Holy Fuck

Mikkeller Black Hole Imperial Stout

Barrel Aged Peated Whisky Edition

Holy fuck. It's all  I can think. The same two words running around in my head. The fellas at Mikkeller are like Mozart, Pythagoras, Jimi Hendrix & Dr Shulgin all tied into two Danish brothers with a small brewery in Copenhagen. How do you make a beer like this? How do you take water, malt, roasted barley, flaked oats, dark cassanade (raw sugar), honey, hops, coffee, vanilla and ale yeast, pour it into an Islay whisky barrel (Lagavulin methinks...) and end up with this nefarious, sadistic, dominatrix of a beer?!


I love the way it pours like a black waterfall leaving coffee coloured lace down the side of the glass. I love the way the aroma penetrates the mind from metres away. I love the way the first taste slaps you upside the head like an old Polish grandfather and leaves you incapable of thought and speech as all your synapses run around like Israelis at a doof, trying to figure out why this thing that looks like a black beer tastes like Islay whisky and feels like the first time you really got properly fucked by an older woman.


All wank aside, this is truly a masterpiece of brewing - an Imperial stout aged in peated whisky barrels that resembles a Lagavlin whisky with a hint of toasty coffee. Complexities abound with seaweed, iodine, campfire, camping coffee, molasses, fir trees, hints of hops and fresh rainforest aromas to name just a few. The 13.1% ABV is very noticeable but the resulting warmth makes for a big, complete finish to the complexities of the brew. I could happily sit on a bottle of this on a cold winter's night as one might do with a true bottle of whisky. Holy fuck.

Beer of the Week for January 2011

I drink a lot of beer. Not excessively, just regularly. OK, sometimes excessively but I don't drive or have a spouse to abuse so it's kinda responsible drinking. Sometimes, in this sea of booze, a beer makes me feel like time has stopped, the world has stopped spinning and this beer and I are in a space/time glitch where there is nothing but the magical sensations making party in my mouth and mind. This one did it.

Instantly, the powerful aromas of pine, orange blossom, pineapple, honey, agave, almond, vanilla and cinnamon smashed through my temporal lobe like the karate kid chopping through blocks of ice. The first sip introduced the epic bitterness typical of an Imperial India Pale Ale, like biting into a wasabi and grapefruit sandwich, and before I could register any nuances the tidal wave of super-sweet, super-juicy malts washed in and coated my palate with syrupy, chewy waves of brandy, bourbon, jelly babies, agave nectar and fruit cake. Phwoah!

The second sip was when we really started to get to know eachother, this beer and I. The complexities within the hops began to open up into fresh pineapple, grapefruit flesh, skunk weed and lemon leaves. The malts too began to settle as I got used to the sweetness and the American oak spices began to show, colouring the fruity, lolly-like malts with cinnamon, anise, dried fruits with a variety of phenols dancing between the other complexities.

I tried to savour the beer as much as I could, like when you don't want to finish a book because the story is so enjoyable. It's good to remember that taste is 80% smell so big whiffs of a beer like this will still stimulate sections of the temporal lobe (http://www.tastescience.com/abouttaste2.html) and help to stretch out the enjoyment time of the beer. Many big whiffs were had, with each effort revealing new and exciting elements of this brewing feat.

And that's why Southern Tier's Oak Aged Un*Earthly (http://www.southerntierbrewing.com/index1.html) is my Beer of the Week. It's on the list at Josie Bones (http://josiebones.wordpress.com/) for about $40, but not for long...

PS: It's worth a mention that Earthless (http://www.myspace.com/earthless) played at the Arthouse on Sunday night and their music was the sonic equivalent of this beer.

I kinda forgot about Xmas too...

Xmas, a time for sharing with friends and family. Also a great time of year to be of Jewish background. I spent Xmas at Kate's house where the food and friends were abundant and of excellent quality. There are a bunch of Xmas Ales around too so I thought to share some of these with the loverly crew. Here's a few examples of what got smashed...

Rogue are a craft brewery in Portland, Oregon on the West Coast of America. They have mad philosophy, a Rogue Nation thing where they grow their own grains and hops, encourage people to be conscious of what they put in and where their dollar goes. Legends. The Santa's Private Reserve features their very own Rudolph hop which gives the amber ale the edge of an IPA, piney sprucey tingly goodness to balance the rich, sweet malts in the brew. It's fairly light-bodied, which is good because there's a lot of food on the table. As the sun starts to set the glow-in-the-dark label adds a good, fun element to the Xmas drinking. Yay for Rogue Santa!

Red Hill Brewery are an island of squareness in a sea of creative microbrewers. They brew true-to-style beers and the Belgian style Xmas ale is a great example. A complex mix of malts, abundance of hoppings with their home-grown hops and patience for a long maturation make this ale extremely respectable. It's really is amazing that the Xmas pudding flavours, the nutmeg and coriander seed, are derived from the malt and hops and yeast, no added spices. Although not as pudding-like as last year I truly enjoyed this vintage and have stashed a box in the cellar at Josie Bones to compare to next year's. Be warned tho - 8% beers are not for smashing, savour this one and don't be shy to share a bottle. It'll stretch your evening and you wont be the guy on the couch getting a texta makeover from your friends.

This one I wouldn't share. Nor would I hurry it. It's amazing, more like a sherry or brandy than a beer. 14% ABV, seriously rich and juicy, perfect with cheese and the kind of beer that changes the world for people who "don't drink beer". Eggenberg Samichlaus, brewed on the 6th of December each year then cellared for 10 months before bottling and release. I drank the 2009 vintage and it's almost exactly the same as 2008, 2007 and probably the first one brewed nearly 200 years ago. Merry Xmas indeed.

In between Xmas ales we enjoyed Harrington's Rogue Hop Organic Pilsner, Kooinda Pale Ale, Grozet Gooseberry and Wheat Ale (a sweet and fruity treat) and someone brought a slab of Sol which I believe is still at the bottom of the eski. I particularly enjoyed Kate's "Glass of Water" made from vintage local sparkling wine and mandarin vodka - equal parts. It wasn't beer, but it wasn't really a glass of water either. And special mention goes to Jules' hazelnut cassata which we enjoyed with Rogue's John & John Hazelnut Ale Aged in Hazelnut Rum barrels.

It's a strange brew, fairly light bodied with this nutty, syrupy undertone followed by the nutty, oaky, rummy goodness of their hazelnut rum. I have a feeling it was old stock but still very enjoyable. A scoop of cassata turned it into a hazelnut spider to die for. Beer spiders, way of the future.

A Year of Beer

Happy new year to everyone! I hope there was much celebration and support for the independent brewers of Australia and the world at your Xmas and New Year's parties! The eski at our party was sooooo sexy - Boatrocker Hoppbier, Kirin Ichiban Shiboru, Coopers Pale Ale, 3 Ravens 55 APA, Kooinda Pale Ale and that was just the drinking beer. Here's a little spiel for those unfamiliar with these brews...
Boatrocker Hoppbier is the second release from Brunswick's dynamic duo Matt and Andrea. These guys have really broken new ground with their Boatrocker brand, persuading the guys at Southern Bay Brewing (Victoria's big contract brewer) that people really do want to taste the malt and hops in their beer. Previous contract brews out of Southern Bay seemed to taste just like one another, a base wort that is then tweaked slightly to the contractor's tastes (Three Troupers, Hawthorn and The Ranga to name a few). The Hoppbier is a pilsner base but boasts lashings of fresh NZ hops giving mad texture and extremely moreish aromas and flavours. Think passionfruit and melon and dry, tingly acids from those fresh flowers but totally sessionable rather than the mouth-stripping hopfests seen in many other hop-driven brews. Yum!

Kirin Ichiban Shiboru is the real Kirin, not the flacid green bottled piss marketed by our friends at Lion Nathan, or is it CUB, same diff. They use the "First Press" method where they ditch the first and last (heads and tails for spirit fans) runs of the wort and make their beer exclusively with the juicy, full-flavoured mid-section of the wort. They add maize and rice to their grist which lightens and sweetens the brew but use just the right amount of hops to give dryness and texture in harmony with the sugars. I'm a sucker for labels too and there's no arguing with the bold, gold stement on the bottle - "Brewed for good times". It works, I had a good time.

Coopers Pale Ale is one of those beers that I keep going back to and marvelling at how enjoyable it can be. I've been drinking the Green for close to 20 years and although there was a change when Coopers changed their brewery and upgraded their equipment (around 2002 i think), the quality, flavour and integrity is still there. A whiff of hops when you crack the beer, beautiful dry ale on the first sip, creamier if you like to roll and slightly sour yeast esters on the nose too if you like to roll. I don't like to roll and shudder when a barperson rolls my bottle along the bar but hey, it's a free world. I do like to roll my Reds though. When I lived in Byron I drank a lot of Coopers Green and got to a point where I could  barely taste it. I started to add a shot of Stone's Green Ginger Wine and boom! Green and Green, heaven on a hot day.

3 Ravens 55 APA is the bitter, hoppy, juicy American Pale Ale from my local brewery in Thornbury (Victoria). Adrian, the brewer, uses five different hops and five different malts to create this dry, refreshing ale. I like it as a palate re-setter for when all the beer starts to taste the same as it's ripping bittereness really strips away any mouth-grot that's built up over the evening (or morning as I think it was maybe).

Kooinda Pale Ale is an APA from Victoria's smallest microbrewery. Full, juicy, hoppy without being extreme and so sessionable. I love it. I've been pleasantly surprised by how many people get turned on by the full body and balance of this beer. The guys that make it are legends too, real salt-of-the-earth Aussie battlers who deserve respect not only for their brewing skills but also for being good human beings ready with a laugh and happy to lend a hand to any good cause.
So that was the eski, but around 8:00am, when the real soldiers are still standing, that's when the big guns come out. Oooh yeah.

Baladin Elixir is a peated malt ale from Italy (!). It comes in a very pretty 750ml champagne bottle and, it may be wanky, but I was given some wine glass shaped glassware from Baladin and there's a good laugh in a bunch of red-eyed guys (and one girl) sitting around the backyard drinking this rich, sweet, whisky-centric ale from stemmed glasses. The ale is magic, one of the best whisky ales I've come across, medium to full bodied, extremely textural and complex flavours of Highland whisky, toffee and oak nuances really wake up the palate. It boasts a 10% ABV but the heat is totally in line with the whisky phenols, small sharp carbonation and malt richness.

Southern Tier Cuvee Series 2 (Lakewood, New York) is an American Amber Ale aged in American Oak. This brew is extremely limited and I cracked my second last one to celebrate the dawn of 2011 with my best mates (who deserve good beer for supporting and listening to me throughout 2010). So rich, so sweet, those amber malts give such juiciness with a variety of toffee, caramel and dried fruit flavours supported by the vanilla, cigar, burnt sugar and oak textures from the American oak (think good bourbon like Stagg or Booker's). At 11% ABV you'd think it'd be a sipper but it didn't last long, the sun didn't quite make it past the horizon before we were fighting over the dregs in the bottle.

Mountain Goat Double Hightail is my beer of the year for 2010. Mountain Goat is Melbourne's iconic first real microbrewery. Their contentious Steam Ale has brought their craft beer skills to the masses and their Double Hightail is a reward for the Goat Army who didn't let a little commercialisation get in the way of a good drink. Big, juicy malts are balanced by near-perfect hop-levels. Unjudicial use of Galaxy hops provides bitterness and lighter aromatics to the rich fruitiness of this absolutley f*n awesome ale. Bless you Dave, Cam and Jane, may your angels smile on you for all of 2011.

At about this point a few of the soldiers decided to go and lie down whcih left the few crazy and keen hardcore flavour junkies slurring and laughing on the lawn. We needed a wake-up, a refresher, something to bring us back from the brink of drunkenness and we found it in a small bottle of Mikkeller and Brewdog's collaborative effort, a blended DIPA (Double India Pale Ale) humbly named I Hardcore You. Apt. Two of us shared this ridiculously, some may even say stupidly (we certainly were) bitter bitter bitter DIPA. A Coopers Green has an IBU (International Bitterness Units) of about 15. The I Hardcore You is up around 150 IBU. Like sucking on a salt-crusted grapefruit with just enough marmaladey, biscuity malt to keep your mouth from getting up and running away. It was a perfect refresher after the shenanigans and cigarettes of a crackin New Year's Eve. And after so much good beer I barley noticed the 9.5% ABV.
It's probably important to note that we drank about a pint of water with each beer, or between beers. The lemon tree loved it.

 

Beer is awesome, and a major part of the enjoyment is sharing it with great friends, laughing and sharing the memories that the brews inspire. Having said that I capped off the night with a Brewdog Paradox Smokehead, an imperial stout aged in Smokehead whisky barrels. I'd been saving that one for a special occasion and the first day of the year, a cigar, a hammock and warm feeling inside is certainly a special occasion. The peat, iodine, salt and smoke sit just above the dark undercurrent of toasty stout and demand slow and sensible sipping and savouring of this phenomenal brew.
After all these good beers and good people and good time I slept the sleep of the just and woke up smiling,  looking forward to a full and rewarding year of beer and beautiful people. Blessings and best wishes to all for 2011, may all your beers come true.