Dark Horse Fore Smoked Stout

Beer:  Fore

Brewery:  Dark Horse

Date: February 20th, 2014

Style:  Stout, Smoked Beer

ABV: 7.0%

Similar To:  Surly Smoke Lager, Rogue Smoke Ale 

Description:
If asked to provide a subtitle for this evening, I'd have probably come up with "News Flash - Would-be Beer Fop realizes that ordering Food to complement his Beer enhances his Drinking Dining Experience".  Better yet, how about "Light Bulb City - Smoked Beer and BBQ taste great together"?  While I'm at it, I hear the PB and chocolate combo is pretty popular these days, too.  Anyway, I think you get the point... 
 
I've always felt that one of my shortcomings as a beer "enthusiast" is that I rarely take the time to marry my drink choices to my food in more than a superficial way. Choosing sweeter, darker brews with rich deserts, and barley wine with strong cheese has been about the extent of my planned pairings.  It's with great joy, then, when I stumble upon a congruous beer-food partnership as I did recently while dining at one of my favorite BBQ spots on Chicago's Near West side.  I'll discuss why this worked so well In Closing... at the end of this post, but first, more about the beer involved, Dark Horse's Fore Smoked Stout.

First Impression:
Thick black body with a very thin, light brown head which dissipates quickly.

Smell:
Mmmmm, smoky. Reminds me of a dying campfire or roasting nuts. Smokiness is consistent, but not overwhelming like some smoked beers I've tried. Roasted malts in abundance as well as coffee and a hint of sweetness in the background.

Taste:
A lovely nutty roasted malt flavor. The smoky character is prominent, but not alone as I can definitely taste coffee, chicory, and that elusive sweetness that could be molasses or even sasparilla. Slight alcohol bite in the finish.

On the Palate:
Rich with low carbonation, not unlike root beer.

Why You'll like It:
If you like single malt scotch, cigars, and campfires, then this one if definitley for you. The complexities of its character began to reveal themselves after the initial tasting, and are certainly worth its robust personality.

...and why You won't:
A challenging beer. Its smokiness is what you'll encounter first and for some that may be a lot to overcome to be able to enjoy this one's more subtle flavors.

In Closing...:
From early on, I knew that I was going to enjoy Fore.  What I didn't realize was how much more

A Re-creation of my Beer-Food Epiphany

enjoyable it was going to be once dinner arrived.  When I'm tasting a beer for the first time, I make an effort to not distort the experience with flavors which could significantly alter the beer's taste.  The same holds true when I order an enjoyable meal.  If I do order a beer, it's something that won't overwhelm my food.  Add to that the fact that I rarely drink any type of beverage when eating, and you can see why wining and dining are usually separate activities for me.

This evening, I ordered pulled chicken, seasoned fries, and grits.  I'd ordered all these dishes before, so I was fairly certain that I knew what to expect.  Alright, big swig of beer and onto dinner...  After the first bite of chicken, I literally stopped eating to look at the menu and wondered if I'd ordered a different dish than the one I expected.  This smokiness, this smoldering convergence of sweet and salty flavors, this almost euphoric exaltation of tastes so completely enhanced my beer's innate qualities.  Did you hear that brain?  Food can make beer taste better!  After going back and forth between the beer and chicken for a couple of minutes, I tried the seasoned fries and grits too, and God help me, they also tasted better!  I can only imagine that this is how cavemen must have felt when they first set fire to themselves, or whatever it is they were doing in dark caves when they weren't busy fighting dinosaurs or getting kicked out of the Garden of Eden.

If there's something to be learned from this experience, it's lost on me.  For the rest of you, however, I'd recommend doing some research on food and beer pairings, in the hope that you can at least slightly recreate the type of mystical adventure I had that night.

Beer Rating: 4 Stars (out of 5)

Transcendental Dining Experience Rating (Beer Included):  ∞ Stars (out of 1).

Goose Island Bourbon County Brand Barley Wine

Beer:  Bourbon County Brand Barley Wine (BCW) 

Brewery:  Goose Island

Date: February 17th, 2014

Style:  Barley Wine

ABV: 12.1%

Similar To:  Founders Backwoods Bastard, Young's Old Nick

Description:
There are times when I head out the door with a destination in mind and a beer as my goal.  Then there are times when beer expectations are strictly on the back burner and I luck into something outstanding.  My experience with BCW definitely qualifies as the latter.

The venue for this evening was the restaurant in a high-end hotel in the Loop, where I was meeting a former manager for dinner on the occasion of his leaving the company.  Conversation that night was enjoyable and certainly wasn't hurt by the presence of 3(!) of Goose Island's Bourbon County line on the menu:  Bourbon County Stout, the subject of this post, and Proprietor's BCS, only the first two of which were available.  

First Impression:
Dark brown/black with a slight reddish tint and no head.

Smell:
Not surprisingly a strong aroma of bourbon, as well as brown sugar, vanilla, and plums/cherries.  Smells sweeter than I remember from Bourbon County Stout.

Taste:
As expected, massive bourbon and very sweet malt, though not cloying.  Lots of brown sugar, caramel, vanilla, and the dark fruits I mentioned previously.  Surprisingly well hidden alcohol taste, due, no doubt to the sweetness.  I could have probably put away another 3 or 4 of these, even if I would have been sorry for it later.

On the Palate:
Luxuriously rich and thick with a warming finish.  Low carbonation.  Very smooth going down, despite the high ABV.

Why You'll like It:
What's not to like?  Seriously though, a top-notch barleywine whose complexity

...and why You won't:

Sweet and strong is what BCW delivers, and does so in almost epic proportions.  Buyer beware.

In Closing...:
Coworkers can be strange animals.  Having congenial people to work with can make a terrible job easier and having awful ones can suck the life out of the most rewarding employment.  Naturally, the moral of this platitude is that really good beer trumps a really bad job, at least for a few hours.   

As a side note, I've had great luck finding hard-to-locate beers in places where people wouldn't usually go to find them, such as hotel bars, wine bars, and good restaurants where the beer is a generally a secondary consideration.

Rating: 4 1/2 Stars (out of 5)

Goose Island Identity Crisis

Beer:  Identity Crisis (GIC)

Brewery:  Goose Island

Date: February 16th, 2014

Style:  Porter

ABV: 8.5%

Similar To:  Nothing else I've tried

Description:
Having a young child, part of the plan for each weekend is finding interesting activities for the family and seeing the excitement on the little critter's face each time she tries something new.  These activities usually involve spending time outdoors, but this winter we've had to get more inventive in searching for things to hold back the cabin fever.  One of my personal favorites is to take Little Dingbat to Chicago's Field Museum and let her run (relatively) amok down the galleries filled with the "stuffed animals", which are excellent examples of early 20th century taxidermy.  She's at the age where animals that hold still are more exciting than those uncooperative ones at the zoo which seem to make themselves scarce whenever we visit.  Also, the museum smells better.  After a morning out, we often retire to a child-tolerant watering hole for a spot of lunch and, with any luck, a decent pint or two.  It's one of these "watering holes", the Goose Island Brewpub on Clybourn, which will be the backdrop for several upcoming posts.  I've gone through most of their taproom-only beer selection recently and have found a couple that were really worth sharing, beginning with the aptly named Identity Crisis.

First Impression:
Deep black color with a small, very faint, white head.

Smell:
Sweet dark fruit - plums, or cherries soaked in brandy.  Thinking on it, the aroma reminds me of sherry or another cordial.

Taste:
Wow, not what I'd expected from a porter. I wasn't far off with the cordial analogy.  Plums, cherries, and roasted malt.  The taste is similar to a lambic or a mild sour ale.  Very little bitterness.

On the Palate:
Very low carbonation, somewhat thick but not syrupy. 

Why You'll like It:
Good for fans of strong fruit beers, sours, and even barley wines.  This covers all those bases and does it pretty well.

...and why You won't:
The flavor's somewhat incongruous to the style, which may disappoint you if that's not what you're expecting.

In Closing...:
There's no further question in my mind as to why they named this beer Identity Crisis, but rather why they thought to categorize it as a porter.  Regardless, an enjoyable experience after a tough morning of fatherhood.  As I've lamented frequently when visiting this place "If only they served it in growlers...".

Rating: 4 Stars (out of 5)
 

The stout on the left or the "porter" on the right?  Eenie, meenie...

Furious Surly IPA

There's also a beer in this picture.

Beer:  Surly IPA (FSI)

Brewery:  Surly Brewing Company

Date: February 14th, 2014

Style: IPA

ABV: 6.2%

Similar To:  Sierra Nevada Torpedo Extra IPA

Description:
As I'm sitting down to write this, I can't remember the last time I that I drank a beer from a can.  I should probably rephrase that slightly to say that I remember drinking beer from cans on several occasions and even had a pretty damned impressive pyramid of the most God-awful rancid tins of Milwaukee's [expletive] in my dorm room in college, but my point here is that the end of my drinking beer from cans roughly coincides with a vast improvement in the quality of the beer I consumed and probably has something to do with why I'm still ambulatory and not currently spending my afternoons in a dialysis clinic.  Pleasantries aside, I'm bringing this up because cans are definitely part of Furious' schtick, their motto being "Beer for a glass, from a can".  However they spin it, the beer pictured above, Surly IPA, was well worth drinking regardless from what it was poured, so read on.

First Impression:
Poured a rich, almost glowing red, the above photo doesn't really do it justice.  Nice off-white head with very good retention.

Smell:
Lots of hops, citrus, floral notes, pine, and some caramel sweetness.  The persistent head retained those pleasant aromas and added a lot to the experience.  

Taste:
The bitterness from the hops was nicely balanced with lemon or perhaps grapefruit.  Definitely some underlying sweetness there too, though not as pronounced.

On the Palate:
Great carbonation.  Strangely enough, this is what I recall the most from my days of can consumption and have strangely missed.  Fits quite well with the style and adds to the feeling that this beer is really fresh.

Why You'll like It:
A very good IPA that doesn't simply crush you with it's bitterness.  The combination of aromas, flavors, and mouthfeel make this a experience to savor.

...and why You won't:
While not a one-trick pony, Surly is still quite bitter and may not appeal to those who don't enjoy the style.

In Closing...:
Though this certainly doesn't apply to all areas of my life, when it comes to beer, I love having my preconceptions shattered.  Having overcome my previous aversion to returning to cans, I'm eager to try some of Furious' other offerings, and based on Surly's promise, would recommend the same to you.

Rating: 4 Stars (out of 5)

Spiteful G.F.Y. Stout

Beer:  G.F.Y. Stout (GFY)

Brewery:  Spiteful Brewing

Date:  January 25th, 2014

Style: Imperial Stout

ABV:  8.0%

Similar To:  Central Waters Brewhouse Coffee Stout, North Coast Old Rasputin

Description:
As long as I've been enjoying beer, I've had a soft spot for stouts.  From Guinness Extra Stout, one of the first beers I tried, to the almost innumerable varieties of barrel-aged stouts I've tried more recently, the style evokes a great sentimentality in me and reminds me of why I enjoy beer so much.  It's with this long, fond history that I tend to be rather critical of any stout that I try, which is why I feel quite excited to share my enthusiasm about one that I enjoyed.  In Part II of my recap from January's Spiteful Tasting extravaganza (read Part I here), I review Spiteful's take on the Imperial Stout, G.F.Y.

First Impression:
As with all of Spiteful's beers, the label art catches your eye.  I've never embraced product mascots, but I admit harboring a soft spot for GFY's none-too-cuddlesome figurehead, Abrasive Bear, pictured above.  The beer itself pours black with a lingering finger-thick mocha head.

Smell:
Dark, bittersweet chocolate, lots of roasted, almost smoky, malt, and also some coffee in the background.

Taste:
Compelling blend of chocolate and roasted grain, with a good hop finish, despite not being a prominent part of the aroma.  Also some hints of coffee and caramel.  Very nicely balanced, a good combination of flavors without any single overwhelming characteristic.

On the Palate:
Medium thickness, somewhat thinner than I expected for a stout, with little carbonation.  Surprisingly smooth and little alcohol finish for 8% ABV.

Why You'll like It:
A solid, non gimmicky example of what a stout should taste like.  The balance gives it a broad appeal to anyone who enjoys this style. 

...and why You won't:
Doesn't try to complete with all of the specialist stouts currently on the market.  If you're looking for a beer that's strongly weighted towards one end of the taste spectrum or the other, for example a strong coffee or sweet chocolate stout, there are choices that will probably make you happier.

In Closing...:
GFY was the second Spiteful stout that I tried that evening, and though both had their merits, I felt that this was the more well-executed of the two.  Would definitley enjoy it again. 

Rating: 3 1/2 Stars (out of 5)

Most of the evening's lineup, prior to their demise.  GFY is 3rd from the left.