Bear
Windswept Brewing Co

Decent passable stout. Some high notes, some mediocre.LCBO find. Quaffable beer, a bit thin but aroma is OK. I have liked other beers by this brewery.

 

Copenhagen 7/12 2019. 33 cl bottle from Mad & Vn, Magasin, Kbh. K. Simple dark purple label with the big W in a lighter shade of purple.

Pours opaque, dark brown with a big beige head. Settles as frothy, 0,5 cm thick layer of foam covering the surface of the beer. Moderate lacing.

Aroma is intense, dark, sweet and with a notable boozy, woody quality. Dark, lightly roasted malts, light smoke peat, coffee and the bitter part of dark chocolate.

Light carbonation. Thick, viscous, fat, soft texture.

Flavor is intense with a sweetness followed by a medium strong bitterness. Aftertaste is quite sweet with a strong presence of alcohol. Finish is boozy.

Powerful Imperial Stout with just the right touch of smoky, salty Scotsman.

Great beer. one of the better russian imperial stouts you can get in ontario.

On the taste - dark chocolate, roasted coffee, espresso, a hint of orange? Has a delicate sweet component. Very smooth texture with a huge head, nearing irish dry stout category.

Bottle: Poured a black color stout with a large brown foamy head with good retention and some lacing. Aroma of roasted malt with some black chocolate notes and light bitterness. Taste is also a mix of roasted malt with some black chocolate with a semi-bitter finish. Body is about average for style with good carbonation. Well brewed classic RIS with no gimmick.

 

My beer rating No. 8000. 330 ml bottle conditioned, barrel aged, from Aberdeen Country Fair (bought there ultimo August 2017, but the BB date of the bottle was 07. Oct. 2016). ABV is 10.5%. Pitch black colour, but no proper head. Fine aroma of roast malts, liquorice, molasses and dark dried fruits, some vinous notes. Minimal carbonation. The flavour is moderately sweet, with notes of roast malts, coffee, liquorice, dark bitter chocolate, some alcohol and bittering hops. Would profit from a somewhat higher level of carbonation.

330 mL bottle from the LCBO; bottled Nov 10 2020 and served at cellar temperature.

Pours pitch black and basically opaque, though there are some crimson red glints when you hold it to a light. Situated atop is nearly one finger of smooth, creamy, tan-coloured head that fades within a few minutes' time, leaving behind a dense collar of suds encircling a frothy islet in the centre. Minimal lace production, but that's no biggie. Sweet and boozy on the nose - I'm sensing treacle, caramel, burnt sugar and roasted grains, as well as coffee and baker's chocolate. Suggestions of oak, vanilla, fig, licorice and raisin are considerably more subtle, but no less enticing.

This one starts off mellow, but gets a fair bit more bold towards the back end. A little sweet at first, with caramel and treacle giving way to dark chocolate, fig, raisin and espresso. Notes of wood, vanilla, and very subtle Scotch whisky, with a bittersweet, boozy finish that includes spicy, herbal hops and earthy bitterness, with lots of coffee grounds lingering into a moderately warming aftertaste. Full-bodied, with a slick, slippery, clingy mouthfeel and very little carbonation. The serving size is about right, though I'll admit that I wouldn't have minded a little bit more to sip.

Final Grade: 4.15, an A-. Windswept's Bear RIS made for a fine quaff, and I'd encourage other BAs to give it a try. Curious as to the nature of the barrel ageing, I checked out their website and found something that mentioned 4 months in Glen Moray casks, which solves that mystery. No smoke/peatiness here - just lots of dark chocolate and bitter hops/coffee, backed by roastiness, treacle sweetness, and an understated woodiness - not to mention the requisite alcohol warming at its conclusion. Practically a bargain at under $5 CAD per bottle - I should've bought a half dozen more of these, but sadly, the lonely bottle left in my cellar will have to do for the time being.

 

 

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Review: 256

330 ml bottle served cool into a chalice. Bottle L289 and bottled November 10, 2020. LCBO purchase for $4.45 CDN.

Appearance - Very dark cola brown, appearing black in the glass. A very thin cap of light tan head is poured and dissipates within a minute.

Smell - Some roasty espresso notes, a little boozy and woody but lacking in any sort of other discernable booze (like scotch or bourbon). Some earthy and treacle mixing in the background. Nose is vague and wishy-washy initially, but seems to solidify after a couple of sips.

Taste - Some bitterness, molasses and treacle, hints of wood and barrel and a light hint of scotch in the background, not terribly noticeable and likely not a particularly peaty scotch. Chocolate dances around in between the other flavors too.

Mouthfeel - Slick, oily and dense. Palate coating. Lacking carbonation, but works with the flavor profile.

Overall - a nice low carbonation, would happily enjoy another and the barrel aging is good, could use just a bit more time, but I rather enjoyed the low key element of this rather than being smacked in the face with barrel as is often the case. Gets better and better the farther into the beer you get.

 

A: Jet black pour, appearing thin on the pour, and topped with a cola-like bubbling head that becomes little more and quick to recede to a crescent ring of bubbly lace.

S + T: Gentle scents of espresso and dark chocolate--this is a strong point for the beer, as it creates a sense of complexity in its nuanced aroma. The taste is anything but, though; oddly, it delivers a wallop of alcohol and coffee that has been forgotten on the counter-top and guzzled in an effort to save it in vain. Baker's chocolate, a touch of fruitiness, and a bitter finish round out the experience.

M + O: The body is about as rich as expected given the pour, rather thin with an absence of carbonation. It leaves a bittersweet aftertaste on the finish which is not undesirable--just falling short of meeting hopes that I may have had for it.

330ml bottle - they don't specify what kind of barrel they aged this stuff in - safe to say it's Scotch?

This beer pours a solid black abyss, with some red-cola basal edges, and a mere wisp of weakly bubbly head, which disappears in an instant, leaving a bit of cannonball dive splash aftermath lace in places around the glass as things slowly fall away.

It smells of bittersweet cocoa powder, real vanilla extract, cafe-au-lait, lightly roasted and bready caramel malt, black licorice, muddled vinous fruit, and the faintest sense of wood trying to snuggle up to you. The taste is semi-sweet baker's chocolate, vanilla cookies, caramel/toffee malt, molasses, day-old spiked coffee ('tis the season), kind of stale cream, a lush dark orchard fruitiness, some free-range ashiness, a hint of tanned leather, and some still rather plain and very understated woodsiness.

The carbonation is damned-near non-existent, so no frothiness is to be had, the body a so-so medium weight, and generally smooth, with just a suggestion of alcohol ingress taking the sheen off here. It finishes sweet, the chocolate, vanilla, and caramel seeing very little in the way of offsetting bitterness.

Overall, this is a fairly tasty big-boy brew, with the 21-proof booze more or less out of the picture, flavour and sensory-wise, at least for now. My only complaint is that for something that spent three months in a barrel, BA Bear sure doesn't show it. Oh, sorry, one other nit-picky thing - when I read that this one was bottle-conditioned, I was expecting a gusher; instead I got little to no bubbles. So who knows.