Westvleteren 12, Hopworks, Great Divide Beers Get Tasted

On Friday the 13th, my friend Walker and I got together again to taste awesome beers. A few weeks prior, we had our first tasting of some great craft brews so I have a feeling this is going to become a regular occurrence. Anyways, Walker is on a quest to taste the top 100 beers as rated by beeradvocate.com, and I am more than happy to help out with that. Their #1 beer,the Westvleteren 12, is something that can only be purchased at the brewery in Belgium, or bought for a huge markup here in the United States. Luckily for us, Walker found some on ebay for $40, shipped. In a 12 ounce bottle. So he and split the bill, and the beer. I got six ounces for my $20, or roughly the cost of a premium glass of wine at a very nice restaurant.

Left to right: Great Divide, DOA, Westvleteren 12

While all of this was taking place, I received some samples of various kinds of jerkies and thought that pairing them with beer would be a ton of fun. Of course, my buddy had no objection either. The kind people at House of Jerky sent me a sampler pack of their styles and I'll be featuring each one in a blog post coming soon. You will want to read that one!

Hopworks Urban Brewery - "DOA" Deluxe Organic Ale


6.9% abv
Cloudy pale amber color. Light to medium amber with nice depth.

Aroma: Very faint aromas of grain and the barest hint of something tropical, like dried mango slices fresh out of the bag. Somethign akin to a roasted malt comes through as it warms up more. Faint aromas of citrus oil, specifically orange.

Palate: Soft, light, and delicate for an ale. Pleasant mouthfeel, the flavors are all muted though. Very malty and bretty on the finish. Nice bit of something pepper-ish too, keeps the malt from being too sweet. Not quite what I expected, not in a bad way though.

Rating: B. Good beer! Almost "there".

Jerky pairing: Teriyaki turkey jerky.

Westvleteren 12 - Belgian Quadruple Ale


10.2% abv
Dark brown, opaque. Hardly any head and no bubbles.

Aroma: Smells stunning. Raisins, brandy soaked pastry, candied prunes. Very complex, each flavor is impeccably balanced. Alcohol aromas but in a great way, doesn't overpower at all. It's like unwrapping the foil from a holiday, booze soaked cake and inhaling it. In this cake, rasins and candied prunes galore. Lots of spice like cinnamon, nutmeg, coriander or cardamom?...

Palate: The taste brings the same complexity, all sorts of flavors bouncing around and still incredibly well balanced. The finish lasts about one minute, incredibly long for a beer. All ripe, sweet black fruit, raisins, molasses, what a sensational set of flavors. Completely un beer-like. Absolutely wonderful, beyond impressed and well worth the $20 I spent for 6 ounces.

Rating: A+. Yes. Stunning

Jerky Pairing: Black pepper venison, or teriyaki turkey jerky.

Great Divide Brewing Co. - Oak Aged Yeti Imperial Stout


9.5% abv.
Black as motor oil in my pint glass, opaque and deep.
Aroma: Smells like dark roasted malts and grains. Baking chocolate, hints of spice, coffee. Complex but entirely straightforward. Aromas of fresh roasted hazelnuts, almonds, and walnuts. Faint whiff of a super ripe blackberry. Awesome.

Palate: A monster, full of: dark chocolate, toasted nuts, and fresh roasted coffee. Wonderfully complex, each flavor balances the other so none dominate. Very, very well crafted beer. Black tar flavor adds a very nice restraining factor to the ripeness. Again the emphasis seems on balance rather than power. The acidity on the finish is another foil to the sweet flavors and is much appreciated.

Rating: A-. Extremely good beer.

Jerky Pairing: Black Pepper Buffalo Jerky or Natural Style Beef Jerky.

Two bloggers hard at work!

Walker has posted a couple of reviews on his blog, the Westvleteren 12 and the Great Divide Oak Aged Yeti, they're well worth a read as he does a better job than I do in describing the beers we tasted. In a week or two we'll do another tasting, hopefully with a bunch of beers I bring back from Portland.

Two pours of Westvletern 12

Stay tuned, I have a full feature on the various jerkies I was sent coming up along with a new project from Don Sebastiani. Also I'll be tasting through some New Zealand wines next week, crisp whites to get you in a summer mood.

Beau Carufel

Tasting Some Amazing Craft Beers With Friends

About a week ago I got to taste a lineup of craft beers with some friends of mine who are definite hop-heads. One of them, my buddy Walker, has cool beer blog where he's chronicling his quest to taste the top 100 beers in the world, as rated by the users of BeerAdvocate.com. Check out Walker's site here, and follow along. Lucky for me, I get to help him out every once in a while when he tastes. My friend Blayne and Lauren also came by to taste and sample some beers with us. They brought the Lagunitas and Great Divide beers, I contributed all three Trader Joe's Vintage Ales, and Walker had the Listermann, KBS, and Iron Fist.

Listermann Wild Mild Ale - 4% abv.
Lots of carbonation is present, but you can't feel it on the palate. Smells like hot metal, hint of MSG (savory), very basic aromas. Tastes of burnt oats/malts, more of the metallic sensation too. Very fat through the mid palate but falls utterly flat on the finish. Bitter notes add a pleasant note but mainly because it's just something additional to the party. Mildly unimpressed. Not a lot going on. C+.

Iron Fist Brewing Velvet Glove - 9% abv.
Nice mix of fruit and florals on the nose. Can't tease out any malts, bittersweet chocolate or other identifiers of a dark beer. Incredible mouthfeel! I can see where the name Velvet Glove comes from. Huge, thick through the mid-palate. Supremely balanced beer, the flavors all match each other in intensity. The progression of each flavor through my palate is superb. Loads of dark fruit and spice. Nice charred oak or malt too. One of the best dark beers I've ever tasted. A-

Trader Joe's Vintage Ale 2008 - 9% abv.
Smells like apple cider and baking spices. I get faint hints of baking yeast too. Lots of sediment. Also hints of wood glue. On the palate...Astounding. Complexity for days. Notes of caramel, wood glue, apple peel. The acidity and carbonation make this stuff amazing. I'm having trouble wrapping my head around the delicate flavors and the way they're all integrated. A

Trader Joe's Vintage Ale 2009 - 9% abv.
Smells like lemon ginger tea to me. Lovely bouquet that has really mellowed since the last time I had this. Great spicy flavors but it's too thin still, not enough structure for me. The 2008 had more of a firm presence on my palate. The 2009 by contrast does more with its bubbles to create a sensation of body. I got cinnamon, nutmeg, and brown sugar in the scent, some of those carried through to the mouthfeel. Also present were hints of malt and perhaps some orange peel. B

Trader Joe's Vintage Ale 2010 - 9% abv.
Smells like lots of baking spices and pumpkin pie too. The pumpkin in my tasting notes contributes a sense of sweetness, richness. Very dark color especially compared to the 2008. Tons of spice on the palate dominate everything. Some hints of a dark chocolate and bitter roasted malts but the alcohol does sweep a lot of it away. Immature at this point, needs a few years. C+

Kentucky Breakfast Stout - 11.2% abv
Flat out amazing. Complex bouquet of all dark flavors including beef jerky, bakers chocolate, absolutely amazing. Still amazingly diverse on the palate. Hershey's chocolate syrup, beef jerky, sweet flavors..The way each flavor integrates and progresses is impressive and speaks to the power of stouts. This is perhaps one of the toughest beers to find anywhere and now I understand why. One of the best beers I've ever tasted, period. A+

Great Divide Chocolate Oak Aged Yeti - 9.5%
Crazy opaque. Cannot see through it at all, but I love that aspect. Great flavors of charcoal, burned malts, wonderful. The cayenne is nice, but it hits real quick and is done. Overall I really enjoy how complex the flavors are. Well made beer, the dark flavors of chocolate and bitter malts really restrain the sweeter flavors. A-

Lagunitas Undercover Investigation Shut-Down Ale - 9.87% abv.
Slightly overripe mango on the nose, great mouthfeel though. The acidity and dry hoppy flavors keep the ripe fruit in check. Good sweetness is tempered by the acidity and hops. A nicely balanced beer with a great component. Well worth the price. B

Lagunitas Wilco Tango Foxtrot - 7.8% abv.
Typical hoppy IPA nose, lots of ripe fruit and floral character. Very much like other IPA's but with some additional character. Vibrant acid that keeps all various flavor elements in check. Clean, crisp entry and a nice burst of hoppy green keeps the ripeness in check. A little bit disjointed for me, seems that it might be better if more of the floral and hops showed up instead of the little core of sweet fruits I was getting.  B-



So of these beers, many are not available and that kind of sucks. The Lagunitas beers are readily available at places like Whole Foods and Bristol Farms. The Oak Aged Yeti is available at good liquor stores and I've heard people say they can find it at Beverages & More. Luckily for us San Diegans, Iron Fist is a local brewery and their beers can be found here in town. The Trader Joe's Vintage Ales are gone, those are snapped up quickly right after their release date, usually between November and December. Good luck with the Kentucky Breakfast Stout...

Beau Carufel