feeling a Strong Above-Average on this. I wanna go higher, but I feel like this could ramp up the complexity a bit. Throw this in a barrel or hit it up with some cherries...and damn. Then again, this beer has a DYNAMITE mouthfeel. So it's a conflicting situation. The mouthfeel and palate depth are certainly divine, and are up there with the best of them. Add in the fact that this is only at 8.0%...and yeah. It's impressive stuff from 18th Street. I'll revisit this down the road and perhaps notch it higher. A beer like this beckons to be enjoyed slowly in a snifter, but if you MUST pair this with food, go with some vanilla ice cream. And that's pretty much it. This beer is dessert unto itself.

Random Thought: Gary is basically Chicago...so, like, it's a good time to be a beer fan and living in Chicago. 

Half Acre Chocolate Camaro

Brewed By: Half Acre Beer Company in Chicago, Illinois

Purchased: 22oz bottle bought at Half Acre in Chicago, IL; 2013

Style/ABV: Milk Stout, 6.0%
Reported IBUs: ?

Staying with the local option this Friday night....about Half Acre:

The Half Acre Beer Company was founded in October 2006, which is young for craft beer in general, but great for the local Chicago scene. The founders of Half Acre started out by working with the Sand Creek Brewery in Black River Falls in Wisconsin. They eventually developed their Half Acre Lager, and began distributing and selling it in Chicago during the August of 2007. The beer was successful enough that Half Acre was able to buy out a space in the Bucktown area of Chicago. With continuing sales, Half Acre was eventually able to purchase equipment from Ska Brewing Co. and moved to their current location on Lincoln Avenue on the north side of Chicago. Half Acre has been brewing at their Chicago location since 2009, and seems to be really expanding in both amount of distribution and popularity. Check out the full story HERE, and check out their website for a low-down on all their beers and info. 

If you roll over to the Chocolate Camaro page, you can get the vitals on this beer. This is a Milk Stout brewed with lactose and cacao, clocking in at a very reasonable 6.0% ABV. Let's glass this up.

Half Acre Chocolate Camaro

The beer pours with 3-fingers of thick, bready, coffee-brown head. The body of the beer is cola-black, with hints of red/brown. As the head drops, you get some nice lacing. You can also see some carbonation in this. This is standard stuff, but a nice pinky's worth of head won't die. Solid.

The aroma is fairly mild, with ash, ashtray, dirt, a lot of grain, some malt (like malt balls), faint chocolate, coffee, a hint of earthy roast, and some faint lactose. It's a very earthy and grainy nose, with hints of chocolate and coffee.

Wow! This actually tastes really nice, with noticeable burnt sugar/caramel, coffee, espresso, light cacao, and bitter chocolate. There's a bit of molasses up front, and the beer finishes roasty with some lactose to round things out.

This has a medium to medium-full mouthfeel, with carbonation that is just there to support the beer, like your deadbeat dad that showed up once a week to pay alimony. This is slightly thick/oily, with mild hints of lactose on the finish. Palate depth is good, complexity is average. What this lacks in complexity, it makes up for in balance and drinkability. At 6.0%, this goes down with ease. Up front is molasses, followed by caramel, coffee, chocolate; that turns into some roast, with more malt sweetness; the back end is lingering coffee, roast, rounds out with lactose.

Rating: Above-Average

I'm feeling a Light Above-Average on this. I could see myself drinking a few of these at the bar over the course of a night. This has tremendous drinkability and balance. Also, if you are aversive to the more lactose-forward Sweet Stouts, you might like this. You could pair this with a burger, things with chocolate, things with coffee, and a pantheon of desserts. Considering this was like 10 bucks, I'd say this beer is worth checking out.

Random Thought: I just listened to the Michigan comeback on the radio. I can't imagine being a Kansas fan right now.

Pipeworks End of Days (Batch #62)

Brewed By: Pipeworks Brewing in Chicago, IL  

Purchased: 22oz bottle (Batch #62, red wax) bought at Binny's in IL; 2012 

Style/ABV: Milk/Sweet Stout, 8.2%
Reported IBUs: ?

Alright! I'm getting the best of both worlds tonight. After drinking Revolution's Mad Cow, which was a supped up Milk Stout, and Sam Adams' The Vixen Chocolate Chili Bock, I'm ready to embrace a chili-infused Milk Stout. Thankfully....Pipeworks delivered. 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.

Pipework's End Of Days was brewed to commemorate the end of the world...and this beer is totally appropriate. Why, you ask? Because the Mayans liked chocolate and chilies, and made chocolate drink. The back of the bottle states:

"End of Days is our tribute to the coming of the end... of the Mayan calendar! We've aged this milk stout with cacao nibs, vanilla beans, cinnamon sticks, and ancho chilies. The result is a rich chocolaty stout, with just a hint of spice. We hope you'll enjoy this beer before the End of Days."   

One final note of interest...this beer doesn't have the usual warning about being bottle conditioned, which leads me to wonder if it is not. Hmm. 

End of Days (Batch #62)

This one pours surprisingly dark, and has a rapidly dissolving, thin/sickly looking head. The head had a coffee-brown color, but faded into a bit of a lighter color as it went away. I'm reminded quite a bit of SKA's Autumnal Mole Stout. When held to a bright light, this beer is still ink-black, with a nice brown head that you can kick up by swirling the beer. There's a ton of microscope bubbles providing carbonation for this beer, and a ring of brown is sticking to the sides of the glass. Really, this is sexy stuff.

I really like the aroma on this, and I'm reminded (again) of SKA's Autumnal Mole Stout...only with more of that Sweet Stout base. I'm getting roast, lactose-roast, leather, earthy chilies, green chilies, cinnamon, chili spice, and earthy cocoa and chocolate. This one has some really earthy smells, with that leather-chili-almost dirt thing going on. Maybe coffee?

Oh dang...full disclaimer, I love chili. This beer is spicy! I'm getting some mad chili on the back of this thing. Up front is some chocolate, vanilla, cocoa, and coffee...this rolls into lactose-vanilla-coffee, and then bam! I'm getting firey chili spice, cinnamon, mole sauce, dirt, ash, spent coffee, and some impressive chili heat down the back of my throat. The chili heat is amazing, with some nacho-jalapeno-salt kick. This is smooth, but features flat carbonation, and some slight sticky on the finish. 

This beer makes me happy, and fuck the haters. But I gravitate towards overly spicy food. This is smooth, slightly creamy, and dense...but features flat carbonation, and transitions into tingly chili goodness. Mouthfeel is medium-full to full. The palate depth on this is good, with solid chilies hanging around in the finish, and complexity is moderate to high. At 8.2%, I could drink this all night long. Up front is coffee, roast, chocolate, vanilla, a hint of dark fruit, lactose; the middle starts with lactose, then cinnamon, then dirt, ash, hints of smoke, fire; the back end is cinnamon, chili spice, and some nice chili heat. Slightly sticky; slight alcohol on the finish; definite chili heat.

Rating: Divine Brew

This is fan-fucking-tastic, and is surely a Light Divine Brew. I've heard that previous batches didn't have the body to support all the stuff going on here, but Batch #62 is a big boy Stout. This is one of the better things I've had from Pipeworks, but I'm biased in that I love spicy food. You get mad mole flavors and mad chili flavors in this, and I just want to pair this with some chocolate cake, vanilla ice cream, a churro with chocolate dipping sauce, chili, assorted Mexican food, a pork sandwich, or anything that works with chilies/mole. Solid stuff.

Random Thought: I am biased as hell, so take that for what it is...also, this is quite the "Milk Stout." I'm curious what the recipe for this beer is prior to the addition of the vanilla beans, cocoa nibs, chili peppers, and cinnamon.

Revolution Mad Cow Milk Stout

Brewed By: Revolution Brewing Company (Revolution Beer LLC) in Chicago, IL  

Purchased: 22oz bottle bought at in Binny's in IL; 2012 

Style/ABV: Milk Stout, 7.9%

Reported IBUs: 30

Keeping with the Chicago and winter theme, I decided to crack open Revolution's Mad Cow. The Mad Cow is a big Sweet Stout/Milk Stout, clocking in at 7.9%. Technically, the big ABV probably pushes this beyond your typical Sweet Stout styling, but who cares. 

Revolution Brewing is a brewery and brewpub based in Chicago. Revolution's roots are tied to founder Josh Deth, a homebrewer who began working at Golden Prairie Brewing. A few years later, while working at Goose Island, Josh dreamt up the idea for Revolution Brewing. In 2003, Josh and his wife opened Handlebar, while Josh worked as an Executive Director of Logan Square Chamber of Commerce. While working for the Chamber of Commerce, Josh found an old building on Milwaukee Avenue, and the wheels began to spin to open up a brewery. After three years of raising funds, Revolution Brewing opened its doors on February 2010. In July of 2011, Revolution added a 2nd floor Brewers' Lounge. And in 2012, the company opened a new production brewery and tap room. The brewpub is located in Logan Squre on 2323 N. Milwaukee Ave; the brewery is located on Kedzie Avenue at 3340 N. Kedzie Ave. For more information on Revolution, check out their history page here!  

If you roll over to Revolution's Mad Cow page, you can get some basic info on this beer. The Mad Cow is described as a "Smooth, charcoal black stout made with lactose for a lingering sweetness." Clocking in at 7.9% ABV (my bottle says 7.9%, the website says 7.7%; my guess is the recipe has been tweaked!), this beer packs 30 IBUs. Let's glass this up and see what we got.

Revolution Mad Cow Milk Stout

In low light, this beer pours a dark brown/light black color, with 2-fingers of fairly thick/root beer float/bready head. The head has a sandy/grey/tan color. As the head drops off, you get some nice lacing. In bright light, I'm getting a lot of brown on the edges, and I see a lot of carbonation in the form of tiny bubbles. Swirling this leaves tons of lacing, with dynamite head retention, and some cauldron-esque bubbles atop the beer.

The nose on this is nice, with lots of roast, caramelized sugar, lightly caramelized marshmallow, hot cocoa, cocoa powder, that milk powder shit you put into your coffee when you don't have real cream, hints of coffee, lactose, and really elusive chocolate. The nose hits the style well.

This is carbonated and slightly thin initially, with caramelized sweetness up front manifesting as elusive dark fruits. This has surprisingly good palate duration for the style, as the mid palate rolls into roast, and the back end hits big lactose/cream/coffee notes. I can't help but use Bells' Special Double Cream Stout (an awesome beer) as the framework for this style, and Revolution can compete. I'm getting caramelized sugar, hints of cherries, cappuccino, coffee, lactose, hints of cocoa (more so than chocolate), cream, and lots of roast. Some vanilla flairs up as a pleasant astringency as the roast hits some light bitterness and plays off the lactose. 

7.9% ABV is nothing to scoff at, but this is drinkable (as long as you don't object to lactose or this style of Stout). This is somewhere between a Dry Stout and a Russian Imperial Stout. This is roasty, but doesn't have any burnt or charred malts. It's complex...but it doesn't push any extremes. Except for the ABV, maybe. 7.9% will creep up on you. This is medium-light to medium in terms of mouthfeel; this is smooth, roasty, and supported by light carbonation. The finish is roasty and lactose. Palate depth is great, and complexity is high. Up front is carbonation, a blast of coffee, caramelized sugar, and cherries; the middle hits the roast, cocoa, lactose, creamer; the back end is lactose, coffee, cappuccino; slightly sticky lactose-roast finish.

Rating: Above-Average

I'm feeling a Light Above-Average on this. This is a really nice Milk/Sweet Stout, and that's all you need to know. I think bombers of this are around 7-10 bucks, so as a local option, I can dig this. What I really like about this beer is the big roasty complexity, the really nice carmelized sugar notes, and the palate depth. This starts out a bit thin, but transitions into a bigger beer across the palate. I never know what to pair with Milk Stouts...I'd do some cheesy potatoes, or a beef stew, or Goulash or something. You could certainly go the dessert route too.

Random Thought: I have a bottle of the "Very Mad Cow," which is the barrel-aged version of this beer. I'm looking forward to trying it...and seeing if the added complexity from the barrel can elevate this beer into something truly mind blowing. 

Left Hand Milk Stout Nitro

Brewed By: Left Hand Brewing Co. in Longmont, Colorado 

Purchased: 12oz bottle from a 6-pack bought at Binny's in Chicago, IL; 2012

Style/ABV: Sweet Stout, 6.0%

Tonight I'm checking out a beer I've had before...but this will be the first time I've tried Left Hand's Milk Stout on Nitro. If you're wondering what a Nitro beer is...think Guinness Draught. Or even better: watch this awesome video. Nitrogenation is the process of adding nitrogen to beer (Nitro beer still has some CO2 carbonation, to provide body to the beer). Nitrogen has smaller bubbles than regular carbonation, and is apparently less harsh. It also results in more stable carbonation, and a more stable/thick/sustaining head. Of course, natural carbonation results from the fermentation process (alcohol and CO2 are byproducts as the yeast digests the sugars from the wort). Additionally, brewers can add sugar to the fermented beer, and the yeast will then go to town on the sugar creating more carbonation. I'm not sure how much the brewer controls for CO2 Carbonation vs. Nitro carbonation, or if they control for it at all. 

At any rate, with all that boring science shit out of the way, let me just introduce Left Hand Brewing. First off, props to Left Hand Brewing's awesome website. I really like the Left Hand website, and think it is well-designed. The brewery was founded in 1993, and is based out of Longmont, Colorado. 

Left Hand's story began back in 1990 when co-founder, Dick Doore, received a small homebrewers kit as a gift from his brother. He became obsessed with homebrewing, and eventually wound up in Colorado in 1993, where he met with former college-friend, and fellow Left Hand co-founder, Eric Wallace. Together, they began to brew beer, and decided to start a brewery. In the September of 1993, the two Incorporated (INC.) as "Indian Peaks Brewing Company," and found a brewery location in a former meat packing plant next to the St. Vrain River in downtown Longmont. Due to some copyright issues with the name (Indian Peaks was being used by another brewery), the company changed their name to Left Hand, in honor of Chief Niwot, whose tribe was from the local area. The name Left Hand is from the southern Arapahoe word, "Niwot," which means "left hand." The brewery opened its doors for business on January 22, 1994. By 1998 the brewery merged with Tabernash Brewing from Denver, and started its own distribution business, Indian Peaks Distribution Company (during the next 10 years, Tabernash was phased out and the Distribution Company was sold). In 2012, Left Hand ranked in the Brewers Association's Top 50 Craft Brewers. The brewery has continued to expand, and continues to be very successful.

Today's beer is worthy of special mention, as it is (I believe) the first American Craft beer to come in a Nitro bottle. During the 2011 Great American Beer Festival, Left Hand debuted their Milk Stout Nitro bottle. The beer is available in Colorado, Chicago, Austin, Boston, Phonenix, Atlanta, Cleveland, and New York City. Like I said...I've had the non-Nitro version of this beer before, and I have tasting notes. So I'll lay those out in a second.

Real quick: what is a Milk Stout? If you roll over to the BJCP, you can get some idea what to expect for the style. Wikipedia actually gives a nice summary of the style.

"Milk stout (also called sweet stout or cream stout) is a stout containing lactose, a sugar derived from milk. Because lactose is unfermentable by beer yeast, it adds sweetness, body, and calories to the finished beer. Milk stout was claimed to be nutritious, and was given to nursing mothers, along with other stouts, such as Guinness. The classic surviving example of milk stout is Mackeson's, for which the original brewers claimed that "each pint contains the energising carbohydrates of 10 ounces of pure dairy milk". In the period just after the Second World War when rationing was in place, the British government required brewers to remove the word "milk" from labels and adverts, and any imagery associated with milk."

Ratebeer claims that early brewers told people that the milk sugar provided health benefits...but really, all the milk sugar does is add calories to your beer....which makes you fat. Thus, Left Hand's Milk Stout is a Sweet/Milk/Cream Stout, but is preferably just a "Sweet Stout." The term "Milk/Cream Stout" seems to have been redacted for the most part, presumably because there are really no health benefits from this style of beer. Finally, this is an English style of beer that first appeared in London back in the 1800s, and features the addition of lactose, milk, sugar, or sweeteners to the beer.

With all of that said...let's talk about the Left Hand Milk Stout. Like I said, I've had the non-Nitro version before, and enjoyed it so much that I rated it as a light to solid Above-Average. In my tasting notes I mention that this beer is creamy, has roasted and nutty notes, milk chocolate, cocoa, and hints of milk/cream. I'll keep that in mind moving forward. If you go to the Left Hand Milk Stout Nitro page, you can get some info on the Nitro version of this beer. Clocking in at 6.0% ABV and packing 25 IBUs, this beer is brewed with Magnum and US Goldings hops, and Pale, Crystal, Munich, and Chocolate malts, and Roast Barley, Flaked Oats, and Flaked Barley. It's kind of like a sweeter version of an Oatmeal Stout if you think about it.

How to pour...

Lastly...before moving onto the review. This beer requires a hard pour. In order to unleash that Nitro fury and get that kick-ass cascade effect, you need to tip that bottle completely upside down and let the beer pour out. If you fuck up the pour, you will not get to behold all that Nitro glory. Pour hard, and pour bold. The beer has controlled carbonation that will not overflow your glass.

You need to pour the fuck out of this thing, but the end result is awesome. The beer cascades from bottom up, just like Guinness. You can see that awesome brown carbonation turn into wonderful dark beer. The end result is 2 to 3 fingers worth of super thick, creamy, sexy head. The head is as thick as they come, with a nice bready/light tan/light khaki color. This beer appears to be black or dark brown, but it is probably more brown/ruby red, with clear hints of ruby red escaping from the side. The head is sustaining like a beast, but as it starts to creep down a bit, it is leaving A TON of thick lacing. Lastly, I just want to say: I love the bottle art on this beer. Seriously, this bottle is all class.

Mid-cascade. So sexy. This is beer porn.

The nose on this beer is nice. You get a lot of roast, hints of those oats and flaked barley; I'm pulling out some nice chocolate notes, some nice light coffee notes, and a hint of instant milk. The nose is roasty, and malty. It's also sweet, and it has that hint of lactose. There's also some nice chocolate/coffee flavors dancing around in here. Moving on to the taste....

This beer is SOFT and SMOOTH and CREAMY. The carbonation on this beer is so incredibly moderate, and fluffy...this beer is like drinking a Stout pillow. The smoothness is only enhanced by the centimeter-plus of thick, creamy head that is hanging around. And the lacing on the glass as you drink this beer is spectacular. Nitrogen beers have that slightly oxidized character, but in this case it is desirable. There is a lot of roast in this beer, especially towards the middle and back. The roast is more mild, and not burnt like you sometimes get in more aggressive variants of the Stout style. Up front you get cream, sweet/sugary malts, and some lactose; the middle is more smoothness, with hints of burgeoning malts; the back end is roast, oats, hints of coffee, and a twang of burnt/roasted coffee beans. There are waves of flavors coming and going as well, including hints towards chocolate and some flashes of dark fruits. I'm also picking up a hint of caramel/vanilla and nuttiness.

Left Hand Milk Stout Nitro

This is a medium-full to full-bodied beer, with medium carbonation and the smoothest mouthfeel I've had in a long time. I want to see Bells Special Double Cream Stout on Nitro...oh man. This beer has great palate depth, and moderate complexity. For 6.0% ABV, the drinkability is through the roof! The Nitro does seem to thin out the flavors a touch, but the payoff is huge in terms of smoothness. Front palate is smooth with some lactose; the middle is more lactose with oats and burgeoning roast; the back end is big roasted notes that play wonderfully. 
  
Rating: Divine Brew

I'm feeling a light to decent Divine Brew rating on this beer. I really like what this beer has to offer, and I'm impressed with the Nitro bottle. I think this is more than a novelty: I think this adds a layer of depth to a style of beer that I really enjoy when I am in the mood for it. For me, the Nitro bottle elevates the Left Hand Milk Stout from something I enjoy to something I really want to drink. And that's pretty awesome. If you can find this beer...check it out. And make sure to pour it HARD! So until next time, don't drink and milk a cow.