anchored to the dark side

Last time at Más Que Cervezas, they pointed out Anchor's new Coffee Porter when I asked about black beers, and that seemed like something to take home.  Plenty of barrel aged beers too, but maybe next week, when it's supposed to be cold again.  Yet another black beer weekend, gotta make up for lost time...

Color is like a nice cup of coffee, head is fluffy and takes its time fizzing down.  Nice coffee aroma too, not too sweet.  Coffee candy flavor, not exactly sweet at first, but bitterness really picks up at the end.  Hangs around too, leaving a fairly strong aftertaste.  Even in the first sips there's the hint that the beer will develop stickiness, although it isn't heavily sweet.  The bitter aftertaste and the feeling of something kind of hanging in the back of your throat build up, although there are no sharp changes in texture or weird flavors coming out.  While not exactly subtle, it's not overwhelming in taste, feel or aroma, so a very well behaved beer for an evening of talk or quiet reading.  Any snacks should probably be mild in flavor themselves, I really don't crave anything salty or even chocolatey at this point.

Supplier: Más Que Cervezas
Price: €3.26

like rolling down a hill

I told you I was going to feverishly hunt down black beers for a while.  Well, I picked up a nice big bottle of English stout for today, St. Austell Mena Dhu stout.  It promises to be flavorsome - oh excuse me, "flavoursome" - so I'm anxiously awaiting what this bottle has in store.  I think it's just going to be months of darkness for me!  The woman at Más Que Cervezas understands too; I asked her about black beers and she went right for some nice ones, although about half of them were barrel aged.  But, it's a little damp and chilly these days, and people who work with beer know you need something to keep you cozy.

While the beer is a rich dark brown, nicely opaque, the head is beigier than I would expect.  It has a good malty smell, a little bit chocolate and a little bit sour.  It has sort of a fruity chocolate flavor, recognizably sweet, but with some underlying bitter, I might go so far as baking chocolate.  The sour does not come out in the flavor, but there's something smoky in it, makes you think of a winter bonfire.  The sweetness remains steady throughout, kindly not developing the stickiness or heaviness that one can find.  It really is well-balanced, having a clear flavor but also being quiet enough that some heavy conversation wouldn't be interrupted by a good gulp.  Even a light conversation wouldn't be thrown off course, and might even be enhanced.  I'm fine at the moment with no snacks, but something lightly salted or slightly sweet would not be going wrong.

Supplier: Más Que Cervezas
Price: €3.40

cozy outings

After all that holiday excitement it's back to weekly beers, at least for a while.  I felt like a little jaunt into town, since my last beers had me cooped up at home, and it was about time to hit up La Buena Pinta again.  They do have that bar, you know.  If there was stout on tap, I'd have my drink there, if not, I'd buy a bottle, of which there would undoubtedly be many choices.  They did have a couple of black beers on tap, a porter and a stout, and I decided to spring for the Jumping Kitten Barrel Aged Imperial Stout.  There was a pretty big crowd out for the weekend afternoon, including a loud birthday party, so the extra alcohol felt like a little bit of self-medication.

Oh, looks good, doesn't it?  One heavy, oozy stout, coming up.  Not a lot of aroma, but slightly sweet. Not super sweet tasting either, rather more bitter.  Hint of raisin? It's pretty heavy, reasonably thick in texture but not quite syrupy. Doesn't have the excessive sweetness so many barrel aged beers have. There is a certain amount of woodiness, fairly strong flavor of barrel.  It gets a little sour towards the end, but nothing over the top.  It's a hard-hitting (at 10.5%), but calm and presentable return to my beloved black beers.

louder than the ocean

On the twelfth day of Beermas I picked out for me
A drum of sea-going IPA
A musical magic elf
A lone surfer leaping
A fruit-filled dressed-up lady
Alcoholic café con leche
Hopefully unendangered feathers
A laid out insomniac
One secret promise
A possibly chatty barnyard animal
A random French reference
A bird that's not a pigeon
And a flamingo with mangoes and beets

So we come to the end of another Beermas, and I got suckered into another light beer.  Another IPA though, so not that bad.  It was the barrel on the waves that caught my eye, we can think of it as an old-fashioned drum of ... stuff.  I don't actually know if they used to say drums of beer for shipping.  Probably not.  But give me a break, I did find twelve beers to throw at you!  La Maldita's Piripa is an American IPA, to be precise, but that label gives it the sort of classic feel of the more traditional ones.  You can imagine that barrel escaping from a ship bound for some hot country, hops stewing within it for months.

A lot like yesterday, dark gold and sort of coppery in color.  Less abundant head, though.  Very aromatic, and typical of IPAs; lots of orange, bright and sweet scented, tiny bit of sour underneath.  Also like yesterday, much more bitter in taste than in smell, but this one does have some balancing citrusy sweet in there.  Very light feeling, nothing sticky, very clean tasting.  It's mostly a big, bold bitter, filling the mouth and disappearing in a ball of flavor down the throat, like a time-lapse sunset.  And with that, the curtain falls on Beermas!

Supplier: Cerevisia
Price:€3

hotter than summer sidewalks

On the eleventh day of Beermas I picked out for me
A musical magic elf
A lone surfer leaping
A fruit-filled dressed-up lady
Alcoholic café con leche
Hopefully unendangered feathers
A laid out insomniac
One secret promise
A possibly chatty barnyard animal
A random French reference
A bird that's not a pigeon
And a flamingo with mangoes and beets

So this beer was actually a gift, and it's been sitting in my refrigerator for a couple of months waiting for the right time.  I think I can angle it in now.  It's a Colombian beer, so something a little spicy, maybe?  Dare I say, piping hot?  OK, sorry.  Still, it looks like a good IPA, so one of the nice lighter beers, even if my yearning for stouts hasn't been satisfied.  That little elf on the label also looks like a being that would own some pipes, a Pan sort of critter.  See?  Works out with the song!

It's quite a dark color, a little coppery, but not much of a surprise for an IPA.  Awfully fluffy head.  Good aroma, a little on the sweet side, but with that typical citrus part.  Really bitter flavor, though, not what you expect from the scent.  Stimulating and keen, just enough bitterness to make it feel adult, and not a hint of sweetness.  If anything, there's a touch of sour towards the end.  Not much aftertaste, it's pretty clean going down.  Worth waiting for as the next-to-last I think.  Hopefully the last day of Beermas will go as well.

higher than the waves

On the tenth day of Beermas I picked out for me
A lone surfer leaping
A fruit-filled dressed-up lady
Alcoholic café con leche
Hopefully unendangered feathers
A laid out insomniac
One secret promise
A possibly chatty barnyard animal
A random French reference
A bird that's not a pigeon
And a flamingo with mangoes and beets

Funnily enough, it's no easier to find some good beer lords than it is to find all those birds.  DouGall's 942 could hit the mark, though.  Somebody, the Lord of the Waves let's say, is leaping around pretty well on the label.  Again, light beer, APA, but if you plan to be jumping and carousing it might not be the best idea to load up on the black stuff.

There is nothing too special about the beer in appearance, but if you have a soft spot for beer it should be appetizing.  It's a nice, bright gold color with the typical white head.  Rather citrusy in aroma.  More spice and toast in the flavor than expected, with a sharp and bitter beginning that quickly morphs into a bready taste.  It's not quite sweet in spite of the dulling of the bitterness.  Seems very peppery too, giving the flavor more dimension than the smell.  Although it goes down well and has a nice light feel, there is a tendency for a little bit to hang back on the back of the tongue, causing some stickiness after a while.  Maybe some crackers would soak that up.  It does seem like a beer that would play well with snacks.

Supplier: Birra y Paz
Price: €2.85

spookier than halloween

On the ninth day of Beermas I picked out for me
A fruit-filled dressed-up lady
Alcoholic café con leche
Hopefully unendangered feathers
A laid out insomniac
One secret promise
A possibly chatty barnyard animal
A random French reference
A bird that's not a pigeon
And a flamingo with mangoes and beets

I scoured those shelves for a fitting stout or porter, and what did I find instead?  Berliner weisse.  Not just any old Berliner weisse, Beavertown Dame Melba Phantom, flavored with peach and raspberry.  Of course, the real selling point is that the good dame looks like she's about to head out to the ball, but we can't ignore the novelty of peach and raspberry beer!  I've had both individually, but together they're a new sensation.

Peachy-pink, grapefruit-looking stuff, but a fairly low and sour aroma.  Not quite grapefruit in there.  Sharp and acidic at first, but then it rambles down into something sweeter, more like the peach.  You can't get away from the Berliner weisse sourness, but it does get tamed pretty quickly by the fruits.  While raspberry has a tendency to be syrupy and even heavy with lambic style beers, this is quite light.  True, I had hoped for a nice black beer again, but Dame Melba can hold her own.

Supplier: Cervecissimus
Price: €5.90

friendlier than strangelove

On the eighth day of Beermas I picked out for me
Alcoholic café con leche
Hopefully unendangered feathers
A laid out insomniac
One secret promise
A possibly chatty barnyard animal
A random French reference
A bird that's not a pigeon
And a flamingo with mangoes and beets

Actually, it's not too hard to find something connected to maids a-milking with the abundance of milk stouts.  La Grua (with MIA Brewing)'s Coffeebomb wins this time because there seems to be a maiden of some kind on the label.  Not a milkmaid, but she does have a cowboy hat.

Good black coffee color, nice beige head, although that does fizzle away pretty quickly.  Ice-coffee or coffee candy aroma, and at first sip ice-coffee or frappuccino is the overwhelming sensation.  Some more "real" coffee, or good stout, bitterness wells up and leaves some lingering aftertaste.  It's a little smoky, not earthy like some stouts, with only a touch of sweetness.  It's not heavy in scent or taste, maybe the combination of vanilla and caramel malt are the source of it.  It's pleasantly light in feel as well, lighter than many dark beers.

Supplier: La Buena Cerveza
Price:€3.80