Sierra Nevada Porter

Brewed By: Sierra Nevada Brewing Company in Chico, California 
Purchased: 12oz bottle from the 2014 Snowpack purchased at Binny's in Chicago, IL; 2014 (bottled on 10/03/2014)
Style/ABV: American Porter, 5.6%

Reported IBUs: 32

DAE Cerro Nevarros? I do. For $14.99 the 2014 Snowpack was too cheap to pass up. This year's Snowpack features their Porter, Pale Ale, Boomerang IPA, and Coffee Stout. 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 Sierra Nevada Porter has been around for a while. This beer is brewed with Aurora and Yakima Golding hops, and a malt base of Two-row Pale, Munich, Chocolate, Caramel, Black & Carafa. This one is available year-round, and is a classic example of the style.

Sierra Nevada Porter

As you'd expect, this pours into a ruby-red/brown body, kicking up a finger of caramel tinged head. Brown Ale or Porter, take a guess. There's good lacing...carbonation...blah blah.

The aroma here is actually really good. There's a lot of deep toasty notes, nuttiness, and lots of lightly roasted coffee. I'm getting a lot of hazelnut, light wood, light earth/tobacco, and some really nice dark grains. The aroma is not muddled, and stands out boldly.

The taste is a good extension of the nose: there are rich dark grains present, with lots of coffee, hazelnut, toasted notes, a good amount of woody/earthy/tobacco/chocolate notes, and some grassy hops. 

This is a very straightforward and classic example of a Porter, but the execution here is top-notch stuff. Like many of Sierra Nevada's beer, this one could serve as a standby or a regular fridge stuffer. This is medium bodied, with spot-on carbonation, good palate depth, and good complexity. The carbonation is what you'd expect from a Porter, Brown Ale, Dry Stout, or regular American Stout. It's really a fantastic beer, with lots of coffee and hazelnut up front; some chocolate and earthy tobacco in the mids; and more coffee and some hops in the back. I could drink this shit all day long, and at 5.6% you should.

Rating: Above-Average (4.0/5.0 Untappd)

I'm feeling a Strong Above-Average here. What a fantastic beer....I really like Sierra Nevada's Pale Ale, Stout, Porter, and Hefe. You have to hand it to Sierra Nevada, they know how to roll out these classic styles. The sweeter coffee notes in this porter beg to be paired with some pork. I'm thinking dried ribs or a pork roast. You could also pair this with some beef ribs or beef brisket. Yum.

Random Thought: I <3 Winter Beers. 

Founders Backwoods Bastard

Brewed By: Founders Brewing Company in Grand Rapids, Michigan

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

Style/ABV: Barrel-Aged Scotch Ale/Wee Heavy, 10.2%

Reported IBUs: 50

Thanks to Founders' increased distribution, Backwoods Bastard was much more plentiful this year. I hope this trend continues, because it would be nice to see something like KBS become a shelf turd like their Breakfast Stout. About Founders:

Founders is the holy grail of Michigan brewing. Based out of Grand Rapids, Michigan, Founders was founded in 1997 by Mike Stevens and Dave Engbers, and produces some of the best beer in the world. If you haven't heard of Founders...well, what are you doing? Get on that, now.

The Backwoods Bastard is the bourbon barrel-aged version of the Dirty Bastard, which is just a phenomenal, readily available, American-made Scotch Ale. 

The Backwoods Bastard is relatively unassuming...it pours into a murky, red-brown body, kicking up a finger of caramel-tinged head. This is a relatively well-carbonated beer, and suspended yeast is clearly visible in the body. I always look forward to busting out my Scotch Ale glass.

Founders Backwoods Bastard

Unlike the appearance, the aroma is pretty vivid and engaging. Straight away is a ton of oak, bourbon, coconut, and raisin-whiskey sweetness. There are some serious cherry notes on the aroma as well, with toffee, and English-style Barleywine notes coming along for the ride. There are a lot of complex layers of malt aroma, and the barrel takes the Scotch Ale into English Barleywine territory. 

It's very interesting to see how oak barrels can change certain style of beers...in this case, the oak and bourbon adds a lot of complimentary notes to the deep, peat-like malts. This isn't a super thick beer, but there's a ton of malt depth and layers of oak, wood, bourbon, raisin-sweetness, toffee, dark fruits, and barrel character. It all ties into a fruity licorice note, which is quite nice. As this warms up, you get a really nice chocolate and English-style Barleywine character, courtesy of the bourbon and oak. Hints of coconut and grain start to show up, and it adds a much welcomed layer of complexity that elevates this into something beyond average.

At 10.2%, I'm tasting a little booze in here...this is definitely a bit hot, but I like it. The bourbon and whiskey notes are welcomed, in my opinion. I think the style and the peated malts lend themselves to a little whiskey/bourbon heat. This is medium-bodied, surprisingly, but has really good palate depth and lots of complexity. A lot of the complexity here is unlocked at warmer temps. This has a lot of bourbon and whiskey up front; it gives way to great fruit notes, spice, licorice, toffee, wood, peat malts, bitterness, wood tannin; the back end drops peat malts and finishes nicely. This is a great barrel-aged Scotch Ale. 

Rating: Divine Brew (4.5/5.0 Untappd)

I'm feeling a Light Divine Brew on this. I wouldn't pass this up...I think it's a pretty fantastic beer. I don't know if I would age this, maybe for a year or two tops to see if it mellows out...but I think this is impressive. It's a nice twist on a relatively one-note style of beer. Founders did a very good job letting the bourbon and barrel stand out here. I would not pair this with much, maybe a dessert....it's very similar to an English-style Barleywine, with barrels. 

Random Thought: I feel like a "state of the blog" is in order. I apologize to the six people that read this pile of word vomit. I have been quite busy with graduate school...I've also been on a tight budget. Those two things have sort of constrained my beer drinking and beer reviewing. On the other hand, as a graduate student, I find myself drinking a lot more. Hmmm. DAE alcoholism. Actually, I think it's just grad school. "If it doesn't kill you, it'll make your liver stronger." 

Bell's Expedition Stout

Brewed By: Bell's Brewery, Inc. in Kalamazoo, Michigan  

Purchased: 12oz bottle from a 6-pack bought at Binny's in Chicago, IL; 2014 (Bottled on 09/19/2014)

Style/ABV: Russian Imperial Stout, 10.5%

Reported IBUs: ?

Winter is here early in Chicago, so I guess we can break out the big guns. About Bell's:

Bell's Brewery is one of the biggest names in craft beer. Once you get past the Sierra Nevada, New Belgium, and Stone phase, you start hearing about breweries like Bell's. Bell's began as a home-brewing supply shop, founded by Larry Bell, back in 1983. Bell's sold its first beer in September 1985. The brewery has humble roots like many of the first craft breweries, and the beer was originally brewed in a 15-gallon soup kettle. The beer was originally self-distributed, bottled, and delivered by hand during the company's first four years. In 1993, Bell's became the first brewery in Michigan to open an onsite pub. The brewery currently has two facilities, one in Kalamazoo, and one in Comstock Township, Michigan. For more info, check out their website. 

Bell's Expedition Stout is a classic, and really needs no review. This is a massive, malty, hoppy Imperial Stout...I would compare it to beers like Surly's Darkness (the non-barrel-aged version). You can't go wrong with that.

This is a pretty ferocious beer, pouring into an inky-black body that results in a finger of dark, mocha-colored head. While the beer itself doesn't produce a ton of head, head retention is pretty good. There is also a substantial amount of lacing. This is massive in so many ways.

Bell's Expedition Stout

This is also an infinitely complex beer on the aroma. I give a lot of credit to Bell's for this beer, which smells like the bottomless depths of the deepest bag of dark roasted malts. This really goes all over the place, with fruity notes, coffee, chocolate. I'm getting big anise, cherries and raisins, sharp espresso and coffee character, some mocha, and dusty cacao. This pulls out some baker's chocolate, and ties in a woody and mocha character. It's also an incredibly hoppy aroma right now (two months fresh), although the hops mostly show up as dark fruits and intense resin-bitterness. 

This tastes blissfully huge, with everything you get in the aroma plus a wallop of hop bitterness and veiled citrus/pine punch. This is a giant RIS...unloading espresso, coffee, dark baker's chocolate, cacao, and woody notes. There is some nice waves of anise and cherry in here, with tons of underlying hop oils that add some resiny rosin notes into the mix. 

The body of this beer is oily and full-bodied, and the mouthfeel has huge depth. This is also incredibly complex. At 10.5%, this is appropriately boozy. There's a lot of stuff going on here. Up front: oily chocolate, cacao, anise, dark fruits, cherries; the mids roll into more cherries and anise, with growing hop resin, rosin, dank bitterness, woody notes, roast, coffee, espresso; the back end cleans up with dark fruits, espresso, coffee, bitterness...and a drying roasty finish. This is what Russian Imperial Stouts are about.

Rating: Divine Brew (4.5/5.0 Untappd)

I'm feeling a Light Divine Brew on this. This is a world-class Russian Imperial Stout, and it reminds me of the 2013 Darkness. That's pretty tall company, and you could do a lot worse than this beer. It also is a bonus that this beer comes in a 6-pack instead of a 4-pack. I have to give Bell's credit for that. This is an insanely large beer with lots of roast, hops, and the appropriate amounts of booze. I might pair this beer with grilled meats, or a dry chocolate cake. Good stuff, recommended. 

Random Thought: The Bears suck. They can't even tank right. I guess they are going for the slow troll. 8-8.