Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/23459
WHETHER YOU SLALOM SQUAW VALLEY OR CROSS- COUNTRY IN KANSAS, THESE WARMING APRÈS-SKI BEERS WILL MELT THE FROST OFF YOUR BALAKLAVA Sixpack Gadd’s Guinness Foreign Extra Once known as West India Porter, this beefed up recipe dating back to 1801 (not to be confused with Guinness Extra Stout) was originally developed so that Arthur Guinness’s Dublin-brewed beer could be shipped worldwide. Bacchus be praised, Diageo has finally decided to send some to the U.S. again—the first time it’s been available here since Prohibition—and what a glorious thing it is. At 7.5 percent abv and with no foam- enhancing widget to intervene between you and the real thing, it will grow fur on the chests of tyros accustomed to dainty, anemic Guinness Draught. A fourpack of this now has a permanent shrine in my fridge. Boulevard Brewing Harvest Dance Wheat Wine Style Ale Sheer perfection from Kansas City comes in a wire- and-cork-topped bottle, with a haunting wheat and Juicy Fruit gum nose, a mouthfeel of crushed velvet, fresh fruit cocktail complexity and a fin- ish that lasts until the winter sun comes up. Just ask me how I know. Boulevard Brewing Bourbon Barrel Quad I overlooked this gem while reviewing wood-aged beers in the last issue: a Belgian-style abbey quadruple, fermented on cher- ries, then aged in ex-bourbon barrels in separate lots for up to a year. The individual lots are subsequently blended for the final bottling. The nose is that of frenzied yellow jackets feeding on ripe cherries just outside a bourbon rickhouse. Then it gets serious. Palate of caramel, fleshy black cherry and warm pie crust. Strange and wondrous stuff from what might just be the Midwest’s best brewer. Deschutes Brewery The Dissident A perfect stand-up-and-be-heard American tribute to Belgium from one of the country’s most adventuresome breweries: an oude bruin–style Flanders sour ale infused with Washington cherries. In brazen defiance of the banal, seamlessly melded flavors of malt and deep, tart-bit- ter-sour cherry run the length and depth of this rare seasonal brew. In short supply and simply superb. Samuel Adams Wee Heavy There’s nothing wee about the heavy-duty nose, which brings to mind model airplane glue, purple iodine, briny Islay single malt, Winesap apples, tur- pentine, blackstrop molasses and the hold of a Roman galley . . . just for starters. This Scotch-style ale is a tad less complex—but only slightly—on the palate, with overripe fig, bitter Swedish licorice, horehound and piloncillo sugar. Just when I had begun to think Sam Adams was playing too much to the middle-of-the-road, along comes this Beowulf of a brew to slay all doubt. SweetWater Brewing Happy Ending Imperial Stout The intense, nearly overpowering nose of sticky cannabins and freshly-mown lawn would almost be worth savoring all on its own . . . but there’s more. The sumptuous palate oozes refined bitter chocolate with an undercurrent of chewy malt balls, the whole shebang punctuated by bright cymbal clashes of grassy hops. A masterful concoction, as enticingly dissonant as a Mahler symphony and, in the end, every bit as rewarding. january–february 201 1 / the tasting panel / 47