Tonight At Noon - Coffee Blend
Interboro Spirits and Ales

If you are CANming late to today's show, The CANQuest (tm) would like to provide the following recap of recent events as a PSA. In CAN effort to close out Untappd's "Better Together" badge, The CANQuest (tm) assembled all of the collaboration beers (& otherwise) from Barrier BC in his extensive backlog & systematically eradicated them through perseverance, reviews & ratings, CANminating last night. The next brewery in line for this treatment is Interboro, also noted for CANned CANlaboration beers and also with a large backlog presence.

From the CAN: "Barrel Aged Russian Imperial Stout"; "Interboro x Pipeworks Brewing"; "Brewed with our friends from Pipeworks Brewing. Aged one year in Red Wine barrels, with Coffee from City of Saints"; "City of Saints Coffee Roasters [-] Drink What You Like".

I CAN only surmise that they no longer want me to come and visit. 8=( I'm just gonna show up anyway! It's not like I have never done so.

I beCAN with a Crack! of the vent that unleashed a spritz across my fingertips & gave me pause. Had I mistreated it? No! It was a brimful craft CAN & if ever I was happy to see one, in this case, I was overjoyed. More of this precious liquid for me? In self-imposed quarantine? Yes, please & thank yinz! I CANtinued with a slow, gentle C-Line Glug into the awaiting glass & watched as a pseudo-cascade took place. This formed two fingers of fizzy, foamy, rocky, deep-brown head that only lasted as long as it took me to take a picture before it was mere wisps. Color was Black/Opaque (SRM = 44), allowing ZERO light penetration. Nose was revelatory - a riot of red wine, coffee & Baker's chocolate all reached out & grabbed my sinuses for a good shaking! 8=O Mouthfeel was big, thick, full & creamy, like a dollop had been scooped into my mouth & onto my tongue! 8=O The taste was vinous, of course, a direct result of it's year of aging, but the coffee & chocolate malt flavors were no slouches, either. Great googly moogly, all this AND 12%?!? I was clearly going to be with it for a while. No matter, since it needed to warm up some, CANming from my reefer as it had. Warming, not only did the flavors intensify, but an oakiness from the barrel beCAN to assert itself! 8=O This was quickly beCANming a monster of a beer & had not even drank 1/8 of it at that point. Man, this was a whopper! I finally finished it before it finished me. Well, maybe I am finished. Phew! Finish was quite dry, very vinous throughout & now I am curious to try the Cocoa variant. YMMV.

 

 

A - Pitch black pour with thin pinkish tan lacing.

S - Coffee, light char, delicate red wine.

T - Red wine tang is aggressive up front, chocolate and coffee roast midway through, and finishes with more wine tang with a long lasting cocoa and coffee smoothness. Some oak shines through gradually.

M - Thick and full bodied with prickly carbonation.

O - An interesting blend.

 

 

A: The beer is jet black in color. It poured with a quarter finger high tan head that lightened up a bit as it died down and eventually left a large patch of bubbles covering the surface and a collar around the edge of the glass.
S: Light aromas of red wine from the barrel aging are present in the nose along with hints of chocolate.
T: The taste follows the smell and has flavors of red wine along with strong notes of chocolate and coffee beans. Only a light amount of bitterness is perceptible.
M: It feels a bit more than medium-bodied on the palate and has a moderate amount of carbonation.
O: This beer is surprisingly drinkable considering its strength as it's neither that heavy in body nor has noticeable alcohol in the taste. I liked how the red wine didn't completely overpower the taste, which still tasted like a stout with wine accents.

Serving type: can