Tenzing Norgay
Forager Brewing Company

Classy 750ML bottle that has a unique feel & look to it, along with the bronze wax job. Maybe put it in clear glass/no wax & cut the price $10? Just thinking out loud.

The pour is pretty dark with a jump cut of head for a big stout, though it falls quickly. The nose is strong roast with a gentle prick of sweet cut bourbon.

Tenzing Norgay is like breakfast in heaven. So smooth. So right. I can’t tell which angelic taste is on top: smooth, smooth, lovely bourbon, roast without a hint of bitterness & an unusually strong hit of maple sweetness, bright, expressive malts. And that just doesn’t do it justice; the sum is greater than the parts, or some saying like that. Full. I mildly regret sharing this with my marvelous wife but during a pandemic, how you going to sneak away to drink a bomber on one’s own? I’ll figure it out.

This is a beautiful beer.

 

 

 

Pours dark brown motor oil with a half-finger of cocoa powder head and long-lasting legs. Smells rich, milk chocolate and vanilla with very earthy notes from the coffee and a touch of iodine. Chocolate sugar wafers, bourbon heat, and vanilla are more prominent on the palate. The maple is subtle throughout, to my delight as someone who doesn't like the heavy-handed approach that's more popular in the pastry stout world. Full-bodied and mouthcoating, like an artisanal coffee truffle that melts in your mouth.

I've been very skeptical in the past of the few beers I've tried highlighting geisha coffee beans, because this is an unnecessary expense that inevitably gets lost in the process amongst other ingredients. While I don't detect any floral or honeyed notes distinctive to a geisha coffee (apart from the possible muddling with maple sweetness that renders geisha superfluous), this clearly used very high-quality coffee beans. One of the best barrel-aged coffee stouts I've had, and thankfully the maple doesn't get in the way of that.

Put up against KBBS, but it didn’t stand a chance. That said, there’s a restraint to the coffee and maple on this that I respected. It turned out being a fantastic example of a BBA adjunct stout.

I am local to Rochester but it is still difficult to source these BA forager beers (mainly because they allow proxies at release, but yea - their decision etc). The stars aligned for this one, and it was quite good.

I shared some beers with friends on NYE, and the notable thing is this was the best beer of the night even though it went up against some meaty competition (Toppling Goliath - Kaiju Clash, Mornin' Delight, Term Oil Fluffernutter among others). The barrel was extremely pronounced, the maple was there yet subtle, the coffee was so smooth and rich. This is a spendy brew (forager is rather notorious for this) but it is worth it, and made for a special celebration.