Well... What a day! Road trips are always fun, but when there's over 150 beers to choose from, it becomes an inebriated shindig. Before all of the alcohol consumption in the day was able to catch up with me, I tried the beers I was looking forward to most first. There were plenty of top notch beers present to fill a top three, but my top three are three beers I have yet to try that I was able to sample.
Unibroue really knows how to make a fine Belgian strong ale, and Trois Pistoles is certainly not an exception. The beer appeared a deep red in my glass with a beige/brown head. The aroma is incredibly complex giving off a very vinous, sweet quality with hints of prunes, figs, wood, raisins, some ginger, and a lovely yeasty-ness. The flavor is very similar to the nose in its complexity and sweetness, yet there is added depth with a licorice quality to it as well. The sweetness of this beer is very nice, but not at all cloying. The 9% alcohol is warming, but not at all overpowering. This is an incredible effort from Unibroue.
#2) Goose Island Bourbon County StoutThis was definitely the beer I was looking forward to having the most. Due to it's very high alcohol (at least 13%), it can't be distributed to Ohio. Even the look of this beer in the glass was impressive. There really is no other way of describing its look other than motor oil... and its consistency felt about the same too. What an insanely huge beer! The aroma was laced with plenty of alcohol and also gave off plenty of bourbon, some dark malts, and chocolate. The flavor is marked by plenty of bourbon, dark maltiness, dark chocolate, toast, vanilla, and alcohol. This beer was delicious. So why is it not my #1? Well, I found the bourbon/alcohol content in the flavor a little overpowering. That's not to say that I didn't enjoy it, but that slight bit of imbalance keeps it at #2.
#1) Columbus Brewing Company Barleywine.
What a pleasant surprise! Why doesn't CBC bottle this stuff?! The normally mild, but tasty, brewery really nailed it with this big brew! This is an incredible American style barleywine. Going the route of Bigfoot from Sierra Nevada, this is an incredibly hoppy barleywine and could possibly even be described as an imperial IPA. This beer was a surprise right from the pour, which produced a surprisingly light golden orange color with a moderate off white head. After talking with the CBC representative on hand, we found that this beer is brewed with a new style of hop called a Summit hop that packs a hefty 14.5 alpha acids. The hops are definitely present in the nose with some malty caramel. The flavor first gives a very fleeting caramel, malty sweetness that is quickly counteracted by loads of hops. The hops also add lots of citrus notes and I picked up a hint of mango as well. My first impression was that this is definitely a barleywine, but the more I drank it the more it seemed like an imperial IPA. This beer was incredibly delicious and I would love to see this stuff bottled around Christmas time or in the dead of winter.
It was a good day.
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